Why is Baxter Stockman Black in comics and White in cartoon?

[markberry]

Not sure if i missed something or if this has already been talked about, But i am curious.

[Mayhem]

Probably the usual worry about portraying the sole black guy in the realm as bad, so they changed him to a stereotypical mad scientist look.

[hitmonkey]

Yeah, I assumed they didn't want their one black character to be a bad guy. Funny thing is, white-washing the character seems far more offensive.

Since we're on the subject, my big question about Baxter in the '87 series is why did they turn him into Jerry Lewis? The look, the voice, all of it.

[Drose18]

I have both the toys and when i play with them i use the fly as chaplin from 2k3 cuz he had orange hair and was a sorta clumsy scientist.

[Type 97 Chi-ha]

Funny, Bebop was black before being mutated.

[Candy Kappa]

They where worried that having Shredder being an abusive boss to Baxter would be offensive, funny thing is. Shredder ain't Caucasian.

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

They where worried that having Shredder being an abusive boss to Baxter would be offensive, funny thing is. Shredder ain't Caucasian.

Nope. They had designs for him in each ethnicity drawn up for the show, and there was a note indicating that it didn't matter which was used. The white version was meant to be a parody of Doc Brown.

[MikeandRaph87]

I asked Dan Berger this nearly a decade ago.According to his information Baxter was made to be white because of sensitive censors of the time.They knew that Baxter would be the most abused character and a black man being pushed around without the ego that '03 had and was spineless and whinny should be white to aviod problems despite the fact an asian man voiced by a black man would be the chief abuser of Baxter.Mr.Berger might be off somewheere but that is what he told me back during season 2 of the 2003 cartoon.

[ZariusTwo]

Didnt seem to matter much in the long run, as Baxter was quickly written out of the show after only a few episodes in favour of characters that could move more merchandise and comedic interest in Bebop and Rocksteady (I'm just making a guess as to what the motivation behind removing Baxter was)

[chrisdude]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

I asked Dan Berger this nearly a decade ago.According to his information Baxter was made to be white because of sensitive censors of the time.They knew that Baxter would be the most abused character and a black man being pushed around without the ego that '03 had and was spineless and whinny should be white to aviod problems despite the fact an asian man voiced by a black man would be the chief abuser of Baxter.Mr.Berger might be off somewheere but that is what he told me back during season 2 of the 2003 cartoon.

Interesting.

Funny enough, I'm reading Ultimate collection vol 3, and the only black characters I recall are Stockman and that crazy, uh... revolutionist in the woods. Are they all crazy in the original comics?

[FoxZerro]

I completely believe that they didn't want him to a black character who was pushed around / completely subservient to a white character argument (fully aware that Shredder is Asian). The reason is that in his first appearance in the Simpsons, Waylon Smithers was portrayed as a black man and his complexion was changed to avoid the very same thing

[CyberCubed]

Since Baxter was really dopey and cowering under Shredder in many of the Season 2 episodes, that would have been seen as racist showing, "the black guy" being a cowering wimp to the Shredder.

Not sure why, but that's how it is.

[Jephael]

There was that one episode where Baxter temporarily grew a backbone and got fed up with Shredder's mistreatment, but yea ordinarily he was a pansy!

[gobo]

Originally Posted by The Ninjinister

Nope. They had designs for him in each ethnicity drawn up for the show, and there was a note indicating that it didn't matter which was used. The white version was meant to be a parody of Doc Brown.

I remember reading that somewhere. Can you remind me where?

[***First of Two Latin Kings***]

I seem to recall that information coming from Peter Laird's "Blast from the Past" blog.

[TurtleFan2012]

You know what's odd? There is a black scientist in season 10, "Mobster from Dimension X" who looks like the 2003 Baxter.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by TurtleFan2012

You know what's odd? There is a black scientist in season 10, "Mobster from Dimension X" who looks like the 2003 Baxter.

I thought I was the only one who noticed that! I watched it this past Monday and was wondering if the desgin was inspired by what Baxter actually looked like or was simply a coincidence!

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by MikeandRaph87

I asked Dan Berger this nearly a decade ago.According to his information Baxter was made to be white because of sensitive censors of the time.They knew that Baxter would be the most abused character and a black man being pushed around without the ego that '03 had and was spineless and whinny should be white to aviod problems despite the fact an asian man voiced by a black man would be the chief abuser of Baxter.Mr.Berger might be off somewheere but that is what he told me back during season 2 of the 2003 cartoon.

Well then he and Murphy remember that time differently.

[MikeandRaph87]

Originally Posted by The Ninjinister

Well then he and Murphy remember that time differently.

I sent him questions every so often from 2000-2009 and I archived his responses. That was one of the many I asked him over the years and that was the reply he gave me so I took it as fact until proven otherwise. Murphy may have more knowledge since Dan is more of the tech guy and artist while Murphy was more of a character desginer so perhaps Murphy would know.

[markberry]

i havent seen a lot of the 2003 stuff just the original cartoons.
But my guess was similar to a majority of the answers posted.

thanx