Sometimes it is less offensive if we know it's fake. I can watch a murder victim being examined for evidence on TV without blinking an eye, but it's a whole different thing in real life. (That's comparing apples to oranges, though.)

It's also less offensive if it's not meant to be offensive. Here's what I mean: Some of my family is Cherokee, and it doesn't bother me a bit that some sports teams have a Chief, or a Brave, as a symbol, because I know the people in those teams today don't mean to be racist. The KKK is always offensive, because they mean to be racist. Now, my feeling is that the people who made Pirates of the Caribbean aren't deliberately trying to be racist, so I'm not as offended. Worried that others may believe the stereotype, yes, but personally offended, no.

(At this point I have to argue against myself, because there was a time when singers in blackface were seen as unoffensive entertainment. Decades from now, the very thought of a team having the word "Brave" in its name might be just as offensive as using the "N" word has become now.)

You make a very good point. Maybe I'm thin skinned because I've seen too many times where the proverbial "race card" is played against people who were being not racist, but ignorant. I was concerned that this might happen to the movie makers, because I would hope that by now the people of Hollywood would have gotten past racial prejudice. I desperately hope I'm right on that one.

The other thing is that entertainment is full of all sorts of stereotypes, and one has to wonder what the cutoff point is. Still, Disney could have avoided the whole thing by taking a few minutes to think twice about inserting cannibalism into their movie. There's not one person involved who didn't stop for a second and consider this?