but hey, racism used this way has been around for a loooong time. and unless you're looking for it or you have presuppositions about it, then you don't even notice it sometimes. when i was a little kid, Mr. Popo was just another one of the weird characters in Dragonball Z. now he's "OMG RACIST".



but if you can't have that guy (because it's a racist image), can you have these other characters?

also, that image is sort of a good point. i've never heard of a racial fuss over raggedy ann dolls for being an irish stereotype or anything like that. it seems that there's just certain images that people are offended by. or rather, that people make a fuss over (whether THEY are offended or not). but as others have said, things change over time. while a raggedy ann isn't offensive now, it could be in 100 years. that may sound ridiculous now, but image how it would sound to say that gollywog dolls are offensive a few hundred years ago, when black people weren't even considered human.
i dunno, i just think that some people cause a lot of trouble over little things when it's unnecessary.