| Ebony White | |
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| Publication information | |
| First appearance | June 2, 1940 |
| Created by | Will Eisner |
Ebony White is a fictional character from the 1940 comics series The Spirit, created by Will Eisner. He first appeared in the The Spirit comic strip of June 2, 1940. He is a black sidekick to Denny Colt, the title character. His age is ambiguous: sometimes he appears to be a young boy, at other times he is clearly an adult who drives a taxi. He frequently helps the Spirit out of tough situations.
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The character is cited as an example of racial stereotypes in mainstream 20th century United States culture. His name is a racial pun, and his facial features - including large white eyes and thick pinkish lips - are typical of blackface caricatures. The size of a small child, he resembles a stereotypical pickaninny. As a loyal assistant to the white hero, he has been compared to the Uncle Tom stereotype. (Midnight, a character created as a substitute for the Spirit, had a talking monkey as one of his sidekicks.)
Eisner reported receiving letters of both praise and criticism for the character at the time. In a 1966 New York Herald Tribune feature by his former office manager-turned-journalist, Marilyn Mercer claimed, "Ebony never drew criticism from Negro groups (in fact, Eisner was commended by some for using him), perhaps because, although his speech pattern was early Minstrel Show, he himself derived from another literary tradition: he was a combination of Tom Sawyer and Penrod, with a touch of Horatio Alger hero, and color didn't really come into it".[1]
Eisner later expressed mixed feelings about his portrayal of Ebony White. He acknowledged that he was conscious at the time that he was using a racial stereotype, but was unapologetic about it, defending it by stating that "at the time humor consisted in our society of bad English and physical difference in identity." In reference to his graphic novel Fagin the Jew, Eisner acknowledged parallels between Charles Dickens' use of racial stereotyping for that character (which Eisner criticized) and Eisner's own portrayal of White, but asserted that his own work had not "capitalized on" the stereotype.
In DC Comics' Spirit comic-book series, which began in 2007, White is portrayed as a fourteen year-old street kid, illegally driving a taxi. In an early appearance, the script alludes critically to his historic racist portrayal, with a character asking if he "will be standing on the Spirit's lawn with a lantern". He is portrayed as putting his street experience and his daring attitude to work at the Spirit's service. His origins are now tied to Colt's, with White being the cabbie who brought Colt to the place in which Colt apparently met his demise. Knowing of his death, a guilt-stricken White acknowledged that his previous prejudices against Colt, whom he had considered an amateurish detective afraid to sully his hands, were harsh, and that White could have helped him more. Colt, who had already awakened from his apparent death, then asked White for help. The youngster gladly accepted, keeping himself on call for his new friend.
The character also appears in Brian Azzarello's neo-noir First Wave universe, once again as the sidekick of the Spirit. Here Ebony is portrayed as a teenaged girl rather than a young boy.
Ebony appears as a character named "Eubie" in the 1987 Spirit TV movie[2], played by Bumper Robinson. Here, he is a young hustler who becomes the Spirit's sidekick following Denny Colt's awakening.
The character did not appear in the December 2008 motion picture adaptation of Will Eisner's series.[3]
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