Official PEANUTS Twitter acct apparently tweeted something today, since removed

[Dennis Donovan]

Link to tweet

Vanessa Clark 📚✈️ @FoxxyGlamKitty

.@Snoopy has since deleted this post/tweet but OMG:

This is a case in point that diversity isn't enough.

If there was INCLUSION, if there were black or brown people overseeing this before it was posted first, this wouldn't have EVER happened.

I think an apology is in order.



12:12 PM - Feb 21, 2020

[UniteFightBack]

1. I can see how it could be taken...but I really don't think it was meant that way. My opinion. nt

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. If our workplaces were truly inclusive, we wouldn't have to make excuses about intent and effect.

[Dennis Donovan]

4. I think the point made in the tweet is that if one black employee at PEANUTSCO...

...or wherever they run Schulz's estate from, saw that before <Send> was hit, they probably would've said, "um... hold up on that one."

[luvs2sing]

2. I just facepalmed so hard I may have broken my nose.

Dear god, what were they thinking?

[TlalocW]

5. Ooopsies

That would have worked with Linus or Schroeder as a lightly-snarky "I like you" message but not Franklin. You could almost make the argument though that if this was an honest mistake the people at Peanuts "don't/didn't see race" when putting it together, realized, "Oh, shit, other people do," and took action. The other explanation is that whichever designer that came up with this plus whoever is in charge of putting stuff on Twitter are racists. I don't know how diverse the Peanuts team is, but they could probably use some more POC to add more diverse POVs.

Two stories on why I think it's an honest mistake.
I still do some contract work for a guy who owns a small website shop in Tulsa. He's Christian and pretty conservative but not in your face about it. We were doing a website for a church youth group at a discounted rate. I'm not a designer who makes the website pretty but a programmer, who makes it work. After the designer put the basic web page code out on the test server for me to start adding in our Content Management System, etc. I noticed something and went to the designers' office where the boss just happened to be and surprised them by telling them that there was an issue with the site's background. They brought it up and looked at it for 20 seconds not seeing it and asked me what it was. "Are you not seeing the repeating phallic symbol pattern?" Ten more seconds of looking. "Damn it, TlalocW!!!" Background was changed.

I'm an amateur magician and at another job was showing a co-worker I was friendly with a card trick. The trick involved showing a bunch of cards that are one suit and then they change to a different one. So my improvised patter leading up to the big reveal was, "I don't like working with spades but with hearts." I did the reveal and looked at the face of my Black co-worker who was obviously trying not to laugh. Five second beat. "Oh, my God... I'm going to switch to using clubs and hearts." He laughed for half a minute straight, said something about, "You literally played the race card," and would rib me about it whenever he needed my assistance with something, "Hey, TlalocW, I know you don't like working with spades, but could you make this change to the system for me?"

TlalocW

[Dennis Donovan]

8. That would've worked for every white character, including Snoopy

But, putting that with Franklin's pic?

[TlalocW]

10. Agreed

Which is why a lot of people are saying they're willing to give the benefit of the doubt to it being an honest mistake but shows the need for more diversity. A different set of eyes/ears was the point of my two stories. In one case, other people benefited, and in the other I did as I never performed the trick like I originally did thanks to my friend.

TlalocW

[TlalocW]

15. Continued thoughts

In another reply, I mention that this is not a new pic but one taken from an old strip with the dialogue bubbles removed and a pithy message put above it. If whatever person or team is in charge of doing this for their social media, they've probably have worked ahead to have a bucket of several dozen/hundred of these ready to go. And even though they're working for what is likely a "fun" company, it's still a slog to get through them to the point that you're not focused on being "woke" but are just working for the weekend like the rest of us.

Still needs some POC's eyeballs on it before putting it out though.

TlalocW

[Cirque du So-What]

6. I'm as melanin-deficient as Charlie Brown

and I saw the problem immediately. Even in that noninclusive environment, no one saw fit to rein that one in?

[Dennis Donovan]

7. Not to mention the look on Franklin's face just screams, "Even YOU, Charlie Brown?"

[Cirque du So-What]

9. Yeah, his expression is somewhat...

incredulous.

[TlalocW]

12. Well, it's not a new image

Schulz had a stipulation that no one else could continue Peanuts after his passing. There are some official Peanuts artists that I guess he approved for developing products, etc. It looks like they're taking panels from old Peanuts strips, removing the dialogue bubbles and trying to put clever sayings in them, and in the words of the Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "They chose... poorly."

No doubt Charlie Brown was waxing poetically on some subject as the characters are wont to do, and Franklin was listening politely before he delivered the "punchline" in the next panel. It was a common setup in the strip especially when they were leaning on the wall.

TlalocW

[Dennis Donovan]

13. If he were smiling, I'd have read it as "I always knew you were racist, Charlie Brown"

"Thank you for the confirmation."

[thesquanderer]

14. If you read it THAT way, it could even be seen as an ANTI racist message! n/t

[Caliman73]

11. There is a difference between being White and "not seeing color"

My skin is pretty White, but I wouldn't necessarily be mistaken for a White person. I am Mexican-American. I have had to see color, or be aware of myself in the environment pretty much all my life. I think that there are a growing number of people who are White that at least understand the idea and can step out of their own experiences to realize that it is actually a thing.

The problem when people do not have to at least acknowledge different experiences is that you honestly don't see it. I would give the benefit of the doubt and say that it was not a malicious thing but that is what the original person who Tweeted was getting at. Diversity for the sake of numbers or looks is not enough. There have to be people with different experiences that feel comfortable enough to be able to say, "Um...that might not be so great".