A Short History On Pickaninny.

Pickaninny is a racial slur. It refers to dark skin children of African decent. Caricatures often depict the children as having bulging eyes and large red lips. The word is called a pidgin, which mean it is a grammatically simple form of communications between groups that have no language in common. The term was still in use as late as the 1960’s. In 1964 anti Lyndon Johnson supporters, upset with support coming from the Black community, used racist imagery to convey their disapproval.

Topsy, a character from Uncle Toms Cabin, is thought to be the first famous “pickaninny.”  Topsy, a child slave of Eva, is depicted in the novel as a disheveled, ignorant, and wanton. Asked by Eva, who made her? The child responded ” I s’pect I growed. “Don’t think nobody never made me.” Stowe’s intention was to put a human face on the character, and show a facet of the evils of slavery as she guided the child in adapting to her Christian beliefs. However minstrels of the time quickly eroded the authors noble intentions and Topsy became a mischievous “pickaninny.”

Topsy with Eva.

Robin Bernstein, describes the pickaninny is characterized by three qualities: “the figure is always juvenile, always of color, and always resistant if not immune to pain.” These three qualifiers demonstrate the dehumanizing nature of the pickaninny caricature. Indeed, as popular post cards of the early 20th century bear out the scholars observation.

Picture of spectator throwing baseballs at black dolls.

Another famous pickaninny was Little Black Sambo, created by Helen Bannerman in 1899. The story first published in England and is about a Indian child who trades his fine clothes to a tiger, so he would not be eaten. Upon returning home to his mother and father, Black Mumbo and Black Jumbo, he is given a stack of tiger stripped pancakes for his resourcefulness. The versions of little Black Sambo in the United States were more  degrading and often depicted the imagery of the Old South or Deepest Dark Africa.

US version of Black Sambo.

With the advent of filmography, pickaninnys came to TV. Ten Pickininnys was a successful short film featuring black children in which title cards referred to them as coons, bad chillun and other derogatory terms. The short film was the forerunner of Lil Rascals. Those of us old enough to remember, regaled at the antics of the neighborhood gang, not knowing the dark past of it’s supposition.

Buckwheat from the Lil Rascals.

Although the term  pickaninny is rarely used anymore, it lives on in subtle iterations. A relic of a time not so long ago.

   

“Cuddle With Me” sold in Costco in 2009.

Black Sambo Dolls sold in Japan.

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