arthurisevil

http://kurinboism.blogspot.com/2006/12/arthurs-hidden-agenda.html?showComment=1214009220000

This article/blog post shows how the children's show Arthur promotes racism and segregation and slavery. I thought it was though provoking. (brought to us by Jake)

**[|Arthur's hidden agenda]**

 * My kids sometimes watched the [|PBS] children's show "[|Arthur]," but I'd never really paid any attention to it. Until today. Today I watched an episode, and I have to say, I was appalled by what I saw.

"Arthur" is about a bunch of animals who go around wearing clothes and acting like people. Although I'm not fond of such shameless anthropomorphizing, that's not what I find disturbing about the show. The real problem is how these animals act. First of all, Arthur, the main character, is an aardvark. [|Aardvarks] are African animals. Take a look at this picture:



Does that look like an African to you? Me neither. It looks like an American. And not an [|//African// American] either, if you get my drift. That's more than a little odd, don't you think?

Now take a look at this character: That's Arthur's friend [|Binky]. He's not a [|hippopotamus], as I thought for years, so it's OK that //he// doesn't look African. But Binky is a [|dog]. What's wrong with that, you ask? //This// is what's wrong with it: That's Arthur's pet dog Pal. Get it? Arthur has a //friend// who's a dog and a //pet// who's a dog. But if dogs can walk upright and talk and go to school, how can they be pets? They can't be. What they can be is //slaves//. Pal is Arthur's slave. This PBS children's show promotes [|slavery], plain and simple.

And another thing, all these different species go to school together and work together and so on, but have you ever noticed that there are no [|hybrids] in Arthur's world? That's right. The animals in Arthur's world may pretend to get along -- when they aren't enslaving one another -- but at the end of the day they stick to their own kind. Aardvarks marry aardvarks; bunnies marry bunnies; dogs marry dogs; no mixing allowed.

So there you have it. The hidden agenda of this purportedly "wholesome" [|PBS children's show] is revealed: it promotes racism, slavery, and segregation. Disgraceful. My children will never watch "Arthur" again.**

That was the article, for fun. I feel betrayed. Post how you feel.