It’s Shocking to See the Racism of 100 Years Ago: A Look at Sambo and His Funny Noises

It’s just shocking to see the blatant racism of 100 years ago. Here’s a comic strip, printed in The Sunday Star on January 5th, 1908. The strip is called Sambo and His Funny Noises.

Sambo and His Funny Noises
Sambo and His Funny Noises

4 thoughts on “It’s Shocking to See the Racism of 100 Years Ago: A Look at Sambo and His Funny Noises”

  1. This is interesting. Obviously the physical appearance of Sambo is an insensitive caricature of black people, but the story surprised me. The reader is clearly meant to read the two white boys as the villains in this, and to root for Sambo to get back at them, which he does through his ingenuity. That storyline – clever black kid trumps dumb, mean white kids – is probably among the more progressive ones from that era.

Comments are closed.