August 10, 2006 

Billy Batson’s All Class.

Don’t you miss the good old day when one could get away with teasing other races in public like that?



  • typolad

    Dear lord.

    Makes me glad their weren’t any Jewish characters in comics back then.

    Look! Up in the Sky! It’s Stereotype-Man!

    arib
    2006-08-10 01:32 pm UTC
    ———————–

    Ummm… such a large quantity of publishing houses, studios, and creators were Jewish that I hardly think that would come up. Besides, they did just fine with only Negroes, Chinese, Japanese, Germans, French, Indians, Native Americans, and the handicapped to mock.

    pjoseph
    2006-08-10 01:48 pm UTC

  • typolad

    Wait a minute. Did he just call that man “boy”?

    I’m looking for a bright side here, Typo. I’m looking reeeeeaaally hard.

    At least Billy didn’t call him “Rastus”? At least he’s not eating fried chicken and watermelon?

    Nope, those don’t work. There is no bright side to this.

    -Matt
    2006-08-10 03:39 pm UTC
    ———————–

    Well, Billy’s actually singing the song “Chattanooga Choo Choo” (and those are the lyrics- but if you listen to the Glenn Miller version, it’s just “Yes, on Track 29)

    The bright side (what little bit of a bright side there is) is that they stopped it there. Because the next part would have had Billy saying, “Boy, you can give me a shine.”

    And that would have been even worse.

    thesilversiren
    2006-08-10 04:50 pm UTC
    ———————–

    Sadly this is one of the innocuous examples of racist caricatures in Golden Age comics.

    Though to be fair near the end of it’s run Fawcett did do a comic book about a real life African American hero [Jackie Robinson].

    goggle_kid
    2006-08-10 08:00 pm UTC

  • typolad

    Let’s replay the above, but in modern times:

    Billy Batson: “Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?”

    *POW* – The conductor knocks Billy on his ass *before* Billy can say the wizard’s name and be transformed into the World’s Mightiest Mortal. The conductor then walks away, leaving Billy to search for his missing teeth on the nearby train track. Now, unable to say anything – least of all, the wizard’s name, Billy uses the wisdom of Solomon to realize that he deserved to get his ass kicked for being a racist prick.

    The End

    (Anonymous)
    2006-08-16 05:12 am UTC