Humors of the Day

Humors of the Day

This short comic highlights aspects of American racist ideology by presenting a caricature of an African-American, “Sambo.” This character “soliloquizes” in reply to the Bible verse, “He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the lord.” In his reply he uses bastardized English, with a “d” sound in place of the “th,”making the character appear stupid. Nowadays “Sambo” is viewed as a racial slur for a black person. A children’s book published in 1899, “Little Black Sambo,” featured a hyper-racialized black boy, Sambo, and his mother and father, Mumbo and Jumbo. It portrayed the boy as a typical “picanniny.” “Picaninnies were portrayed as nameless, shiftless natural buffoons running from alligators and toward fried chicken. [They] had bulging eyes, unkempt hair, red lips, and wide mouths into which they stuffed huge slices of watermelon” (Pilgrim n.p.). This comic subtly implies these characteristics and preserves a racist, imperialist dialogue. “Indeed, that era of codified racial supremacy in the American South tied the region in many important ways to the theories and global practice of colonial imperialism” (Degala 8).
Harper’s Weekly was published out of New York. It was also a major operation, not some obscure, white supremacist newspaper. This was mainstream news. And yet, the editors found it acceptable to print this comic. To have a caricature like this in a mainstream newspaper reflects the society’s acceptance of racist ideology.

Archives and Special Collections

Calgary: University of Calgary

Migliarese, Mico

http://library.ucalgary.ca/copyright/images

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