[Humphrey Hacker]

Many cartoons of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s wil have used racial stereotyping.  Its definitely not unique to Tom & Jerry (that being said, Tom & Jerry is probably one of the most violent cartoons that airs on children's TV these days, and its always amazing to note that any complaints about it are about everything else but the violence itself).  Mammy was revoiced years later twice over, so sometimes its luck of the draw who you get doing the voiceover.

I dare say if the BBC had iPlayer rights to it, they'd hack it to shreds to the point where its not even worth having.

Tom and Jerry has been on British tv for decades. It was used as a filler by the BBC ether before or after the news in the (I think) 1970's and 1980's. Im guessing that the violence has been seen so many times viewers became either "immune" or de-sensitised by it although compared to the violence on Japanese "anime" T and J et al seems rather tame. The thought occurs that I probably watched T and J as part of "Rolf's Cartoon Time" (that's a chilling thought)

Going back to an earlier point about censorship. Television is the greatest record of our social, cultural and political history. It has shown how we has a species have progressed and/or regressed and obviously the "mammy" element of T and J is a regression. But the idea of censoring that material is wrong on a moral and ethical level.

Yes that kind is offensive but to prevent access to it is equally as offensive. We have the rights to watch what we want and can use our own critical thinking to decide what is suitable.