Subject: Apparently it's been noted before.
Author:
Posted on: 2015-08-05 15:34:00 UTC

The Dragonball Wiki mentions it in their trivia section. They also note the responses - the Smurf version, and digital lip removal in an American edition.

Personally I find it really interesting that a combination of two traits - 'black skin' and 'big lips' - makes for such an instant racist caricature. That's some serious iconographic success from the old racist types. If only they'd applied themselves to something more worthwhile...

(Well, okay, fair enough, they did - if you go back far enough, everything from 'ball on stick = tree' to 'stickman = person'. But it'd be nice if racism hadn't achieved the same thing.)

hS

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