Absolutely. A lot of times, we tend to look at decisions made in the past within the context of today, yet just loosely dressed up with period clothing/props.

I think that’s obvious though. I’d say this critique of character is retrospect. In the same sense that many blaxplotation era characters could have been seen as empowering in the past, but now are more or less cliche and limited stereotypes.

The first thing I thought when they had him dancing in the newer movie was, yeah, of course the black kid can dance, how predictable. As bland as he was in the early strips, I can understand why he is so, because of the damned if you do or don’t line of thinking. If Schultz had done anything that could even slightly…

This ^
So much this.

That’s why I feel that adding diversity isn’t about catering to different groups, but those groups creating creating the diverse content.

I think one of the solutions is to have more creators from those marginalized communities both creating their own stories, but also being involved in collaborative works.

Yeah, and it would have been hard to give Franklin any more interesting traits, for fear that it would be seen to be representing an entire race. Perhaps a better way then (as Glickman had suggested earlier) would be to introduce a more major black(/minority) character later on, with a full set of quirks free of the…

Thanks for the comment Mark. There definitely wasn’t an easy solution. And Schulz, to his credit, stood apart from his peers. He was the only one to give it a shot; Glickman reached out to many other cartoonists; only some of whom got back to her. And of those, Schulz was the only one to follow through and actually…

Even his expository small talk was filled with his accomplishments rather than his shortcomings.

This seems to be a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.

But we all know people like Patty. Their own struggles are their entire focus. But when it comes to yours? The response is always “Oh, really, you want to do that? How many of “X” people have you ever seen do that?”

I did read the whole article. “did not necessarily”. This is an assumption of yours. I asked questions. Black ppl should have the same rights as white ppl, but they don’t. I can support them, but they have to fight for themselfes, because i can not give it to black ppl.

The point was that Franklin doesn’t have much presence. Every other character has some definitive trait, but Franklin just is; more a sounding board than a full character. Give him a quirk or a flaw that makes for a good groundwork for jokes and commentaries, and he’d be right at home with the rest of the cast.

I remember Maynard G. Krebbs using “like wow,” on old episodes of Dobie Gillis. That show aired ‘59-’63.

At those times beeing black was fault enough.

Yeah this article comes off as a back-handed compliment.

Franklin had no overtly negative qualities.

Franklin is indeed a great character for his lack of faults. Everybody else on Peanuts is quick to tear apart Charlie Brown and each other, and he doesn’t! Schulz may have been unwilling to do more with him, but it doesn’t mean we can’t!

Boring is a good, natural way.

“Shook” and “Like, wow!” in 1968?!? Franklin was 40 years ahead of his time!