'Racist' ads removed for Swedish kids' film
Published: 11 Sep 12 16:23 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/43168/20120911/
Advertisement posters for a new children’s film have been pulled down over concerns that one of the pictured characters has stereotypical "racist" undertones.
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"We don’t want to fight it at all, and therefore we've taken down the posters which have caused the reactions."
The film, Little Pink and Brokiga (Liten skär och alla små brokiga), based on a book of the same name, is set to hit Swedish cinemas on September 22nd.
But one particular character in the poster – Hjärtat – has roused the public’s attention with her black face, braided hair, white eyes and oversized, full white lips.
And many are not amused by the character's appearance.
“Showing a picture like this is like saying the N-word,” argues history of ideas scholar Mikela Lundahl of the Gothenburg University to Sveriges Radio (SR).
“This is one of the worst stereotypes that the African American people have been subjected to, something that came from the USA in the 1800s.”
World-renowned Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, who narrates the film, has distanced himself from the critics, but told SR that director Wirsén is “anti-racist” and that the critics should “focus their criticism on actual racists instead.”
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Mikelah Lundahl... of the Gothenburg university... do you really have nothing else to do?
Or would you prefer to ensure that all cartoon characters are white? THAT would be racism...
Do you think the other cartoon characters in the picture are 100% representative of a white person? Long ears, tale, shark teeth... Common, they are cartoon characters!!!
I hope her salary is not financed by our taxes...
Real racism is not about about black cartoons and tastless cakes. It is about competent and skilled people discrimninated at the job market. It is about an almost sub-concious tendency of low expectations....
I do not think Obama would go to Sweden. He would be stopped right at the airport because Swedes do not like the seriousness of the colour of his skin. Unfortunately for Sweden, Obama might seat on the Presidential sofa for another 4 years.
What a country. Everything has to be politically correct. I should be offended because I am blue. So, Swedes should eliminate the blue color in their flag. It has made me sick the two times I have landed in the country.
Get over it and get a life, if you are so easily offended and hate whites so much you imagine racism in EVERYTHING - you DEFINITELY DON'T belong in Sweden.
@ olesen. how did you know that i hate white people. can you please tell me which country i belong. for your information. jag går ingenstans och det finns ingenting du kan göra om det. så är det. I have seen black people in cartoon, at least in Simpson. this one is really a racist one.
@ olsesen I am happy i am able to get under your skin. my purpose on this forum is prevent perverted minded people from having field day on TL NO AMOUNT OF INSULT AND ABUSE WILL DETER ME
Tell Göteborg's University's history of ideas scholar Mikela Lundahl (financed by the tax payer) to get a proper job, and put sweet, pretty Hjärtat back in the film.
There is more than enough real-life racism in Sweden to deal with without this nonsence. I just hope Jessie Jackson doesn't get to hear about it.
Otherwise, a lame person would with it offensive (dont know how though)
"I guess its more in the eyes of the viewer.."
Exactly. One is only projecting one's own feelings/viewings into this image picturing a black kid. I'd say Mikela Lundahl is the racist! She simply is seeing what she want to see. Why apparently it is so disgusting being a black kid it need to be removed completely from the film; apparently black kids are so disgusting it's better if they aren't seen at all?!
What about the fact the black kid is the only figure in the picture painted with hearts? Several of them. In fact "The heart" (Hjärtat) is the figure's name. Is that racist as well, hmm, Lundahl?
It's fine to show cartoon versions of different races, but the fact that the little black character in the drawing above looks just like a "pickaninny" is a bit off-putting. If you don't know what that is google it and read the history behind it.
In an interview in the 1960's, Malcolm X told people that as a child in New York City he felt invisible, because for example at the Lincoln Center at Christmas time there was never a black Santa Claus, only a white one.
Fast forward 50 years to Sweden, where an animation team includes a black character in an animated film, and some imbecile in Gothenburg complains that the black character is not good looking enough, even if the animation style is such that the 'white' characters around the black character look like a bunch of angry, disease carrying ameobas.