THOROUGHLY RACIST CARTOON: STEVE OF THE RIVER (1937)

I recently came across this cartoon on YouTube.  Steve the Horse was a hugely popular carthorse featured in Roland Davies' British newspaper comic strip in the Sunday Express, Come On Steve! from 1932 to 1947, and spawning several children's annuals and six animated features.  The name of the strip came from a popular cheer given to the legendary jockey Steve Donaghue.  Steve was a wordless but genial horse whose stemmed from his light-hearted adventures and sight gags.

Steve of the River was the fourth of the six cartoons and a parody of Edgar Wallace's popular character Sanders of the River, a British commissioner in darkest Africa.  The Wallace stories (twelve collections from 1911 to 1928, with at least two additional collections written by Francis Gerard following Wallace's death) were also stereotypically racist.  (But, hey, this was England still in its the colonial era, so I guess the blatant racism was okay, maybe.)  Wallace's Sanders of the River reigned over his fictional portion of Africa (modeled, in part, on Nigeria) with a firm, but fair, hand, dealing with tribal hatreds, ju-ju, and various uprisings.  I enjoy the Sanders stories for what they are -- a snapshot of a time, place, and attitude that I hope I never have to see.

In Steve of the River, Steve and his human companion Sam are in Africa, "where they must escape local cannibals.  Lord Sandy, the Commissioner, leaves his African district for the weekend, and is waved off on his plane by Steve, a white horse, and his rider, Sam.  The Africans beat their drums to announce Lord Sandy is gone, while the local King laughs.  Now ignoring a sign saying 'Cannibal stew pot not to be used again by order - Lord Sandy', the locals throw spears, capture Sam and fling him in their pot.  The locals perform magic, as the King rides off on Steve.  Steve throws the King over a cliff and outwits the locals by pretending to be dead.  He beats his own message announcing that Lord Sandy has returned and the locals flee.  Steve is now able to rescue Sam and they escape in a chase sequence after they pretend to be a zebra and a tortoise."  [YouTube description]

The description is bad enough, but the execution is execrable.  The artwork is crude and does not have even the distinction of rising to a Windsor McKay level of racism.  Stereotype done with a wink and a nod can be fun, but stereotypes which exist merely to promote the idea of white superiority are off-putting.

It is important to preserve items such as this so that we know we know where we came from and can judge how far -- if at all -- we have come from that point.  To do otherwise lies the path to MAGA-dom.

So, warts and all, here's Steve:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIcXgzJTMH4&t=3s