Is Betty Boop black? Yes and no.

Some people insist Betty Boop is black, and they can make a strong argument for that. But first, some necessary information from Betty Boop:

Betty Boop made her first appearance on August 9, 1930, in the cartoon Dizzy Dishes; the sixth installment in Fleischer’s Talkartoon series. Although Clara Bow is often given as being the model for Boop, she actually began as a caricature of singer Helen Kane. The character was originally created as an anthropomorphic French poodle.

Clara Bow was a famous white actress of the time:

Albert Witzel / Public domain

But all she really tells us about Betty Boop is that Betty was a fashionable young woman.

Helen Kane was a famous white singer. This song is the reason she thought she could win a suit against the Fleischers:

Now we get to the reason some people say Betty Boop was black. Helen Kane’s style owed a great deal to a black singer, Esther Jones…