BAKSHI'S COONSKIN

Bakshi's Coonskin

Bakshi's Coonskin

Introduction

A great number of people have used their concepts to represent the social evils present in society. Their concept presentation has taken numerous forms from writing to visual presentation. Coonskin is an excellent piece of work by Ralph Bakshi that was presented in 1975 in the form of animated film. Bakshi presented a new concept in his series of film, especially in Coonskin to address the menace present in American society at that time. Although it received great attention of viewers in the beginning but later on it was followed by a series of controversies regarding the racism component that was highlighted in the film.

Coonskin can be described as one of the innovative work by Bakshi in the era of 1970s. Coonskin is a story that revolves around African American rabbit, bear, and a fox. Philip Michael Thomas, Charles Gordon, Barry White, and Scatman Crothers played a valuable role in the movie. Bakshi in this film basically tried diverting the attention of viewers towards the increasing crime rate and its causes in America, biased responses of law system towards selective American groups, Mafia, and society artists (Strausbaugh, 2006).

A number of elements have been addressed in this animated movie that includes American culture, mafia, anti-Semitism, racism, stereotype, African folklore, and transposition of urban iconography perspective. However, discrete concepts representation related to stereotyping in the movie of black and white people was misunderstood by many people who watched the movie. Intentions differ greatly from the real perspectives if level of interpretation of the viewer differs from what the presenter tries to convey (Maltin, 2000). Similar trend was observed in case of Coonskin, where it was disbanded with concepts of racism and a configurative presentation against white people. For many people, it appears that Bakshi promoted the concepts of racism and used conservative approach to protect the interest of Black America, whereas from other viewpoint, it is interpreted as the dilution of real identity of Black Americans. Coonskin story became crucial soon after its release when group ethicist associated the content of the movie as being racist.

Stereotyping in Current USA and Coonskin

Stereotyping and racism are dominating issues in current America. Although people used to emphasize on the equality concept, however a separation in the perception and attitude is observed at few places. Mainly notifying the White and Black American differences, people used to accept it as the reality of life. Both of the groups argue on the superiority of their class and suppressing the value of other. Still, many real life examples are present when blacks are criticized for their role whereas majority of people ignore the equality representation towards them. When reaction to this behavior comes in the form of negative expression by blacks, then people relate addressing this concept as racism which became the reason of criticism for Coonskin (Cohen, 2004).

Coonskin is an animated movie in which Bakshi incorporated humor and mock presentation to undermine racial differences. He aim at highlighting these things to satirize ...