COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : Respect for Consumers

Concerning TV producer Henry G. Saperstein’s July 16 article defending revival of an old Dick Tracy cartoon: Saperstein understandably wants to capitalize on the interest generated by Warren Beatty’s movie “Dick Tracy.” With more foresight, however, he’d be looking at Asian and Latino market figures and wondering how to produce Asian and Latino series likely to be well received and profitably distributed.

Saperstein and other producers have to at least reject low-brow humor or questionable cuteness. How does respect for Asian and Latino consumers continue to grow in so many business sectors other than the entertainment media?

Admittedly, as Saperstein argues, Jo Jitsu and Go Go Gomez may always get the criminal, but not without the help of the “superior being,” Tracy, and at the cost of some dignity.

Many Asians and Mexicans had thought that blatant stereotypes had gone the way of “yellow peril” mentality and the Frito Bandito. If the chance to make a buck resurrected them, perhaps the chance to make new bucks in new markets can bury them again.

JASON C. JOHANSEN

Pasadena