how this was perceived in 1941, especially by black people. It's dreadful by today's standards, not funny, and personally I don't particularly like the song (which you could argue is what the cartoon was about and there seem to be several covers of it on YouTube).
But it's imagery seems much the same as other cartoons, and real life films, of the time so it's just another example of things we now look at differently.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrub_Me_Mama_with_a_Boogie_Beat#Controversy
shareThat's interesting, thanks. It's surprising these kind of complaints started so long ago and yet cartoons a little like this were on Saturday morning children's TV when I was a kid - admittedly a long time ago now.
shareThe Wikipedia article actually surmised a handful of reviews from trade papers at the time of its release; fairly positive. The NAACP protested it, but not until its 1948 re-release (as best we can tell).
If you're *really* interested in this subject, the book That's Enough Folks! by Henry Sampson attempts to chronicle the contemporary press reaction to all animated shorts featuring outdated and/or racist depictions of African Americans. Of course going by press (and protest group) reactions alone only tells you so much, but it's all we've got.