There's something I've seen happen many times, so, at this point, I'm trying to understand if this bothers only me, or if it is really racist/offensive.

I'm Italian and this thing I'm about to describe happened in my mother tongue, but I think this can happen with every language. Now I'll explain.

It's fine using a language or an accent instead of English because we like it more and then use English subtitles to reach more people. Unless this is done with the specific purpose to offend the speakers of that language. However, I find offensive (even racist tbh) to use a language you don't know as "cool sound". I'll try to explain better.

Let's say you watch a video. The audio is in a foreign language and the subtitles are in English. Although, the voice acting is not matching the subtitles: the foreign language has been used as a sound effect by the author since they like very much how that foreign language sounds.

Now, there are many games where, to save money, the voice acting is made with funny or cute sounds. But they are just sounds or invented language. A very famous example is The Sims.

My question is: is it offensive to use a foreign language as a "cool sound effect"? To me it is. Even if the author didn't mean to be offensive. In fact, I'm criticizing the concept of the action itself. Not the author of such a thing.

What do you think? Would you feel offended if someone would do this with your mother tongue? Why? 

WARNING! No videos linked, no name shaming, etc. We are only talking about how you would perceive such a thing!

I don't think it's just you, there's a very small minority of people who interpret it the way you do or at least the hardcore version of it anyway. It's not racist but it can be offensive to you because it's subjective like that. I have no problem with this and I like how different cultures try to involve other people's culture in their own. It's a lot like saying "I like this culture, I want it part of my life" which is great. Some people call it appropriation and for some reason it's bad but it makes no sense to say it's bad because that's essentially saying that segragation is good. However, when it comes to voice talent, it's hard to find the right person for the job. Sometimes you gotta deal with what you can get.

For instance, in Game of Thrones, there was a controversy about the slaves being all of a singular race. But the reasoning behind it was logistics / cost effectiveness of hiring actors within a country rather than hiring a multi-race platoon from different parts of the world to go there. Imagine flying 1000 people from different parts of the world for the sake of "inclusivity", it makes no sense. But in the book it makes it obvious that slaves are like old timer ones and not the american type where anyone can be one. It's just someone out there didn't read the source material and started to complain about it.

I'm sure if they could hire the right talent for the job at the right price, they would.

Everything is "racist" and offensive to sensitive types loaded with insecurity.

It's not racist.

It's not prejudice.

It's simply bad humor. 

Nothing more, nothing less. 

While it is true many people wear their hearts on their sleeve, others have called me "thick skinned" when it comes to humor cast upon my culture and heritage.  Funny accents in fiction have been discussed, as possible racism, such as; Jar Jar Binks sounding Jamaican or the cartoon mouse Speedy Gonzales being Hispanic.  I tend to think these people just read too much into the aspect of these characters.  I would hope a young Hispanic child wouldn't be offended by Speedy and look upon the cartoon mouse as the superhero he was meant to be.  Binks was comedy relief in the Phantom Mentace, I have witnessed other comedy relief characters with strange accents go unnoticed.  In the end, Binks was the hap-hazzard hero of his people in the battle.  If we continue to allow censorship to control entertainment, we  won't be the ones in control of ourselves.  Some small commitee will monitor your entertainment for racism, violence, and other factors, until all the fun is gone.  I watched Road Runner beat the coyote on Saturday morning as a child, it didn't mean I thought people could do that stuff in real life.  Yet Fred Rogers went before the US Congress and had them remove the violence from cartoons. Now unless you can get the uncut versions, they are not seen in public anymore.  It is up to parents to raise their children correctly, you don't use public media as the babysitter.  That is my opinion on the matter.

Wait - that was supposed to be Jamaican?

Um, well - when I was still a child I did take a hairpin and poke my younger brother in the butt...  That kind of, uh - drove the point home.

...

so sorry.

I'm going to add a separate post for this since the tone is different than the last post.

I can't find any source for:

All I can find is that he appeared before a Senate subcommittee in 1969, in support of PBS funding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers#Other_work_and_appearances

I don't personally recall any cartoon differences from before and after that time.  Cartoons did seem to get stupider as the years went by, but that was probably just the effect of growing up.

That's not to say such censorship did not occur, just maybe differently ?  

Yes, but during that session it was very clear he was against cartoon violence.  Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote first appeared in 1949 (long before I was born) when they aired on ABC and CBS they were edited for content.   Chuck Jones was attempting another version of Tom and Jerry, silent prey versus preditor with slap stick comedy.  By the 1980's,  the cartoons were censored to the point that jokes and gags didn't make any sense.  When Steven Spielberg's "Tiny Toons" hit the air, he had to use a bag of tricks to get past network censors.  All the fights took place off screen or in the nearby bushes.  The cartoon violence was heard but never seen.

The only network to show the unedited older Road Runner cartoons was the Cartoon Network owned by Warner Brothers.  Meanwhile MTV started their own cartoon network Nickelodeon with their own cartoons.  I watched Mr. Roger's Neighborhood as a child, but Road Runner was tons better than any puppet show.  Sorry Fred, rest in peace, you had the best intensions,  but slapstick comedy wins in the end.

Yes, some people claimed Binks sounded Jamacian.  Others claimed the junkyard propietor and owner of Anikan Skywallker was anti-sematic.  I have to say, if you don't like something and it offends you, then vote by walking away.