Racial Relationships in Cartoons

Today's cartoons have come a long way along racial lines.

While diversifying the protagonist base, within cartoons, was a big trend in the 90s, with cartoons like Captain Planet and Hey Arnold! creating ethnically diverse (but generally racist) groups of child-aged friends, the trend now seems to be moving toward ethnically ambiguous characters. Instead of racial overtones, protagonists and antagonists are portrayed by personified animals, which allows for viewers to separate race from the characters entirely.

I'm a huge fan of this trend. Allowing children to see any being as valuable, whether they're black, white, or a raccoon, is definitely the direction that we need to be going in, but it does create a new set of problems.

See, shows with primarily personified animal characters still present the same kinds of racial boundary challenges. Shows like Regular Show still constrain the appropriate companion as within the same racial group (let alone only along heterosexual boundaries).

Mordecai, a bluebird, is best friends with a raccoon, Rigby, which allows for the semblance of cross-racial friendships. Mordecai's love-interest, however, is a robin. While Margaret isn't technically the same species, it seems eerily similar.

Likewise, another of Regular Show's more prominent characters, Muscle Man, is entwined with Starla, who is of the exact same green-haired and bodied ethnic group.

Even romantic relationships that are not between nearly identical species are still remarkably similar in species, like with Eileen(squirrel) and Rigby(raccoon): 

Despite allowing for a diverse group of friends, like Regular show does so well, it creates a sense of pairing amongst the characters themselves. It suggests, "birds belong in romantic relationships with birds," which seems highly reductive for their target "tweenaged" market.

Another Cartoon Network show, Adventure Time, really isn't trying to promote racial diversity within friends. While Finn is the only human in the series, the majority of the other characters, while not human, share lighter skin tones.

With this said, Adventure Time seems to suggest only interracial relationships. For example, Jake (Finn's best friend) and Lady Rainicorn:

Finn is also propositioned by a myriad of females of different racial backgrounds. My personal favorite is Lumpy Space Princess (LSP), because of her pizzaz.

Interracial relationships, in Adventure Time, are not only mentioned, but are nearly the only kinds of romantic relationships the show possesses. While Finn, himself, seems interested in the more "human-like" characters, many non-human characters express a romantic interest in Finn.

Granted, Adventure Time isn't great with diversifying, but it still does a much better job of promoting interracial relationships than Regular Show seems to, despite an obvious attempt to promote a multiracial protagonist base.

It seems to me, that when we're addressing this tween group, that the number one concern should be to foster a sense of acceptability towards romantic relationships between racially dissimilar partners (again, not to mention different kinds of relationships). Racial tensions are something that children can pick up on much earlier than the age where shows, like Regular Show and Adventure Time, come into an influential sphere. It should be part of their goals to suggest that multi-racial relationships are something to celebrate.

-Alex

**Regular Show and Adventure Time are both Cartoon Network original shows. All gifs come from episodes or Cartoon Network promotional materials.