Black Children White Parents

This picture is making the rounds on many Facebook pages. It is disturbing when seen through today's politically correct lenses. I decided to look into the picture further, to understand the complete character of Franklin. And, while Chris Rock might be right that Franklin doesn't talk in the television specials, he has plenty to say in the comic strip and was a very good friend of Charlie Brown. I think it speaks well of Charles Schultz that he added Franklin to his strip in 1968. Did, you know that Franklin's father was a Vietnam Veteran. MLK Jr. was certainly speaking out against the Vietnam War prior to his death. I also, wonder about this particular still when regardless of where Franklin was sitting at the table, would he still feel that he was isolated at this all white Thanksgiving dinner. And, as for Snoopy being at the table, the entire strip is about an anthropomorphizing dog. 

In this link http://peanuts.wikia.com/wiki/Franklin you'll see a strip about Lucy and Franklin arguing over ice time at the local pond. Franklin says that he needs time to practice his hockey so that he can join the NHL and Lucy points out that there are no Blacks in the NHL - which I believe was true in 1974. He was called out on it and Charles Schultz defended his column as a joke with no intended racism. Perhaps he could have benefited having subtle racism sensitivity training. Or, he could have added one more pane which had Franklin say that he would be the first. We measure progress by celebrating the first. I prefer to celebrate that in a tumultuous time in race relations in our country, Franklin was the first kid of color to enter the Peanuts Comic Strip.