The debut of the much beloved VeggieTales series took place on December 21, 1993. The series, created by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki, is a computer animated show that conveys moral themes. Often, the characters, consisting of animated vegetables who can talk and sing, tell Bible stories in a slightly easier to digest and comprehend format, along with an ample dose of humor.
The premise of the series was to teach Christian morals, along with truths within the Bible to children aged 3 to 8 years-of-age. Of course, many adults love the series as well and looked forward to their children watching this particular show. Today, Christian stores along with the secular varieties offer VeggieTales DVDs, including movies and shorter series, books, music CDs, clothing toys and more. Throughout its duration, right up until today’s version, the VeggieTales series has remained steadfast in their purpose of teaching biblical truths to small children and their families. That is what makes the recent news regarding the show so hard to believe.
College Fix recently reported that the innocent and fun loving vegetables that make up the kid’s show VeggieTales are in fact racists in disguise. This is at least according to a “Whiteness Forum” held by California State University Sand Marcos. According to the report, the individuals who participated in the “Whiteness Forum” determined that the beloved cartoon was in fact racist. Their reasoning apparently had to do with the show featuring villains of color.
“The Christian cartoon VeggieTales is racist because the villains are vegetables of color,” the report reads. “The NFL is racist since most players are black and most coaches and owners are white. White women advance white supremacy when they support President Donald Trump.”
The “Whiteness Forum” was allegedly organized for the purpose of allowing participants to take a “critical look at whiteness” according to a CBN News report. The students within the forum where encouraged to evaluate various things within culture to determine whether or not they were considered “racist.” This “Whiteness Forum” itself is apparently an annual event that was created for the purpose of displaying the final projects of students taking Professor Dreama Moon’s Communications 454 class titled “The Communication of Whiteness.”
One of Moon’s female students created a report about VeggieTales, claiming that their evil characters or villains within the cartoons all tended to have accents, such as a Latino or ethnic sound, while the heroes or good characters sounded white.
“When kids see the good white character triumph over the bad person of color character, they are taught that white is right and minorities are the source of evil,” the student said.
Other students chimed in and seemed to agree with her assessment. However, one student — who himself is half Mexican — had a different take.
“I feel the university system leaders are a bunch of hypocrites, they’re talking about stopping racism and promoting equality for all, yet they have no problem bashing white people,” he said. “They’re trying to make people feel guilty for being white.”
Of course, this Christian cartoon isn’t the only children’s program to come under attack this month.
Earlier in December, the classic Christmas favorite “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” faced similar criticism. Many viewers said the show featured verbal abuse, discouraged uniqueness, encouraged bullying, displayed bigotry and featured staunch patriarchy. Peter Heck, a writer for The Resurgent, says that this view is far from the normal opinion, though.
“Normal people — that is, sane people — just don’t think like this,” he said.
Unfortunately, the attack on Rudolph is just another example of people targeting seemingly innocent shows like the VeggieTales.
Overall, the VeggieTales series is a good show that teaches morals in a fun, entertaining way. It seems most parents, especially those within the Christian faith, would much rather their children watch this type of show than allow them to watch some of the secular options available.
While everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion, saying that villains “sound ethnic” within the VeggieTales series is hardly enough basis for calling the endearing series racist. That accusation seems far overblown and downright picky. Suffice it to say, there is enough true evil in the world not to go looking for darkness where none exists.
~ 1776 Christian