George Herriman - Race and Identity

Race and Identity

Herriman was born to mixed-race parents, but in the post-Plessy v. Ferguson US, in which "separate but equal" racial segregation was enshrined, such people had to chose to identify as either black or white. Herriman seems to have identified himself as white, and his early work is "replete with black caricatures" such as in Musical Mose, where the strip's black musician wishes his "color would fade". Racial ambivalence crept into Krazy Kat, as on two occasions when Krazy's black fur was dyed white. Ignatz falls in love with the whitened Krazy, only to return to hate (and brick-throwing) when the truth is revealed. Similarly, in an oft-repeated gag, Ignatz would accidentally become covered with coal dust, and would be spurned by the normally love-struck Krazy. In one such episode, upon being hit with a brick by the blackened Ignatz, Krazy would disparagingly declare, "A lil Eetiopium Mice, black like a month from midnights. Fuwi!" Krazy returns to loving Ignatz only after he returns to his white self.

Herriman's ethnic heritage was unknown to his colleagues. Fellow cartoonist Tad Dorgan nicknamed him "the Greek", a label which stuck and was taken up by his biographers and the press, who called him the son of a Greek baker. He told a friend once that he was Creole, and speculated he may have "Negro blood" in him, as he had "kinky hair", The friend said that Herriman wore his trademark hat to hide his hair, which may have been an attempt to pass as white. On his death certificate, he was listed as "Caucasian", and daughter Mabel had his father's birthplace listed as Paris, and his mother's as Alsace-Lorraine.

His mixed-race heritage was made known in 1971 when sociologist Arthur Asa Berger discovered that Herriman's race was listed by the New Orleans Board of Health as "colored", and that the 1880 census listed his parents as "mulatto". The "Greek" label stuck with some biographers, however, notably Bill Blackbeard in his introductions to the Krazy and Ignatz volumes in the early 2000s. Later research at the New Orleans Public Library by Brian Nelson revealed that his maternal grandmother was born in Havana, Cuba, that all his relatives were listed as "mulatto" on the 1890 census, and that Herriman may also have Spanish or Native blood.