I just found out that Betty Boop isn’t actually white, and I’m not coping well

By Fatou Ferraro Mboup

Published Oct 19, 2024 at 09:00 AM

Reading time: 4 minutes

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image by bettyboop from IG

It’s Black History Month, and with Halloween just around the corner, I’ve been thinking about how I could best honour and celebrate both as a Black girl. Then the answer hit me: Betty Boop! Now, I know what you’re thinking ‘Isn’t she white?’ Well, yes, the Betty Boop we see today is. But, in reality, she was originally inspired by a Black woman named Esther Jones, also known as Baby Esther.

So, with the spooky season well and truly upon us, let’s dive into the real story behind this iconic character and how her true origins have been whitewashed over time.

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Betty Boop has long been celebrated as the embodiment of the 1920s flapper style— a fun, carefree, and daring young woman. But underneath her signature squeaky voice, doe-eyed innocence, and jazz-era flair lies a story of appropriation that is often overlooked. Unknown to many, Betty Boop’s character was heavily inspired by a Black woman and singer named Esther Jones, also known as Baby Esther, whose influence has sparked a wider conversation about racial erasure in entertainment.

Esther Jones, an African-American performer in the 1920s, was known for her “baby” voice musical —characterised by playful scat-singing and high-pitched squeals. Jones performed in nightclubs in Harlem and was renowned for her vibrant personality and jazz performances. It was Baby Esther’s unique voice and mannerisms that ultimately captured the attention of white audiences and, eventually, the entertainment industry at large, who decided to immortalise her essence in one of the most iconic and recognisable animated characters in history.

In a 1928 case reported by the Supreme Court, it was revealed that Helen Kane, a white singer, attended a performance at the Everglades Nightclub, where she had front-row seats to see Baby Esther,  a Black singer gaining widespread fame for her unique “boop-oop-a-doop” singing style. Inspired by her unique performance, Kane imitated her vocal style and went on to achieve massive success with hits like ‘I Want to Be Loved By You’. However, it was Baby Esther’s original style that Kane had borrowed, not one she created herself.

However, when Max Fleischer created Betty Boop—basing a majority of the character’s style and substance off of Kane’s likeness—all credit to Esther was erased. Kane even tried to sue Fleischer Studios $250,000, for copying her image and performance. However, during the trial, footage of Baby Esther performing was presented as evidence that Kane had, in fact, also borrowed her style from the Black singer.

The story of Betty Boop isn’t just about a cartoon character. It’s about the never-ending cycle of racial appropriation in our cultural sphere and beyond. Baby Esther, a Black woman, who was already performing at a time when opportunities for African Americans were limited, had her style adopted by Kane, a white woman who subsequently gained fame and fortune from it.

What’s worse is that the animation studios behind Betty Boop subsequently took that image and amplified it, turning it into a cultural phenomenon that further erased Baby Esther’s contributions.

What complicates this story even more is that Betty Boop herself wasn’t originally even human. In the character’s first cartoon, she was depicted as a dog with flapper-style features. This in turn evolved over time into the Caucasian human form that audiences recognise today. This transformation from dog to human flapper makes the character’s racial origins more ambiguous, allowing mainstream audiences to ignore the fact that her voice and mannerisms were birthed from a Black woman’s creativity.

While Betty Boop became the epitome of the 1920s flapper, characterised by her whiteness, flappers of the era came in all shapes, colours, and styles. Clara Bow, Louise Brooks and Josephine Baker (another Black woman whose style shaped 1920s culture) all carried the quintessential flapper look and spirit. However, it was Betty Boop, the animated character, who became the enduring image of the Jazz Age in pop culture, further marginalising the contributions of Black performers.

Fleischer’s creation of Betty Boop reflects a deeper issue within Hollywood and the entertainment industry as a whole: the whitewashing and appropriation of Black talent and innovation.

From jazz and blues to rock and roll, Black musicians and performers have often set trends, only to have their innovations co-opted by white artists who reap the rewards.

If Betty Boop had truly acknowledged her roots, it might have opened the door for greater recognition of the contributions Black women made to the Jazz Age. Instead, her whitewashed image became another example of how white figures of authority employed racial biases to erase the legacies of Black creators.

After diving into the real story of Betty Boop, I couldn’t help but dig deeper into a bigger issue: the whitewashing of iconic characters throughout history. It’s been going on for close to a century. And, a few years back, it even pushed the Oscars into an awkward reckoning with its diversity problem, thanks to the #OscarsSoWhite movement. And no, Moonlight winning an Academy Award didn’t magically fix everything, Hollywood’s still got a long way to go.

From Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson to Jake Gyllenhaal and Emma Stone, Hollywood has repeatedly chosen white actors for roles that were originally written for people of colour.

Remember when Jolie was at the centre of multiple controversies over her role in A Mighty Heart? The actor portrayed Mariane Pearl, a mixed-race woman with Dutch-Jewish and Afro-Chinese-Cuban heritage. Although Pearl personally approved Jolie’s casting, the decision sparked a heated debate, with many questioning why an actual mixed-race actress wasn’t chosen for the role.

Jolie went on to play Fox, an African-American character inspired by Halle Berry, in Wanted, further adding to her list of whitewashed roles.

In 2003 Anthony Hopkins was cast as Coleman Silk, an African-American professor passing as white, in The Human Stain, an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel.

Stone herself faced heavy criticism for her role in Aloha, where she portrayed a character of mixed Asian-Pacific Islander descent, despite being a white actress. The casting choice was a striking example of erasure in Hollywood.

The industry may have made strides in some areas, but when it comes to characters of Black, Asian, and Middle Eastern characters, the work is far from done. This continuing issue of whitewashing goes beyond miscasting, it erases culture, identity, and the complex histories of these characters. Hollywood must move past its shallow progress and face the deeper systemic problems that persist.

The story of Betty Boop’s origins opens up a broader conversation about how Black contributions have been overlooked, erased, or appropriated in popular culture. While Betty Boop remains a beloved figure in animation, it’s essential to recognise the true roots of her character. Acknowledging Baby Esther’s role in the creation of one of the most iconic animated figures should not only lead to a re-examination of Betty Boop’s legacy but also serve as a reminder of the many untold stories of Black creators in history.