Thirteen- year old Jessica, avid
collector of black female dolls, received a big surprise from her father. He gave Jessica her first male doll
Buckwheat. Jessica negative response led
her father to teach her a brief history lesson about picanniny.
“Jessica, let me give you a
little history lesson.” Her father
expounded as if he was a history professor. “There was once a television show called Our Gang originated by Hal Roach, which
was also known as Little Rascals. It ran from the 1920’s until the 1940’s. The Our Gang television series
was one of the first in movie history that portrayed boys, girls, blacks and
whites as equals, but the black community did not look favorably upon the
characters.”
“I can understand why,” Jessica scowled.
“You see Buckwheat was one of the four black child actors with a
main-character role in the series,” her father said.
Jessica suddenly became perky. “Really?”
Her father cleared his throat. “The children symbolized the early picaninny
image, which epitomized the Stepin Fetchit stereotype of a Negro.”
With confusion reconfiguring her
face, Jessica searched for answers, “Who was Step Fetch?”
“Stepin Fetchit was a famous actor and comedienne who played roles as a
lazy, slow-witted, jive-talkin' coon and made millions,” said her father.
“Dad
what’s a pica ninny?” Jessica asked.
“Well Jessica, it’s a long story but I’ll give you an edit version. Have you ever heard of Thomas Edison?
“Yes, he invented the light bulb,”
Jessica said.
“That’s right, but he invented more than
a light bulb. He also invented modern
motion picture technology. In 1904, he
photographed black children to show the side effects of running and
playing. It was called Ten Picaninnies. These children received offensive names such
as: inky kids, smoky kids, black lambs,
snowballs, chubby ebonies, bad chillun, and coons.”
Jessica smile melted with empathy
for Buckwheat.
