A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by Charles M. Schulz

She asked her friends to write to Schultz and persuade him that the accusation of being patronizing is a small price to pay for the difference he could make. Harriet Glickman assured Schultz that something as small as him writing a child of color into his work as the friend of a white child could make a radical impact.Īlthough Schultz worried that people would consider the new addition as tokenism, Glickman had a solution for this as well. The episode first aired on November 20 in 1973 on CBS up until 2000 before it moved to ABC in 2001 and still airs annually.įranklin was first added into the show by Schultz when a teacher wrote to him and asked for a black child to be included into his cartoon. and challenging what was then going on in society.'Īnother dubbed the accusation of racism a 'joke', adding: 'Man, I was just watching this today and I thought, 'I wonder why people haven't attributed racism to Franklin having the crappy chair at the Thanksgiving table.' And here it is. Schultz was a trailblazer and bucked racism in those days by adding Franklin to reflect the issue. One man said: 'Seriously please get some historical context.

Schulz fought to get Franklin into the cartoon. However many were quick to defend the program, highlighting that the show's creator Charles M.

Others took to Twitter to defend the show suggesting that its a 'joke' that people would be offended by the programĪ third demanded that they changed the show to seat some of Franklin's friends alongside him or he would no longer watch the holiday classic.

A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving by Charles M. Schulz