History FantasticRacism / WesternAnimation

* One episode of Saban's ''WesternAnimation/XMenTheAnimatedSeries'' cartoon took the theme of prejudice against mutants and turned it on its head when ComicBook/{{Storm}} (an African) and ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} (a white Canadian) traveled back in time to the 1950s. When the waiter at a restaurant refused them service because Storm was black, she indignantly replied, "That's so pathetic it's almost quaint!"

** [[spoiler:The human Philip Wittebane is ''very'' prejudiced toward witches, considering them to be nothing more than savage barbarians who do not deserve to live. Anyone sympathetic towards witches gets the same treatment -- he has zero qualms about killing Luz, a 14 year-old girl and the only other human on the Boiling Isles, after learning she's made friends with witches, and paintings in the background of the episode "Hollow Mind" suggest that he ''murdered his own brother'' for marrying and having a child with a witch.]]

** Many steam engines and diesels have a strong dislike for one another. Some steam engines see the diesels as trying to take away their jobs, and some ([[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch but not all]]) diesels see the steam engines as outdated and deserving to be scrapped (which was the opinion of the actual British Railways in the 50s and 60s, especially after the publication of the Modernisation Plan of 1955). It was also a major driving force in the movie ''WesternAnimation/CallingAllEngines''. In addition, one of the books, ''[[Recap/TheRailwaySeriesB28JamesAndTheDieselEngines James and the Diesel Engines]]'', is all about the title character trying to overcome his prejudices against diesels. Interestingly, the Fantastic Racism in ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' is actually Reverend Awdry's ''response'' to the Modernization Plan, as he felt that the Plan was hasty and poorly implemented, as railways rushed to implement diesel locomotives and scrap steam locomotives, many of which were practically ''fresh out of the factory,'' only to find out that the diesels they acquired to replace them were unreliable and fraught with teething problems. This, in turn, resulted in ''massive'' infrastructural issues on the British Railways, as the brand new diesels were laid up in the sheds and they no longer had the more reliable steam engines to fall back on.

** It can be argued that Ben's system of nicknaming his Omnitrix forms in various unflattering ways (eg. His Lepidopterran form is nicknamed 'Stinkfly') is at the very least racially insensitive. However, Ben did start nicknaming his alien forms when he was 10 years old, so its probably a case of InnocentlyInsensitive.

** In [[Recap/SamuraiJackS1E2TheSamuraiCalledJack the second part of the series premiere]], Jack gets into a [[BarBrawl bar fight]] trying to defend himself from a [[SpacePirates gang of alien criminals]], who got angry that a ''human'' had even dared to walk into the bar and stare at them. Even after Jack apologizes for not knowing any better, [[DisproportionateRetribution they still try to murder him]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'', Jared tries to order bunny suits for everyone, but the Twins end up messing with the order so that half the prison population gets bunny suits and the other half gets wolf suits. HilarityEnsues.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'': Many steam engines and diesels have a strong dislike for one another. Some steam engines see the diesels as trying to take away their jobs, and some ([[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch but not all]]) diesels see the steam engines as outdated and deserving to be scrapped (which was the opinion of the actual British Railways in the 50s and 60s, especially after the publication of the Modernisation Plan of 1955). It was also a major driving force in the movie ''WesternAnimation/CallingAllEngines''. In addition, one of the books, ''[[Recap/TheRailwaySeriesB28JamesAndTheDieselEngines James and the Diesel Engines]]'', is all about the title character trying to overcome his prejudices against diesels.
** Interestingly, the Fantastic Racism in ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' is actually Reverend Awdry's ''response'' to the Modernisation Plan, as he felt that the Plan was hasty and poorly implemented, as railways rushed to implement diesel locomotives and scrap steam locomotives, many of which were practically ''fresh out of the factory,'' only to find out that the diesels they acquired to replace them were unreliable and fraught with teething problems. This, in turn, resulted in ''massive'' infrastructural issues on the British Railways, as the brand new diesels were laid up in the sheds and they no longer had the more reliable steam engines to fall back on.

** Although not all the colonies do this, [[[spoiler:as shown in ''[[ComicBook/AvatarTheLastAirbenderThePromise The Promise]]'', where Earthbenders are shown as an accepted part of Fire Nation Society, with the ethnically-Fire Nation Mayor's daughter being an Earthbender like her mother]].

*** The series heavily featured prejudice between four fictional [[ElementalNation human nations]] as a prevalent theme, given that there's a global conflict where the [[EvilColonialist imperialistic]] [[PlayingWithFire Fire Nation]] has done a [[FinalSolution successful genocide]] against one of them (the [[BlowYouAway Air Nomads]]), and is trying to [[TakeOverTheWorld violently subjugate]] the other two ([[MakingASplash Water Tribes]] and [[DishingOutDirt Earth Kingdom]]). Also some of these humans have the {{elemental powers}} of their respective nations, so the Fire Nation has a policy of killing or capturing all non-[[PlayingWithFire fire]]-benders.

** Human/robot prejudice seems to be a common plot device. [[RoboticPsychopath Bender]] often proudly proclaims a hatred of the human species; he [[CatchPhrase loves to say]] "[[CallAHumanAMeatbag meatbags]]" and "{{kill all humans}}", and in fact he really does dream of [[RobotWar waging war against mankind]] some day (though he'll make [[BigotryException a few exceptions]], such as his [[HeterosexualLifePartners best friend Fry]]).
*** The most prominent example of this is the episode "Fear of a Bot Planet". Bender points out that (almost) all of the [[{{Calvinball}} Blurnsball]] players are human, with the robots generally being [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything relegated to labor duties]]. Right after the game is over, Farnsworth sends Bender and the rest of the Planet Express crew to Chapek 9, a planet inhabited by robot separatists who murder all humans on sight. Unsurprisingly, Bender defects from the team, and joins the planet's omnipresent anti-human movement (although soon concedes that he doesn't actually agree with their agenda to kill ''all'' humans, citing Fry and Leela as exceptions).
*** Ironically, Bender is also a strong advocate of robot rights. In "Ghosts in the Machines", he decides to kill himself after he gets convinced that Fry perceives [[JustAMachine robots' lives as being]] [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman less valuable than humans']].
*** All robots in the episode "Crimes of the Hot" fall victim to racism as a whole, when they get scapegoated as the cause of global warming, getting to the point where {{President|Evil}} UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's [[BrainInAJar head]] attempts to commit genocide on them.
*** This also gets manifested as a less-than-subtle Fantastic Homophobia metaphor. [[InterspeciesRomance Marital, romantic, and sexual relations]] [[{{Robosexual}} between robotic and organic beings]] [[RobosexualsAreCreeps are frowned upon on Earth]]. The plot of "Proposition Infinity"[[note]](the title alludes to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8_(2008) this controversial law]])[[/note]] involves Bender and Amy, who were dating at the time, launching a political movement to legalize "robosexual" marriage (which was in fact already legal in [[SpaceX Space Massachusetts]]).

*** The [[KentBrockmanNews TV news anchorman]] Morbo is a green alien who seems to despise humans as much as Bender does. In fact, he's expressed a similar desire for [[AlienInvasion his own people]] [[KillAllHumans to destroy mankind]]. [[BigotryException The only humans he does like]] (or at least tolerate) are his co-anchorwoman Linda and President Nixon.

*** [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Hermes Conrad]] is strongly implied to hate [[FishPeople Decapodians]], as evidenced by his interactions with [[ButtMonkey Dr. Zoidberg]]. Hermes frequently and spitefully calls Zoidberg "ya filthy crab", an obvious {{fantastic slur}} (given how Decapodians resemble crustaceans). Hermes also tends to single out Zoidberg for more abuse and blame compared to all their other coworkers. While Hermes is never seen interacting with other Decapodians, the show does seem to heavily imply that Hermes hates Zoidberg because of his species.

** Aside from all the other examples above, the sewer {{mutant}}s (a race of [[TheGrotesque hideously]] [[BodyHorror mutated]] humans) are the one group that is truly marginalized, as the law forces them to live in [[FantasticGhetto the underground sewers beneath New New York]]; they're so segregated and invisible, that most surface-dwellers think they're just an {{urban legend}}. Leela was born as a mutant, but because she was far less ugly than the rest of her kind, her parents sent her to the surface so that [[ChangelingFantasy she could live as an "alien" with more freedom]].

*** Though eventually in "The Mutants Are Revolting", Leela leads all the other mutants to protest for their freedom, successfully achieving legal emancipation, so they can now live above ground.

* ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures'': Despite this show not focusing on the X-Men, Senator Robert Kelly is in fine form preaching anti-mutant propaganda to New York City. Luckily, it seems not many people are listening.
** Even Pepper feels a little of this due to an understandable fear of mutants. Naturally she's over it by the episode's end. To drive the racism parallels home, [[ComicBook/WarMachine Rhodey]] is the one to shout down Pepper for being ignorant after she expresses some questionable views on mutant rights.
* On ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'', Heinouses hate [[WickedWeasel weavils]] with a passion. As a result, weavils tend to be treated as social pests, only good for doing dirty work. Not that this reputation [[AlwaysChaoticEvil isn't entirely undeserved]].

*** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS1E19ADogAndPonyShow A Dog and Pony Show]]" has Rarity's reaction to being called a mule: She screams that mules are ugly and breaks down into tears. However, as stated above in "Applebuck Season", ''mules are shown to be a sapient "race" just like ponies.''

** It can be argued that Ben's system of nicknaming his Omnitrix forms in various unflattering ways (eg. His Lepidopterran form is nicknamed 'Stinkfly') is at the very least racially insensitive.

In ''WesternAnimation/SittingDucks'', ducks are encouraged to be scared of alligators and loathe them, and in the neighboring town of Swampwood, the alligators are encouraged to see ducks as nothing more than a meal. Bill and Aldo's friendship to the masses is treated as a biracial friendship to the ducks and gators who both oppose it for differing reasons.