Yikes. I’ve never read Asterix and Obelix, but did they really make (I assume) the only black character a straight up knuckle-dragging gorilla imitation? 😬
Cartoons back then were a little bit sambo so to speak, but the intent wasn’t strictly malicious, just uninformed.
You use the words/concepts you know to express something to an audience. If society tells you that native Americans wear headdresses, then you will likely add a headdress when introducing a new native american character, not neccesarily realising the damage of the stereotype behind it.
He’s possibly the only reoccurring black character, and yes it is very much a product of its time.
In defense of the authors the Gauls are all depicted with large bulbous noses, the Romans with Roman noses, etc; all cariceturs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caricature.
In the attached image you can see Obelix is also depicted as a “knuckle dragger” (at times). The character leading them is a Roman.
It’s an old joke updated for new technology … that’s part of what makes it clever.
It references the original joke (albeit in very small text)
The Asterix books frequently did something similar. https://cloud.wordpress.com/2022/02/17/asterix-and-the-historical-interpretation/
Yikes. I’ve never read Asterix and Obelix, but did they really make (I assume) the only black character a straight up knuckle-dragging gorilla imitation? 😬
Cartoons back then were a little bit sambo so to speak, but the intent wasn’t strictly malicious, just uninformed.
You use the words/concepts you know to express something to an audience. If society tells you that native Americans wear headdresses, then you will likely add a headdress when introducing a new native american character, not neccesarily realising the damage of the stereotype behind it.
He’s possibly the only reoccurring black character, and yes it is very much a product of its time.
In defense of the authors the Gauls are all depicted with large bulbous noses, the Romans with Roman noses, etc; all cariceturs. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caricature.
In the attached image you can see Obelix is also depicted as a “knuckle dragger” (at times). The character leading them is a Roman.
This second example shows the Vikings.