I recently posted an article about an 8-year-old who was removed from her class because her teacher allegedly had an undocumented allergy to black people, excuse me, I mean Afros and the hair care products we use to maintain them. I was surprised at the response, in particular what was said about the icon used in the article — the picture of Buckwheat.
Now I only write the articles, I have no interest or concern about the images that are placed with my articles. However, the vehemence with which people degraded the use of the picture of the late and great Billie Thomas was difficult for me to understand. It made me think that people are too young to remember that he was on television when blacks were largely absent from the medium or they do not know the history of the person with whom they have an issue. Several people indicated a problem with using the image and one reader wrote that “Rolling out should be ashamed of itself, and possibly sued by the parents of this child, for defamation of character, for using a degrading picture of the ostracized Buckwheat character.”
This was bizarre, especially since folks never complain about other pictures we post, whether it is Tyler Perry, Martin Lawrence or Jamie Foxx cross dressing, or the host of rappers with gold teeth. To me that is equally as offensive as the image of Buckwheat. And what excuses would likely be used to say they are different — most likely that they are acting or in entertainment, or that they work for themselves. Poppycock. Working for one’s self does not change that Buckwheat, Sheneneh, Madea, or Wanda are still Sambo-esque buffoonish characters that are just as bad as Buckwheat.
I have a bigger problem with folk who do not know who Billie Thomas is, he is the actor who portrayed the character of Buckwheat in the Our Gang films in the mid-1930s. I watched these each morning as a child growing up in Memphis before school in the late ’60s. Although Thomas was a man, the Buckwheat character was a female and changed to a male character after Stymie left Our Gang in 1935.
Now for many, maybe by not showing him or placing his image in the article would have made the content differently. Unfortunately it does not, the reality is that the irony is that the Buckwheat character was known for his “large, unkempt Afro.” This is the irony, a child with a kept Afro is removed from class and not an unkempt Afro — either way the removal is bad, but the image of the young Thomas is not negative.
Thomas was the only Our Gang cast member to appear in all 52 short films released by MGM. He also was a decorated war hero who served in the U.S. Army and was awarded a National Defense Service Medal. He was also a successful film lab technician and the first African American to serve in the capacity with the Technicolor corporation working on movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.
I really feel more disdain for the folks who do not know the man he became as opposed to the character he played on television. Buckwheat is fictional and does not exist. So if you have a problem with this man that played a woman, then you need to be equally as upset with Martin Lawrence, Jamie Foxx and Tyler Perry. But no you give them a pass, forgetting that without folks like Thomas, who worked in Hollywood when many Africa Americans did not, the aforementioned would have not been able to do what they did. Buckwheat is not the man Billie Thomas, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that if anybody is Buckwheat it is you — and anyone else who is offended by the image of the character Billie Thomas played. Otay? –torrance stephens, ph.d.
For more with Dr. Stephens, visit twitter.com/rawdawgbuffalo and rawdawgb.blogspot.com
