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Monday, November 26, 2018

The Black Peanut

It is an anniversary, but one few realise.  We raised our glasses in the Tavern as 50 years ago, this year, saw the introduction of Franklin Armstrong into the Hall of Everyday, Ordinary Heroes, And he sits alongside Harriet Glickman, of whom you have very likely never heard. And also with a bunch of very familiar characters you will all have counted amongst firm friends. 


On July 31, 1968, a young, black man was reading the newspaper when he saw something that he had never seen before. With tears in his eyes, he started running and screaming throughout the house, calling for his mom. He would show his mom, and, she would gasp, seeing something she thought she would never see in her lifetime. Throughout the nation, there were similar reactions.

What they saw was Franklin Armstrong's first appearance on the iconic comic strip "Peanuts." Franklin would be 50 years old this year.

Franklin Armstrong is a character in the long-running comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz. Introduced on July 31, 1968, Franklin was the first African American character in the strip. 

He goes to school with Peppermint Patty and Marcie. In his first story arc, he met Charlie Brown when they were both at the beach. 

Franklin's father was a soldier fighting in Vietnam, to which Charlie Brown replied "My dad's a barber...he was in a war too, but I don't know which one." Franklin later paid Charlie Brown a visit and found some of Charlie Brown's other friends to be quite odd. His last appearance was in 1999, the year before Schulz's death.

"They'd never met before because they went to different schools," adding, "but they had fun playing ball so Charlie Brown invited Franklin to visit him. " Franklin quoted the Old Testament, and had no anxieties or obsessions. Franklin and Charlie Brown also enjoyed sharing stories about their grandfathers.

Franklin was "born" after a school teacher, Harriet Glickman, had written a letter to creator Charles M. Schulz after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot to death outside his Memphis hotel room.

Glickman, who had kids of her own and having worked with kids, was especially aware of the power of comics among the young. “And my feeling at the time was that I realized that black kids and white kids never saw themselves [depicted] together in the classroom,” she would say.

She would write, “Since the death of Martin Luther King, 'I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help change those conditions in our society which led to the assassination and which contribute to the vast sea of misunderstanding, hate, fear and violence.'”

Glickman asked Schulz if he could consider adding a black character to his popular comic strip, which she hoped would bring the country together and show people of color that they are not excluded from American society.

She had written to others as well, but the others feared it was too soon, that it may be costly to their careers, that the syndicate would drop them if they dared do something like that.

Charles Schulz did not have to respond to her letter, he could have just completely ignored it, and everyone would have forgotten about it. But, Schulz did take the time to respond, saying he was intrigued with the idea, but wasn't sure whether it would be right, coming from him, he didn't want to make matters worse, he felt that it may sound condescending to people of color.

Glickman did not give up, and continued communicating with Schulz, with Schulz surprisingly responding each time. She would even have black friends write to Schulz and explain to him what it would mean to them and gave him some suggestions on how to introduce such a character without offending anyone. 

This conversation would continue until one day, Schulz would tell Glickman to
 check her newspaper on July 31, 1968.

On that date, the cartoon, as created by Schulz, shows Charlie Brown meeting a new character, named Franklin. Other than his color, Franklin was just an ordinary kid who befriends and helps Charlie Brown. 

Franklin also mentions that his father was "over at Vietnam." At the end of the series, which lasted three strips, Charlie invites Franklin to spend the night one day so they can continue their friendship. 
The Little Red-Haired Girl.

There was no big announcement, there was no big deal, it was just a natural conversation between two kids, whose obvious differences did not matter to them. And, the fact that Franklin's father was fighting for this country was also a very strong statement by Schulz.


Although Schulz never made a big deal over the inclusion of Franklin, there were many fans, especially in the South, who were very upset by it and that made national news. One Southern editor even said, 

“I don’t mind you having a black character, but please don’t show them in school together.”

(No doubt, a Democrat.)

It would eventually lead to a conversation between Schulz and the president of the comic's distribution company, who was concerned about the introduction of Franklin and how it might affect Schulz' popularity. Many newspapers during that time had threatened to cut the strip.

Schulz' response: "I remember telling Larry at the time about Franklin -- he wanted me to change it, and we talked about it for a long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and said, 

"Well, Larry, let's put it this way: Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How's that?"

Eventually, Franklin became a regular character in the comic strips, and, despite complaints, Franklin would be shown sitting in front of Peppermint Patty at school and playing center field on her baseball team.

More recently, Franklin is brought up on social media around Thanksgiving time, when the animated 1973 special "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" appears.

Some people have blamed Schulz for showing Franklin sitting alone on the Thanksgiving table, while the other characters sit across him. 

ABC's annual "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" special was slammed as racist by some on social media, with some viewers - in typical mealy-mouthed 'Lucy' style-  objecting to the dinner-table seating of its only black character. 

The scene in question has four characters from Charles M. Schulz’s iconic “Peanuts” cartoon — Sally, Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty and dog Snoopy — sitting on one side of a makeshift outdoor table for Thanksgiving dinner, 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. 

But, Schulz did not have the same control over the animated cartoon on a television network that he did on his own comic strip in the newspapers.

But, he did have control over his own comic strip, and, he courageously decided to make a statement because of one brave school teacher who decided to ask a simple question.

Glickman would explain later that her parents were "concerned about others, and the values that they instilled in us about caring for and appreciating everyone of all colors and backgrounds — this is what we knew when we were growing up, that you cared about other people . . . 
The Feminazi Lucy ! The Architype for many women today.

And so, during the years, we were very aware of the issues of racism and civil rights in this country [when] black people had to sit at the back of the bus, black people couldn’t sit in the same seats in the restaurants that you could sit . . . Every day I would see, or read, about black children trying to get into school and seeing crowds of white people standing around spitting at them or yelling at them . . . and the beatings and the dogs and the hosings and the courage of so many people in that time."

Because of Glickman, because of Schulz, people around the world were introduced to a little boy named Franklin.

And the Hall of Everyday, Ordinary Heroes in the Tavern gives them honoured places.

Meanwhile the spirit of Lucy - she who snatches away Charley's football at every opportunity - looms increasingly over a society that Rosa Parks and Martin L King did much to bring curative care. 

The 'Race' card seemed almost a 'far past' issue a decade ago but now it is played, along with so many other 'minority rights' cards, at every opportunity. Maleness and boyhood are targets du jour, despite 'coloured' favour where it suits.

In Oz we have a version - amongst many - of Lucy. Clementine Ford, the hater of anything male. She happily snatches footballs and anything else a chap might enjoy. She gets space in newspapers too.

There are always those who bring nastiness, even against small black boys and white boys, and we must laud those that counter them.

Drinks on the house in Franklin's memory.

Pax 









27 comments:

  1. Our education system is broken, we are at war, taxes are too high, I could go on. The libs are worried about a Charlie Brown cartoon🤨. I think they lack a bit of perspective.
    Good one, my friend:)
    - Shiloh

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    1. I am pleased you liked that. Yes, there are complainers in the world who will pick a fight over scraps.

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  2. Hm, I hadn't heard about this until now, actually. I'm a Southern Democrat and most of my friends all around the country are libs, and literally no one has mentioned it, it's not really a thing.

    We're more worried about GM cutting 18,000 jobs (despite tax shelters like never before and record-breaking profit) and other atrocities, the increase in truly racist atrocities under Trump, i.e., the synagogue shooting in Pennsylvania (white "Christian" far-right Republican) and here in my own state of Kentucky (white Trump-supporting "Christian" far-right Republican) who tried to enter a black church to shoot them on a Sunday, last month, then when his efforts failed, he promptly went to Kroger's grocery store and shot two random black people dead - admittedly because they were black. THAT is true racism.

    And just an FYI, true southern racists (such as KKK members, neonazis) jumped ship to the Republican Party in American after the civil rights act in 1964. I know because part of my estranged/ex family was/is KKK and hard-core Trump-supporting Republicans.

    Again, if Conservatives/Republicans want to know what American Democrats and Liberals truly think, how we truly feel, and what we truly believe - some of us being devout Christians, in fact - perhaps just talk to us or ask us, rather than digging up some "news story" about some over-privileged idiot or two (or loud-mouthed politician) calling themselves a Democrat/Liberal and basing your opinion about our entire group on it (and helping push that idiot's behavior as propaganda about all of us)?

    Typically, only atypical stuff like makes the news - it's why it's "news," it's atypical :)

    But that's the major difference between Republicans and Democrats these days, IMO - we call out our own when they're wrong.

    Kathy Griffin, Harvey Weinstein, Eric Schneiderman - most of us were just as much in an uproar as Conservatives about them, and in Weinstein and Schneiderman's cases, it was libs who called them out.

    We've even called out Obama a time or two (Patriot Act, Obamacare issues, trade agreements for labor in southeast asia that could result in more outsourcing).

    Still waiting to hear even one condemnation - even one slight disagreement - with Trump or any Republican, by a Republican. Guess I'll be waitin' a while :)

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    1. By the Lord Harry. I didn't think young Franklin was a trigger !

      Nice to see you back, Chrystal. Some iced tea?

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  3. lol that's what I'm saying - it actually isn't a trigger for Dems/Libs at all - unless you count a couple of over-privileged idiots calling themselves Dem/Lib who apparently have nothing better to do than comb cartoons looking for racism in older media so they can blame it for modern racism and racial terrorism.

    (Over-privileged idiots exist in both parties, here, btw, regardless of what political hat they are wearing today.)

    Methinks they're barking up the wrong tree, not to mention, it entirely defeats the liberal point of media not being to blame for violence, doesn't it?

    I think racism is learned, yes, and shouldn't be encouraged by the media or anyone, but I believe the learning comes mostly from people close to them and people they admire, and is then positively reinforced behavioral by those people - not Charlie Brown, for goodness sake.

    If we want to find the source of racism, I hardly think Charlie Brown is the root cause lol. It would take a lot of data to prove otherwise to me (though I HAVE seen racist cartoons from the 30s before and it's probably not a good idea to encourage it, but it's not "to blame.")

    As for "triggers" that IS a real thing with people with PTSD, both my husband and myself have been formally diagnosed with it - but we also don't expect other people to change behavior for us and label and safeguard the world for us, it's our job to safeguard ourselves. I mean, we can let others know we're sensitive to certain things, just as an awareness sort of thing, but we don't expect other people to actually change, it's not all about us :)

    Thank you for the iced tea offer, not staying, just saying - it's a trivial complaint, and not to offend, but quite frankly, a trivial complaint about the trivial complaint - there's so much worse going on we could all be complaining about? :)

    Take care,

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    1. You are blessed, m'dear. And always welcome in the Tavern. Yes, there is much worse to concern ourselves with but a bit of honouring does not go amiss.

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  4. Thank you :) I just wanted to add here that it is a bit odd that Franklin is sitting alone on one side of the table versus the white kids, so I'm not trying to minimize real experiences of that happening to people of color in the real world at social gatherings - but I doubt it was conscious and intentional - and I think the grand scheme of things, this is tangential and distracts from dealing with the larger, present day issue.

    Plus, we tend to gravitate towards people we think will be like us naturally, and that doesn't just mean skin color. It could be style of dress, social status, employees versus bosses, all unconscious cues we take regarding who to sit with etc that aren't necessarily racist.

    Regardless, it was the 50s. And shouldn't be boycotted, it should be openly discussed - and if anything, worst case scenario, then we could learn more about how to be more inclusive from different from ourselves, learn how experiences with new people and new things can be a positive experience, rather than always sticking with people just like us.

    Heck, if I don't want to hang out with people just like me, I bore myself and drive myself crazy lol.

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    1. ""then we could learn more about how to be more inclusive from different from ourselves, learn how experiences with new people and new things can be a positive experience, rather than always sticking with people just like us. ""

      Inclusive is not a virtue. New people and new experiences can be positive.... or negative. We need to discern. As for 'people like us', I do not know anyone like me.

      'People of colour' come in all colours, including White.

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    2. Plus, we tend to gravitate towards people we think will be like us naturally,

      Of course we do. Which means we naturally prefer to be with people of our own kind - the same ethnicity, the same culture, the same religion. That doesn't mean we have anything against people of other ethnicities or cultures or religions. They're just not our people.

      All people feel this way. It's not racism. It's human nature.

      If you really want to worry about racism I'd be more worried about the U.S. government invading other people's countries and bombing other people's countries just because those other people have different cultural, political or religious views. That seems to me to much more racist, even Nazi! Or imposing sanctions on other countries, like the sanctions in Iraq that led to the deaths of perhaps as many as half a million Iraqi children. If you want racist/Nazi crimes there's an obvious one. Germans were hanged for lesser crimes in WW2. How come liberals don't want to see Madeleine Albright hanged for war crimes?

      I'm not just picking on Dems. The one thing that seems to unite Democrats and Republicans is an enthusiasm for the sorts of racist foreign policy that the Nazis followed.

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    3. Actually, I agree that the US has been a bully in many cases.

      As for sanctions, I'm not sure about Iran, but in some cases, the sanctions were too strict.

      However, sanctions are the only option we have short of military action and war to deal with weapons agreement violations and human rights violations.

      Also, do you think you might have your Dems and Republicans confused?

      Obama lifted the sanctions on Iran in 2015 - it is the Trump administration and Republicans who want them re-imposed.

      I'm not sure whether sanctions are warranted because I can't seem to find a list of what Iran's violations supposedly are. Guess I'm just supposed to take the gov's word for it lol - kinda like weapons of mass destruction with Iraq ;)

      And let us not forget that we gave them nuclear capacity in the first place. Then we got involved in their politics and backed the Shah of Iran rather than the Ayotollah, which was a huge mistake because of the Shah's human rights violations, so they hated us. Then of course other tiffs over oil we pretended were about religion/faith on both sides.

      As for racism, gravitating towards people we unconsciously sum up as the most we'd have in common with is not the same as assuming people of color are of poor or inferior character and harassing them because of this belief, scapegoating black people for all the problems in this country, nor shooting two unarmed black people in a grocery store because they are black - that is racism - and it exists nationally and internationally, but I see it often here in the American South.

      Do I have to choose between international or domestic racism and terrorism or can care about both? :)

      Not sure where you derived I said I was for "forcing" inclusion on anyone, I simply said I don't like to exclude anyone unless they are rude, mean, snobby, or harassing/bullying towards myself or my other friends, and many people would do the same in their homes, private or public institutions or events. People do not have to "tolerate" rudeness and hostility towards themselves or others and I'm sorry if anyone feels "forced" into inclusion instead of the natural social consequences for their own rudeness and hostility, whether it was based on someone's skin color or not.

      I'm sorry you and Amfortas have stated you don't think inclusion is a virtue, it was one of my favorite virtues of Christ.

      In fact, if Christ were not inclusive, we wouldn't be here a Christians because we are gentiles and Jesus was Jewish and his message was targeted to reform the Jewish faith - we were adopted in.

      Are you a Christian, DforD?

      Regardless, I will wish you a Merry Christmas as well anyway, just as I did Amfortas :)

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    4. However, sanctions are the only option we have short of military action and war to deal with weapons agreement violations and human rights violations.

      There is another option. The U.S. could accept that it is not the ruler of the world and that the entire planet is not a colonial possession of the U.S., and that the U.S. does not have the right to tell other countries how to organise their internal affairs or how to manage their defences.

      The U.S. could learn to mind its own business. And maybe get its own house in order.

      Also, do you think you might have your Dems and Republicans confused?

      You mean there's a difference?

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    5. I'm sorry you and Amfortas have stated you don't think inclusion is a virtue,

      I prefer genuine diversity. I like the idea of different people with different ethnic backgrounds, different cultures and different religions having their own communities, ideally separate nations, because this is the only way that diversity can survive.

      The modern cults of inclusiveness and diversity are destroying the differences between different peoples. The tendency is towards the creation of a monolithic global monoculture in which eventually everyone will be exactly the same. And by encouraging inter-racial and inter-cultural marriage we will end up with a planet where everyone really is identical. Everyone will have the same skin colour, the same culture (American trash culture), the same religion (Social Justice), the same politics.

      To me this is racism. I don't want to see every race and every ethnicity and every culture absorbed into one gigantic blob of sameness. I want every race and every culture to have a chance of survival. I don't want to be part of the Borg.

      If we want to avoid becoming the Borg we need to encourage different people with different cultures, faiths and beliefs to live separately. The Amish have survived by separating themselves from the rest of society. They should be a model for all of us.

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    6. Inclusivity, diversity, tolerance and the flood of new 'holy' words, never appeared on the list of Virtues, Chrystal. Why be sorry?

      Dfor has a sensible and far more sensitive approach than the unthinking mantra-wielding lefty.

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  5. True, but IMO, discretion should not be based solely on things like skin color; in fact, it shouldn't even be considered, it cannot be controlled and has nothing to do with content of their character, color, black or white.

    In fact, if I start counting race cards in the list of people helping to form my PTSD, actually, they're all white - but I don't consider their race to blame because it's not their skin's fault, it's their character's fault. :)

    Not sure I agree inclusion isn't a virtue - Christ was very inclusive of gentiles, Samaritans, Canaanites - even lepers, considering he touched and healed lepers, despite Levitican law (which said they suffered from leprosy because of their sin, which we now know is not true).

    I just don't like to exclude anybody, until they give me reason not to, like rudeness, meanness or snobbery towards my other friends, especially based on things they can't help like physical appearance or skin color or what sin they're engaged in, never have.

    Not that I'm like Christ, but he is who I'd like to emulate most :)

    If I don't talk to you before, have a blessed Christmas, Amfortas :)

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    1. Yes, Christmas is a'coming and this old y(f)ule is getting ready. I will try to make it Blessed with Midnight Mass. You have a fine and holy time too.

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    2. Not sure I agree inclusion isn't a virtue - Christ was very inclusive of gentiles, Samaritans, Canaanites - even lepers,

      Even if inclusiveness is a virtue (and I don't think it is), I'm not sure about the idea of forcing people to be virtuous.

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  6. In my younger days I always loved reading Peanuts in the newspaper. My favourite character was Snoopy and one of my friends bought me a fluffy version! All of the children had distinct personalities and Linus was my favourite :-)

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  7. Just for a giggle, see? I told you it wasn't "a thing," even among liberals of color - this is from "The Real," a talk show on BET (Black Entertainment Television) ...

    https://youtu.be/7Q7F4y_7rz4

    They're (jokingly) upset because they felt Pigpen was actually the one being discriminated against lol.

    I looked up who "they" were that were supposedly saying this.

    I found a few references to this on mostly conservative, less reputable "news" rags, and was it turns out they're talking about maybe four or five nobodys on Twitter who said something about Franklin?

    Young people, some of whom were unaware this show wasn't new, but made in 1973, and who don't know the historical significance and bravery it took for Charles Schulz to include Franklin in the first place, in a previously all-white cartoon, nor what was going on at the time, in the late 60s and early 70s in America.

    Maybe those few are just a tad hypervigilant, right now, understandably - but no, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar ;)

    And once again, people - what a few nobodys say on Twitter is not "The News," and it certainly does not mean all, or even most liberals feel this way, including liberals of color (like the women in the above video) :)

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    1. Interested folk will have to copy and paste the link into a YT search box.

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  8. By the way....""We're more worried about GM cutting 18,000 jobs "". Yes, We were previously assured that a caring, empathetic, nurturing female would make a far better CEO. Looks like she didn't read the memo.

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    1. GM's CEOs, male or female, have always been jerks. I remember when they shut the plant down in Cincinnati (Norwood), really crappy to their employees then, they have a long history of being crappy.

      Then again, the UAW unions are pretty scary themselves up there.

      I miss Lee Iacocca! (Ford, Chrysler) :) That man is 94 and still sharp as a tack.

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Ne meias in stragulo aut pueros circummittam.

Our Bouncer is a gentleman of muscle and guile. His patience has limits. He will check you at the door.

The Tavern gets rowdy visitors from time to time. Some are brain dead and some soul dead. They attack customers and the bar staff and piss on the carpets. Those people will not be allowed in anymore. So... Be Nice..