3. It's not widely understood that blackface & ethnic caricature weren't just popular in early 20th century, they were the very visual language through which America saw itself as a hybrid society.
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4. Blackface & ethnic caricature introduced a gestural expressiveness that changed American comedy. It's main legacy is cartooning. Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny etc are heirs. These 1930 comic strips highlight how much Mickey owed to Al Jolson & minstrelrypic.twitter.com/6gPgGWU1lf
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5. This very early Mickey Mouse cartoon from 1930 was written by Walt Disney himself and drawn by Mickey's co-creator Ub Iwerks. It really makes clear the visual debt Mickey Mouse has to minstrel imagery. Not how Mickey is nearly a mirror image of the ooga-booga native.pic.twitter.com/xX7cUnBzPF
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6. Seuss grew up on such images and used them wholesale in his early work. But even as he started to move away from them (as a result of his own political shift during World War II), he repurposed these images into imaginary beings, as
@philnel persuasively argues.2 replies 6 retweets 133 likesShow this thread -
7. In the 19th and early 20th century in the United States (and indeed up till the present in the United Kingdom) it was common to portray the Irish as simians.pic.twitter.com/gSjcAlyfVn
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8. The Irish Simian lives on in two very popular characters: the American everyman Homer Simpson & the Grinch (which Michelle Abate traces back to images like this 19th drawing of Bridget McBruiser).pic.twitter.com/5ZTcKOf9RL
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9. I was dissatisfied with both sides of the Seuss wars. Unlike lunkheads like Ted Cruz, I wouldn't ever show the racist ooga-booga images to kids. But I don't want the books to go out of print either; cultural history is too important. The books should stay in print for adults.
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10. My sure-to-please-nobody solution is that Seuss should be in the public domain so the early books with racist/ethnic stereotypes can stay in print and be part of a discussion of the pervasiveness of racist iconography. More here:https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/seuss-racism-cancel-legacy/ …
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Jeet Heer Retweeted Ben Towle
11. This is a good selection of drawings that really show the debt the funny animal tradition owes to blackface. Again: not an argument for "cancelling" (whatever the fuck that means) but rather for historical awareness.https://twitter.com/ben_towle/status/1379855208721874946 …
Jeet Heer added,
Ben TowleVerified account @ben_towleReplying to @HeerJeetI talk about this when I teach animal/anthro character design. Peeps sometimes don't wanna hear it but it's true. I posit that the weird animal-cheek thing (not on actual animals really) that's now endemic in a lot of animal characters, furry art, etc. is a direct lift from this. pic.twitter.com/5m7FnTQtbC4 replies 19 retweets 109 likesShow this thread -
This Tweet is unavailable.
No, It should remain available so people can understand history. Is that a hard concept? Of course copyright liberation will also benefit artists and that's great too.
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Replying to @HeerJeet @Seaweed_Shark
Yes, in Brazil our version of Dr. Seuss(Monteiro Lobato, a beloved children's author that was an unabashed racist) entered public domain and his own estate is releasing sanitized versions of his work.
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