The nearest habitable land to Bikini Atoll is either Papua New Guinea or Hawaii. My brother pointed out, in the SpongeBob movies, the characters surface and interact with humans. Besides, after US nuclear tests, Bikini Atoll has a population of five. We doubted this pretty strongly, since all examples of society in the show seem to more closely reflect the Western world. ![]() Bikini Bottom, according to the SpongeBob wiki is located directly under Bikini Atoll, which would make the SpongeBob universe Polynesian. So, the first thing we had to figure out was what the racial make-up of Bikini Bottom was. We went back and forth for a while, and eventually decided that Plankton’s blackness was entirely predicated on the racial identities of the rest of Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob is one of the most memed pieces of media ever, and memes are inextricably linked to both Black Twitter and 21st century black culture as a whole, so we thought it wasn’t a total waste of our time. So, my brother asked me, is Plankton, from SpongeBob SquarePants, black? To be black, a character must be one or more of the following: a) the original trickster characters that were pulled from minstrel shows or descendants thereof (Bugs Bunny, Tweety, and Jerry, but not Mickey Mouse, because he starred in a cartoon playing an actual minstrel) b) characters that were not explicitly black, but Otherized through backstory and cartoon skin colors (Piccolo and Skeeter, but not The Simpsons from the eponymous show, because they are explicitly white in their universe) c) actual black cartoon characters (like most of The Boondocks and Jodie & Mac from Daria) d) characters the black community has claimed over time (the race of anthropomorphic dogs in Disney cartoons and Panthro). As a result, black cartoon fans have latched onto many characters that while not explicitly black, were not definitively coded white either (Skeeter from Doug comes to mind).Īfter some thought, we mostly agreed on a set of criteria that made cartoon characters black. Much like most American art forms, blackness was integral to animation’s creation and development, but black bodies themselves were left out of most productions. ![]() Similarly, Black Girl Nerds, Black Nerd Problems, and Vice/ Noisey have all weighed into the debate, citing characters who are Otherized, like Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z, films with R&B soundtracks, such as A Goofy Movie, and even characters who don’t get the credit they’re due, like Panthro from Thundercats, as examples of black cartoon characters.Īfter more research, I confirmed what I already knew there simply are not a lot of black cartoon characters. ![]() Vox explains that the earliest cartoons descend from minstrel shows, and that, specifically, the gloves many early cartoon characters wear are a holdover from that racist past. The topic has been addressed to some degree, using both history and close readings of coded clues found in certain works. A while back, we were talking about an idea I had regarding the possibilities of liberal politics in cartoons (coming soon), so I wasn’t terribly surprised, yesterday, when he asked me what makes a cartoon character black. This means, in addition to feeling like I’m losing control of my life every time our schedules line up, we mostly communicate via instant message. Is Plankton Black? The Ethnic Identities of Cartoon Charactersįor the past four months, my college-aged brother has been studying in South Africa.
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