Is your cartoon racist?

Tonight Kate off-handedly mentioned that she thought the old Speedy Gonzalez cartoons have racist undertones. We decided to pul up some old episodes on the YouTube and look at them through the post-undergraduate liberal art degree lenses we wear so proudly:

Some general observations we made:

• All of the mice other than Speedy are slow, lethargic, speak with a slur and wear heavy eyelids (implying a state of stoned/drunkenedness), and mooch off of the spoils of Speedy's work.
• The mice aren't welcome in the house (hence the existence of the cat)- they're literal trespassers who steal from the people that live there, and foil the muscle in the process.
• The accent. Nuthing more to say 'bout that.

I do not believe I could form a learned opinion re: racism in Speedy Gonzalez w/out watching more episodes, but I think Kate makes an interesting argument. I wonder if there is any scholarship on this subject. Probably.
I wonder if Speedy Gonzalez made for a good plush doll. I doubt it- he doesn't seem like he'd be very fluffy and his hat was probably stiff and poky. Maybe that just makes him more of a bad ass though.