I have never been one to shy away from conversations about race, stereotypes and the like. I look at each as a teaching moment. Not that I feel the need to explain anything about my race or culture to anyone but I am a firm believer in the idea that racism and prejudice stem from ignorance and fear. And the more I can teach, the less ignorance I will have to deal with in my life. Each one, teach one, right?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0BeSz5LRCY

Someone should have taught the advertising and marketing departments at Duncan Hines. We continue to make excuses for the companies that perpetuate these images and others like it but even something as subtle as a singing cupcake deserves a deeper conversation. Because otherwise, how will they ever understand?

Meanwhile, we have John McWhorter (*eyeroll*) calling for Looney Tunes to finally release the 11 heretofore censored cartoons aptly named the “Censored Eleven”. Such fun family classics as Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs and the like.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXFSsKFrCgY

Accept it, McWhorter implores us, because otherwise Black people look weak. Accept them as unfortunate relics of our history, laugh at them and move on. Accept them, for what they are, “pieces of Black performance history”.

That Warner Brothers has plans to release these cartoons in the near future is a bit of a shock considering they’ve spent the last several decades collecting dust in a vault somewhere.

Get over it seems to be the message here. Nobody is concerned with that racism shit anymore. That’s old news. The new Black is accepting the negativity, rolling with the punches. The problem with accepting the cupcakes are an innocent joke is that the attitude behind more malignant images such as the Censored 11 still exists. And the problem with accepting the Censored 11 as part of our history is…

What do you think? Is it time to accept the Censored 11 and Duncan Hines cupcakes as entertainment?