I know what you're thinking.

"How the hell was Arthur racist? Or inappropriate? PBS would never allow that."

But the nasty truth is...they did. And it wasn't until I was sitting down reliving the '90s with my best friend (which I do more often than I want to admit) that I realized some of our favorite shows were teaching us all the wrong things.

And while some are obvious (Power Rangers...how transparent can you be), others were sneaky with it.

So now, as an adult, I'm sitting here all like:



FULL LIST

Uh! my childhood is ruined! I hate when they do this. I didn't know Francine was supposed to be black! I thought she was just tanned and I didn't know The Jetsons only had white people above the clouds! and Hey Arnold, how did I miss that!

I did knew about the power rangers though. Pink ranger= cute white girl, yellow ranger = Asian girl, black ranger= black guy.

That Animaniacs joke is one of my favorites ever. Gets me every time lmao

That's an old gag, maybe from a Chris Rock comedy special or something. Something like (and I'm paraphrasing), "There were no black people in pre-history (Flinstones) and we died out in the future (Flinstones).

But see that's how white privilege works. If white is the default norm, then you're unlikely to question why everyone is white because being white is "normal."

Never gave much thought to the color coated Power Rangers. That Francine clip was ****ed up, tho.

Wait, so how was ''Arthur' racist? I love that show.

A bunch of them are reaching.

They forget that most of the other characters are white, including Helga & Herald, neither are "saviors". Most mainstream shows have light skinned characters because that's what gets more viewers. They may be a bit stereotypical, but literally every show on TV is. This is a reach and a half.

Surprised Rugrats didn't make it. Or Doug.

CRYING at the Arthur comment. Yeah, Francine was as PO as they come.

Why would they make it? In Rugrats, Kimi is a French immigrant and Susie is black and one of the most genuine characters on the whole show.

In Doug there were blue people

The link isn't only about racist shows, it's about shows that are inappropriate for kids

Yes, but it just seemed liked everyone was "othered" except for Doug. Why wasn't he blue? How come he was white but his friends were all these other colors?

Wheeler wasn't Irish.

'Always saves the day'? It's an urban slice of life show, not some superhero serial. Arnold wasn't even the focus of every episode; he just happened to be the main character.

Yeah, this article sucks.

Also, Tommy's family is Jewish.

ddd, they're WRONG for this.

the reasoning for Arthur is so stupid though they treated Francine with as much equality and in fact used her so called "stereotype" to teach the other kids to be more accepting and loving to kids under such circumstances. it was a good thing to have Francine like that. it made the show more diverse in those life lessons.

and what even with Hey Arnold

and he/she only judged Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, but the franchise became more diverse as they progressed with those characters and eventually a black guy was put in the blue suit while a white guy was in the black suit.

they didn't give a proper argument for Captain Planet... i had no idea what they were hinting at.

the problem with this is that these shows were made decades ago and reflect the social norms of those time periods. naturally in some ways they'd be unacceptable by our standards but back then they were just fine and good enough to drill better life lessons that have eventually helped us grow to the point when we become more resistant and unaccepting of stereotypes. at the time these shows were literally the best thing to grow up on.

I NEVER realized Francine was black.

This is true, but that doesn't change the fact some problematic things (although I think they're reaching for the skies on most of the examples in that list) are still problematic. It's indeed stupid to expect cartoons from past eras to be as politically correct as today, but that doesn't mean we can't point out how messed up they were in certain aspects. Like Pepe Le Pew, looking back on it now it's actually kind of horrifying that a man refusing to take no for an answer was considered humorous and you wonder how many kids grew up thinking that sexual harassment (and assault) is acceptable thanks to that.

And since this list was meant highlight children's shows being inappropriate, how come they never brought up the Flintstones? I clearly remember one episode where Fred wouldn't let Wilma get a part-time job because "a woman's place is at home".

Most of these aren't even racist.

Some of them are stereotypical, but most of them are just reaching.

Because all the kids that grew up with the Flintstones are now dead