> Charlie Brown, Franklin, and the problem of representing minorities
Fifty years ago, on 31st July 1968, Franklin first appeared in 'Peanuts'. In many ways it was groundbreaking, but in others it was a surprisingly staid attempt at diversification.
There's a great potted history over at Kotaku (of all places), discussing how Schulz felt a moral obligation to show a group of children truly representative of America, but felt that the inclusion of a black child in a comic strip drawn by a white man would be patronising or condescending. He made the right decision to include Franklin, but felt scared to give him any real character. If anything, Franklin's character is bright, never puts a foot wrong, never gets into mischief, and as a result is perfectly bland.
Should he have done more? He wanted civil rights era America to be fairer but he didn't see himself as an expert. He wanted representation without wanting to provoke:
I’m not an expert on race, I don’t know what it’s like to grow up as a little black boy, and I don’t think you should draw things unless you really understand them, unless you’re just out to stir things up or to try to teach people different things. I’m not in this business to instruct; I’m just in it to be funny. Now and then I may instruct a few things, but I’m not out to grind a lot of axes. Let somebody else do it who’s an expert on that, not me.
A quiet, well-meaning cartoonist drawing a colourless world. He didn't feel he could change the world he lived in, but he still couldn't quite create Franklin as a true equal of the other characters. Not for lack of wanting to offend his contemporaries, but rather the people he wanted to better represent.