90 Miles From Tyranny : University of Washington Professor Says SpongeBob Squarepants is “Racist” and “Violent”

Friday, October 11, 2019

University of Washington Professor Says SpongeBob Squarepants is “Racist” and “Violent”









Truly nothing is safe.

A professor at the University of Washington wrote an academic article denouncing SpongeBob Squarepants as “violent,” “racist,” and “insidious.”

Yes, really.

Professor Holly Barker’s tirade against the yellow cartoon character was published by an academic journal called The Contemporary Pacific: A Journal of Island Affairs.

In it, Barker argues that the show’s fictional location of Bikini Bottom is unfair because it is based on the nonfictional Bikini Atoll, a coral reef in the Marshall Islands used by the U.S. military for nuclear testing during the Cold War.

“The indigenous people of the area were relocated during the testing, which eventually rendered the area uninhabitable due to residual radiation,” writes Celine Ryan. “Barker finds it unjust that SpongeBob and his pals be allowed to “occupy” the area when the nonfictional indigenous people of the area do not have the option to return to their homeland.”

Barker argues that SpongeBob has privilege because he is an “American character” who can go about his life care free without having to worry about the detonation of nuclear bombs.

This equates to “symbolic violence” because SpongeBob and his friends are perpetuating injustices against the indigenous people of Bikini Atoll by occupying the territory.

“SpongeBob’s presence on Bikini Bottom continues the violent and racist expulsion of Indigenous peoples from their lands (and in this case their cosmos) that enables U.S. hegemonic powers to extend their military and colonial interests in the...

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2 comments:

  1. Oh My God! I am an adult and I have been watching SpongeBob SquarePants for it's entire 20 years. In that time people have claimed a lot of stupid and silly things about the show, including that he and Patrick are gay, but my observation over long and long time is that it is a sweet and silly cartoon. The only reason it is called Bikini Bottom is because it is nautical and NOT named after the Bikini Atoll (and that can be seen by pictures of it compared to a little lonely island in the cartoon). We have other cities in SBSP named the same way. PLEASE people... grow up and install a brain cell or two. Leave one of the only things on TV that doesn't make me sad or angry..

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  2. This BITCH needs an INTERVENTION. She needs to be tied to a chair and be forced to watch the following cartoons. All the Looney Tunes from their start in the late 1930s TO THE 1960s UNCUT and UNCENSORED (especially the banned ones) Jonny Quest, the Herculoids Space Ghost, PINK PANTHER and every other cartoon made from 1961 to 1970. Then come out and tell me a cartoon about a talking sponge is RACIST and Violent. GIVE ME AN FUCKING BREAK

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