Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Popular kids’ show VeggieTales has come under fire from critics who believe the show is racist. According to a student participating in Cal Sate San Marco’s Annual Whiteness Forum, VeggieTales‘ “evil” characters are depicted in darker shades and with accents, which identifies them as “people of color” to children watching. The student suggests that the series’ suggestion that “white is right” is “dangerous,” as it may “taint the way children think of people of color.” Former writer and narrator Eric Metaxas has denied the claims, saying that “all vegetables are part of one race.”
Yahoo News reports that the university’s Whiteness Forum is part of professor Dreama Moon’s “Communication of Whiteness” class. This year, students examined racism in the NFL, how white women advance white supremacy by supporting President Trump, and more, but the project attracting the most attention focuses on VeggieTales, the Christian kids’ series that originally ran from 1993 to 2015 (spin-off series VeggieTales in the House and VeggieTales in the City premiered on Netflix in 2014 and 2017, respectively).
The VeggieTales project claims that the series perpetuates racism by depicting racial minorities “as villains.” According to the project’s author, VeggieTales uses “stereotypes shown in accents and racial indicators to identify people of color,” including employing “ethnic” or “Latino” accents for evil characters and white-sounding accents for good characters. “Many of the villains characterized by race were found to be irredeemable,” says the author. The student goes on to say that these messages are incredibly harmful for young children watching at home. “When kids see the good white character triumph over the bad person of color character they are taught that white is right and minorities are the source of evil,” the project reads. “When supremacists aim to taint the way children think of people of color, it will work.”
When reached for comment, Metaxas denied the project’s claims. “All vegetables are part of one race, even though they are of many colors,” he told PJ News. “They are all descended from the same parents — the Adam and Eve of vegetables, who foolishly ate a forbidden fruit (irony?) and screwed everything up for all vegetables who descended from them. At least I’m pretty sure that’s the story.”
