A radical disgust, or a liberal queasiness...?

"The book 'The 50 Greatest Cartoons,' where animators choose the greatest animated shorts of all time, has mostly expected choices, like Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse cartoons," notes today's Maclean's magazine (this particular story's not online, though). "But the list also includes a Warner Brothers cartoon that retells the story of Snow White with an all-black cast, a jazz soundtrack, and lines like, 'Man, what you got that makes So White think you so hot?'

"It's 'Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs,' the banned masterpiece of director Bob Clampett, and the best cartoon you've never seen." It was one of the few flicks of the era that featured black actors (or their voices, at least). The flick was in theatres in 1943, and "almost every shot contains some eye-popping gimmick."

And it's racist as all get-out. The flick "is a catalogue of every racial stereotype in '40s cinema." And as usual, instead of people dealing with their pasts, it's been hidden away. "By the 1960s it was in the 'Censored Eleven' list... of offensive cartoons that broadcasters wouldn't show on TV.... Coal Black has never been released on VHS or DVD." It's slowly being rediscovered nonetheless: "Clampett didn't live to see Coal Black gain its current fan following. Those who knew him recall that while he was proud of the cartoon, he was also reluctant to screen it for audiences, afraid that it might provoke a backlash."

Apparently, a bad but watchable bootleg has been posted on YouTube.com (utube's rapidly becoming one of the most popular Internet sites ever). A viewer's comment about the flick: "Wartime Warner Brothers cartoon that makes Birth of a Nation look downright sensitive." Let's just say that I expect this thing will be uncomfortable.

But if I do nothing but laugh instead -- well, does that mean I'm okay with offensive stereotypes, or truly, finally, completely beyond that horrible crap?