John McWhorter - not easily offended by racial issues - is offended by Seth MacFarlane's new cartoon spinoff:
The question is: would the Family Guy people create a show where a white supporting character – say, paraplegic Joe voiced superbly by Patrick Warburton -- moves to another town and settles in with retreads of the Family Guy characters? No – it’d be seen as folly to let that get beyond a conversation over beers. The reason it felt right to pull this with The Cleveland Show is because of a sense that blackness is so much a “thing,” so diverting in itself, that painting the Family Guy people brown makes artistic and commercial sense. And there was a time when it did – but it was a time we’re all happy to be past.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2009/10/-i-family-guy-i-in-blackface/195248/
