"The thing I'm most worried about is her saying the words like 'Rasta' and going up to a child and saying (these) things ... my child is white and I feel if she was to say this to another child who was not white that it would be seen as her insulting the other child."
Another parent, on Bumpandbaby.com, says: "just watched a couple videos .. i'm going to say it is racist," while a blogger on musicmagazine website describes the show as "a mildly racist take on Rastafarians in the form of a cute mouse".
The BBC has received complaints from six viewers that the animated show stereotypes black people, while another 95 have complained about the language used in the show.
The Rastafarian mouse, who leads a band called the Easy Crew and speaks in Jamaican Patois, uses phrases such as "me wan go" ("I want to go"), "irie" ("happy"), "wagwan" ("what's going on?"). His mission is to "make a bad ting good".
The show has proved to be very popular since it was launched on CBeebies last month, and has been praised for being funny and educational at the same time.
"We wanted to create something contemporary, colourful and fun that would appeal not just to black children, but to other children as well," said Genevieve Webster, who co-authored the books that the show is based on.
"I want children and grown-ups to watch it and enjoy it, be uplifted by the message and the seriously cool music."
A BBC spokesman said: "The Rastamouse books are written in Afro-Caribbean Patois rhyme and this authentic voice has been transferred to the TV series to retain its heart, integrity and distinctive quality.
"Rastamouse is part of a rich and varied CBeebies schedule, which is dedicated to reflecting the lives of all children in this country.
"Although Rastamouse has a particular appeal to young Afro-Caribbean children, its entertaining stories and positive messages - about friendship, respect and community - are intended to be enjoyed by all our young viewers, regardless of their backgrounds."
1. How is the language issue represented?
"Dreadlocked Rastamouse" - Nominalisation to use his physical appearance as a title for the mouse. This could been perceived as discriminative as the passive perfective stative verb "dreadlocked" appears before the proper noun "Rastamouse" which means that he has been type casted by his racial attributes.
"encouraging" - progessive dynamic verb - offers positive connotations however, within the context, suggests that the show writers are making people think that the show is positive when actually its having negative effects on children. Using a progressive verb implies that it is still happening.
"Patois" - negative connotations
"seriously cool" - the adverb of degree "seriously" and the evaluative adjective "cool" combines gives a Jamaican style of speech which fives positive connotations of the program and also implies that the opinion could have either, been supplied by a black person or said by a white person who was influenced by the program and so uses the language from it.
2. How does the author represent himself and others?
"just watched a couple videos" - Grammatically incorrect by missing out "of", suggests a lower social class of people who are complaining about the program. This makes this person's opinion seem less reliable and believable.
"Bumpandbaby.com" - The main type of people who are against the programme are future parents and parents of young children. Suggests they are worried about the effects it will have on the children and whether this will continue into future generations.
The author uses multiple quotes within the article which implies that he is influenced by others' opinions which is the similar issue of what the parents within the article believe is happening to their children.
The author uses high frequency, low register words which suggests that he is trying to target a wider variety of audience. Also, the author uses mainly compound sentences which suggests that he is trying to keep his article simple in order to appeal and target wider variety of audience.
3. How do they shape the reader's response (audience positioning)?
"contemporary, colourful and fun" - Evaluative adjective triad which suggests to the reader that the program has positive connotations and the use of "contemporary" implies that the program reflects the present time and the issues that are around. This could shape the reader into thinking that the program contains some factual content and could prepare children for the real world.
"The BBC" - Repetitive use of the proper noun implies the reliability of the opinions being stated within the article as the BBC are well-known and are associated with the news and so an audience are more likely to believe and agree with what they say.
The article is a build up of quotes and opinions from a variety of people which could shape a wide audience as it has positive and negative opinions of the program.
