Racism in comics

[Kashgar]

It annoyed me recently that in one of the obits for D C Thomson scriptwriter Ian Gray the paper in question saw fit to cobble together a brief history of the Beano, the comic with which Ian Gray was most associated, and in amongst the six or seven characters mentioned one of them was 'Hard-Nut the Nigger'.
Firstly this character appeared only once, in the 1940 Beano Book, and secondly had nothing to do with Ian Gray or the time that he worked on the comic.
The only reason I can think that this character was mentioned was for its attention grabbing shock value.
Of course you can't put any sort of positive spin on a comic strip with a title like that but then again it was a pretty pointless reference in regard to Ian Gray, the subject of the piece.
'Hard-Nut the Nigger' appeared once in the Beano's near seventy year history and that nearly sixty eight years ago. He is a character best forgotten, but sadly, now he's been rediscovered I fear he will become a bigger part of the Beano legend than he either warrants or deserves unlike Ian Gray who deserved all the plaudits going but who had this particular obit sullied by mention of this reprehensible social dinosaur from another time.

[Peter Gray]

I've been collecting recently 1961 Dandys...and was shocked at the n..g.r word used so casually on one or 2 occasions by Dirty Dick and Ali Ha Ha...I understand the black and white banjo shows...a character blacking up as that was popular on the telly at the time...which is what Dirty Dick does and the 40 thieves..

Also in the 1961 Dandy is Bingo the Black Streak a boy from Africa who was a very fast runner drawn by the same artist as the stinging swarm... it is set in New York and dresses like a 30's man with a bowler hat...I think it is drawn well...it does show the way they treated black people in those days...also its nice that he is a sports and hero type. Solving problems...helping people..and friendly. So quite positive. Maybe like the strip black people in the early 60's in New York were treated better...more accepting. What do other people think of this strip.

[felneymike]

In either the '50 or '51 Champion annual there's one story about a "swarthy type" who asks to join a running team, with initial suspicion on the part of the characters that he is mixed up in a criminal gang (naturally being an adventure story he is mixed up in a criminal gang, but only because of mistaken identity, the real lookalike crook being rounded up in the end), but he is otherwise portrayed as just another "one of the lads", an attitude that must have been very rare at the time.

[Ally Sloper]

Hello everyone, newbie here, how do you do? I haven't had the time to read through this entire thread so my apologies if this point has been raised before. As far as I am concerned, distasteful though these references may be, these books are historical documents, they were written 50, 60, 70 years ago and they merely reflect the times in which they were produced. If any of these phrases appeared in any contemporary publication in the same context, I would be the first to voice my disgust, but, as I say, these documents were not produced today.

I am vehemently opposed to any kind of politically correct revisionism, however well meaning, of any past book, comic, movie or tv show. These are documents of their times and are essential frames of reference when considering the attitudes of society at the time. There are many episodes of 'Steptoe and Son' which contain the most shocking references to minorities, the film 'The Dam Buster's' features a dog called 'Nigger' and what about 'Til Death us do Part'? Regardless of modern sensibilities I am still firmly of the belief that they should remain as they are. These documents give us far more insight into the acceptable norms of the past far more than any dissitation some media professor could cobble together.

A parallel can be made here with the acceptability within society of 'drink driving'. Whether we like it or not it we all recall knowing people who did this quite regularly, sometimes on a daily basis. I know I do and, back in the seventies, it wasn't really considered a big deal. However times change and drink-driving is now, quite rightly, a major no-no. However what of all the plots, scenes and gags in some of our past media which figure drink driving? Do we re-edit The Sweeney or The Likely Lads or Laurel and Hardy's movies to remove these references? Do we ban 'In the Summertime' by Mungo Jerry because he extols the virtues of having a 'drink and a drive' in order to 'go out and see what we can find'? Absolutely not, well ok, you can ban the Mungo Jerry track if you like!

The truth about our past attitudes is often very uncomfortable, for example I have a 'Desperate Dan' book from 1979 which features a strip which boasts the title 'Chin-kee Chin-kee China Boys' which I find tremendously offensive, but I wouldn't rip out the page. It contains vital info for my understanding of the society for which it was produced and so it has huge cultural importance.

Wow! My apologies, I didn't mean to rattle on so much in my first post, it's just something I have strong views on!

[Peter Gray]

Another new poster in such a short time...wecolme to the forum...with insight like that you are very welcome..

[Ally Sloper]

Thankyou Peter for the kind compliment! I'm going to enjoy frequenting these boards, my great passion is 20th Century British Culture, and comics play a large part in that so there is plenty to interest me here!

[quickonthedraw]

Hi there, I'm another new member, nice to be here!
Like the last new person, I've not been able to read through every post on this thread so far, so again, apologies for any repetition, but I just wanted to make the point that when I was a wee lad (I'm talking early/mid eighties, I'm 34 tomorrow!) I don't remember any (what we nowadays consider) blantant racist terminology such as the "N" word being used in comics, but there was an awful lot of what one might call "racial stereotyping"- for example, I distinctly remember a one off appearance in a strip by an oriental character named "Ping Pong" and also- there was a regular strip in "Nutty" (the name of which now shamefully escapes me, can anyone remember?) which starred several canine characters, one whom was meant to resemble a sikh with a turban, named "Singh Songh". Oh, and I first read the joke about what time a Chinaman goes to the dentist in "Wow!"
I think it's fair to say that all of these examples would be frowned upon in today's climate.

[Peter Gray]

welcome to the forum..I recommenfd the Jellymen post in the Discussion to look at..

I think some sterotypes like China men are still used...or not that long ago..