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this post was submitted on 01 May 2024
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Seriously. MASH had episodes around racism, and every time denigrating the racism and the fool perpetuating it. It never pushed a racist message.. at least from what my memory can recall all these decades afterwards.
I think the two that come immediately to mind are racist general who is clearly looney toons asking a black soldier to dance cause its in his blood, properly being demonstrated as off his rocker and crazy to believe such racist bullshit and just a downright mockery of those who think like that.
and there was the one where the guy didnt want blood from any black person, and they spend the episode fucking with him with makeup and claiming he got the wrong color blood... and the episode ends with him thanking them for giving him something to think about, then salutes a black woman before leaving.
Weirdly enough, that role was played by the actor who portrayed Colonel Potter in later seasons.
Back when TV was like, "sure, we'll cast you in the same show in a different role three times."
Columbo practically thrived on it. "William Shatner is the murderer again?"
MASH also had a Black character in the first season whose nickname was "Spearchucker Jones," which is supposedly justified by him being a former javelin athlete (which strikes me as coming from the "Quiet has to be dressed in clubwear while doing Serious Military Stuff because she breathes through her skin!" school of poorly-justified writing choices). It also suffers from the conceit of Hawkeye being simultaneously the moral center of the show, and a shameless womanizer whose conquests only exist in the context of the show for as long as it takes him to bed them.
I love MASH for what it is, but there are aspects of it that are clearly of its era, which we wouldn't repeat in modern television. I think you can either accept that society has moved on from where it was in the 70s and 80s, or you can be like Seinfeld and be mad that you're no longer allowed to play sexism and racism for laughs with the perpetrator framed as the good guy.