I’m From Brooklyn
January 31, 2010
"I'm From Brooklyn," 30 x 40, acrylic and collage on canvas
Little Black Sambo is a story about an Indian boy. The original book was written by Helen Bannerman, a Scottish woman living in India. It’s actually a really cute and whimsical story about a little boy who uses his wits to escape a tiger attack. Somehow, the term “sambo” became a racial slur for black people in the United States and animators either perpetuated or exacerbated this truth. In 1935, Ub Iwerks (the same guy who created Flip the Frog from Give Me That Money) created an animated version of the story. He chose to portray Sambo and his mother as dim-witted black people in the American south. The cartoon seems less like a reincarnation of the popular book and more like an opportunity to poke fun at a minority group. But it begs the question of whether Bannerman was right to create the story in the first place. I don’t know…it might depend on intention in which case, I believe Bannerman was genuinely trying to give the world a fun and imaginative story. At any rate, the story is beloved around the world, especially in Japan.
This painting features several different interpretations of Little Black Sambo + some Fabolous lyrics.
