ABSTRACT

The animated show Craig of the Creek is an important source of animated environmental imagery for children as its main characters and plot provide the opportunity to discuss both race and environmental issues. However, these shows often only show one view of environmental degradation and ignore issues like environmental racism and urban housing issues. The history of racial environmental innocence and the exclusion of people of color need to be considered to fully understand the benefits and shortcomings of the show’s narrative. I argue that while Craig of the Creek resists some notions of racial innocence, the show still promotes a mainly romanticized, commodified view of nature. To do this, I provide a close ecocritical analysis utilizing discourse analysis and environmental racism theory to explain how well the show includes social inequality. I conclude that while the cartoon acknowledges pollution and the dangers of nature, it largely ignores the complicated relationship between race and the environment and reproduces the idea of the environment being nothing more than a commodity. It glosses over the complicated history that both people of color and indigenous people have with nature ownership and is passing on an unfortunate lesson to children viewing the program.

摘要

动画节目Craig of the Creek是儿童动画环境图像的重要来源，因为它的主要人物和情节提供了讨论种族和环境问题的机会。然而，这些节目往往只展示一种环境退化的观点，而忽略了环境种族主义和城市住房问题等问题。需要考虑种族环境清白和排斥有色人种的历史，以充分了解该节目叙事的利弊。我认为，虽然克里克的克雷格该节目抵制了一些种族纯真的概念，但仍然提倡一种主要浪漫化的、商品化的自然观。为此，我利用话语分析和环境种族主义理论提供了一个密切的生态批评分析，以解释该节目如何很好地包含社会不平等。我的结论是，虽然漫画承认了污染和自然的危险，但它在很大程度上忽略了种族与环境之间的复杂关系，并再现了环境只不过是一种商品的想法。它掩盖了有色人种和土著人民拥有自然所有权的复杂历史，并向观看该节目的孩子们传递了一个不幸的教训。