Alt-left: ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ joins ‘A Christmas Story’ as ‘racist’ and ‘vehicles of white nostalgia’
Social justice warriors unite!
Now A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is being labeled “racist” for marginalizing the “token” black character.
The outrage comes from the scene where Charlie Brown serves popcorn and toast to his hungry guests instead of turkey and stuffing. Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty Snoopy are all sitting on one side the table with Marcie at one end of the table and Linus at the head. The cartoon’s lone black character, Franklin, is on his own side of the table seated on a lawn chair.
News broke on ComicBook.com:
How come Franklin, Charlie Brown’s only black friend, sits alone on the other side of the table? And in a lawn chair. #franklin#CharlieBrown #CharlieBrownThanksgiving
— Cynthia Haynes (@ChefCynthiaC) November 21, 2018
Am I woke now, why is Franklin in Charlie Brown Thanksgiving sitting all by himself at the table. Man. Things that I did not notice as a child.
— Yessam (@cmass4eva) November 21, 2018
Creator Charles Schulz, who passed away in 2000, reportedly demanded a black character be added to the Charlie Brown cast in 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Schulz was inspired to do so after receiving a letter from a teacher named Harriet Glickman.
When asked by the head of the cartoon’s publisher, United Feature Syndicate, if he was sure he wanted to add a black character, Glickman says Schulz replied, “Either you run it the way I drew it, or I quit.’ ”
In 2016, Salon.com denounced “A Christmas Story” as a racist vehicle of “white nostalgia”:
This is a perfect depiction of the nonwhite “other,” tailored to the conservative and superficial “color-blind” politics of the post-civil rights era
This is an example of the “white racial frame” in action: People of color are present in a way that does not challenge the cultural and personal psychology of white racial innocence. They are present without being objectionable or intrusive in any way; they present no threat to the way whiteness and memory combine to nurture a nostalgia for a “simpler” time that in actuality did not exist.
[* Shield plugin marked this comment as “trash”. Reason: Failed GASP Bot Filter Test (checkbox) *]
[…] Alt-left: ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ joins ‘A Christmas Story’ as ‘racist’ and ‘ve… […]