No, Charlie Brown and the Peanuts Movies Aren't Racist

By Source, Fair use

Another addition to the "everything is racist, and everyone is oppressing me" cadre. 

​Franklin. Unofficially named Franklin Armstrong. And his treatment in the Peanuts movie about Thanksgiving is suddenly racist.

Why? Well, Franklin is sitting opposite the other kids at the table, alone. And suddenly... racism. 

But let's stop for a moment and take a look at Franklin's history, something a lot of the people screaming about it refuse to do. Franklin was, at his creation, a big step in race relations. He debuted in July of 1968, where he met Charlie Brown at the beach. He told Charlie Brown about his dad being overseas fighting in Vietnam, and they built a sand castle together. 

Franklin came into existence by the urging of a fan. 

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From the book “Only What’s Necessary: Charles M. Schulz and the Art of Peanuts” by Chip Kidd

It took some time and encouragement from several people, but Franklin finally met Charlie Brown on that beach. 

The major issue with Franklin at the time? He was depicted sitting in school with the white children. And Charles Schulz had an answer.
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Another editor protested once when Franklin was sitting in the same row of school desks with Peppermint Patty, and said, “We have enough trouble here in the South without you showing the kids together in school.” But I never paid any attention to those things, and I remember telling [United Features President] Larry [Rutman] at the time about Franklin—he wanted me to change it, and we talked about it for a long while on the phone, and I finally sighed and said, “Well, Larry, let’s put it this way: Either you print it just the way I draw it or I quit. How’s that?” So that’s the way that ended.

​Source

Franklin was usually the voice of reason in the series, and didn't appear in all the strips and movies. But he was considered a main character none the less. A lot of the things Franklin was depicted doing were actually subtle nods to the civil rights movement, normalizing a black character in easy to swallow ways. 

Franklin is anything but racist. 

But here we are today. A bunch of people - usually white people - telling us how racist it is to sit him across the table from everyone else, alone. There's no context or thought to history. That film wasn't made this year. It was made during a time 98% of these people didn't live through and apparently learned nothing about in school. 

I think it is a wonderful show of how far we've come in this country that people can't wrap their heads around real racism and the history of it. It's hard to believe we have had these issues in the past. But we've come far enough that people don't really grasp the actual severity of the past. They may think they do, but this argument proves otherwise. 

Yes, a movie made decades ago is going to have some issues we can't grasp today. The solution to that is to learn the history - and there is no shortage of resources for Franklin's history - and tell our kids about it. Explain why Franklin may have been seated across the table from the other kids. Explain why Franklin was such an important addition to the Peanuts group. Explain how Charles Schulz was easing in the idea of this character to normalize him without causing a melt down. And why he had to. 

Explaining the history of these things to your children helps them to appreciate what they have, how far we've come, and the freedoms they currently enjoy. That's what actual progress looks like. Not tucking the history away, but teaching it. Making sure your kids understand that it wasn't always this way, that white kids and black kids didn't always go to school together, and they weren't always allowed to be friends and play together. That they couldn't always marry someone of a different race and have people not give it a second thought. 

It's a Thanksgiving movie. A movie that celebrated friendship, and one of those friendships was taboo at the time. Maybe teach your kids to be thankful that we've come far enough that that friendship isn't taboo anymore. 

Franklin's Fandom Page
​Franklin Broke Peanuts' Color Barrier In The Least Interesting Way Possible