The popular cat and mouse animated series Tom and Jerry now carries a disclaimer on Amazon Prime because of racist content. The disclaimer, similar to the one that already appears on some of the cartoon's DVD collections, may have stemmed from criticism that the show represents characters with ethnicity in a trivial manner.
One example is the portrayal of the character Mammy Two Shoes. In the series, Mammy Two Shoes is a housemaid, possibly of African descent, who would often appear with background music similar to traditional plantation songs.
"Tom and Jerry shorts may depict some ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society. Such depictions were wrong then and are wrong today," said the disclaimer on Amazon.
In addition to Mammy Two Shoes' character, the show also allegedly had questionable depictions of women and "natives" in grass skirts and with bones for accessories.
The rights to the Tom and Jerry series is now owned by Warner Bros. The show's DVD releases also carry a similar warning.
"While the following does not represent the Warner Bros view of today's society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming that these prejudices never existed," says Warner Bros.
Amazon Prime's decision to include the warning has earned mixed reactions from fans; one of whom described the move as "political correctness gone mad."
"So Tom is basically a racist, sexist, chain-smoking cat. Come on," says another fan in a tweet.
Tom and Jerry is a cartoon series first produced by the MGM film studio in 1940 and was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It features a slapstick type of comedy with classic cat-and-mouse chase scenes set in typical homes found in suburban America.
The idea of films and books giving out warnings on possibly offensive content has also been met with much controversy even in American universities.
According to Jason Sperb, a lecturer at Northwestern University's department of radio, television and film, the warning label by Amazon actually makes sense. It also represents progressive thinking.
Amazon is aware that the cartoon series has had several re-releases from the 1930s and 1940s, but the racist content were often removed or altered. Perhaps the company still wanted to present the original content in its entirety while pinpointing the prejudice of the past.
