The brave hero and idiotic side kick. That is what the
Lone Ranger and Tonto represent to me. The show depicts how a white man is
fighting injustice with the help of a “savage”. There is an obvious
master/servant relationship between Lone Ranger and Tonto. Tonto feels the need
to please Lone Ranger and do whatever is asked of him. When Lone Ranger asked
Tonto clean his gun, Tonto obediently replies, “I clean gun, gun clean now.” Tonto’s broken English displays inferiority to Lone Ranger
and an almost child-like mentality of Tonto. To the average viewer (white upper
class families), it would be almost impossible to take Tonto seriously. The
image of Tonto perpetuates the stereotypical idea of Native Americans being
uncivilized and savage.
My reaction was quite different from watching Speedy to
Lone Ranger. With Speedy, although I was a little peeved with the portrayal of
Speedy, the Lone Ranger upset me to end. There are such apparent racist
thoughts of Native Americans put into the show, from the Tanto’s diction to his
wardrobe. And of course the All American hero, Lone Ranger, is brave, handsome,
and intelligent. These messages are different from what we saw with Speedy
Gonzales because Speedy wasn’t compared to anyone. His subconscious racist
image was just he alone, therefore not as intense. Every episode, Tonto was
compared to Lone Ranger in every aspect. And the Lone Ranger always came out
looking more “civilized.” Both cartoons subconsciously put racist thought into
the viewer’s minds, perpetuating our racist society.
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