I have noticed a couple of times that the characters in the animations for the SlateV column of Dear Prudence show some racial undertones.

Please don't think that I am seeking evidence of racism everywhere. It is just that I found it befuddling that the cheating wife is a black gal(afro and all), although there is no reference to that fact in the narrative. Both offended parties (the cuckold and the cheated wife) are evidently whites.

In the "Condom wrapper" animation, the potential cheating wife is a member of a clearly Hispanic family (dark hair, dark eyes). Again, no reference to that in the story.

Regularly characters are standard Caucasian looking fellows. On occasion minorities are represented, but are neutral to the story at best. I don't think I am getting paranoid here...

Are these "artistic liberties" taken by the animator(s)? Or do they take these facts from the original letter sent in?

I noticed the ethnicity of the characters too, but I wasn't offended because the character of the narrator / friend wondering whether she should tell Anita about the affair also looked to be "not white" and the real villan of the letter, the cheating husband, was so white (with red hair) he reminded me of Conan O'Brien. I think they try to mix it up and add some diversity anytime the characters are not all blood relatives of each other, presumably of the same ethicity. I doubt the letter on this topic contained that information, but some of the letters (the woman whose fiance was from India) it would be an issue for the actual question. I was noticing the other day that the Teletubbies have different skin tones (Tinky Winky and Po are really pale, whereas LaLa is in the middle and Dipsy has the most melanin) and then thought - ooooh, it's good that it wasn't Tinky Winky or someone would link the "gay" Teletubby with this diversity and cry fowl. Who knows why these things get picked, but it has to be tough to try to please everyone all the time.

Try being white. We are the "neutral" color and when in doubt most characters in these animations are white. Further more, whites tend to not think about ethnicity at all unless forced to do so-we just go about our business and suddenly every comedian of color thinks they can pile it on about white lack of rhythm, lack of height, lack of knowledge really, of the hip hop culture-probably because we arent welcome there (except for young white girls of course who can be a "baby doll" for the pimp).

THOUSANDS of whites died in the civil war and thousands more fought hard for equal rights and civil rights.

Give it a rest. Stop thinking about race and so will everyone else.