Mammy Two Shoes
by guest contributor Meera Bowman Johnson, originally published at Our Kind of Parenting
When I was five, I thought that woman on Tom and Jerry, the feet who walked around scolding Tom, was his owner. In fact, I thought it was her house. I mean, as far as I was concerned, why wouldn’t it be? Black women owned homes back then, with cats in ‘em, too.
As a matter of fact, wasn’t until I was in college that I realized that character was a servant, and that Tom and Jerry was a racist-ass cartoon. Yes, college. I guess I was a little naive.
Anyway, my grandmother did “days work”, just like many black women did back in the day, but I’m going to have to ask her about those slippers. I’m pretty sure she wore shoes to work. I’m willing to bet that cartoon maid just had them on to push the “lazy Negro” concept even further. Hmph.
So here’s a big, fat, post-humous shout out to the memory of Lillian Randolph, an African American Actress who was the voice behind Tom and Jerry’s “Mammy Two Shoes”. You might even remember her from some ’70’s shows like Sanford and Son and The Jeffersons. While I’m at it, another big shout out to every other African American actress from back in the day who had to grin and bear it while (almost) living her dream.
And a special note to Jasmine from the Doodlebops: It’s 2007, girl. You should really see about having them let you do something other than scatting all the time. Just a suggestion.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
kim wrote:
Damn…never saw that woman before. That’s an ouchie though, ’cause everyone I know watched that show, and loved it.
The slippers as underscoring the lazy negro idea…and underscoring ideas of worth and expectation across gender and racial hierarchical lines.
Cinderella also wore slippers, no?
Interesting that your perspective was one which reflected your own worth and expected, that which reflected your experiential knowledge of Black women, and so could not even be made to fit, or fall to, the way the character was actually drawn and intended to be perceived.
As your perception reflected, in a benign sense, the women you knew existed, so too was the image re-inforcing in its banality to those little children for whom daily life showed them Blacks in servant roles, whose verbal lessons included little tidbits about ‘the lazy negro.’
(Aaah, so this is how we get to where we are today…)
Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 9:59 am ¶
Ike wrote:
Meera,
I’m currently a college student, and up until I read this post, I thought the woman was Tom’s owner too.
Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 10:46 am ¶
Stefanie wrote:
I also thought the woman was the homeowner/Tom’s owner as a child. Did they ever show any other humans? I vaguely remember that they occasionally did, in a similar waist-down fashion, but I’m not too sure.
Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 11:20 am ¶
Didi wrote:
When I was in college (early 90s) - I saw episodes where her voice had been redubbed and had an *Irish* accent. Like that was supposed to make it better?
Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 11:34 am ¶
Chris wrote:
I think at one point they did show Tom’s owner she was wearing a blue coat or something since they only showed human characters from the waist-down. I think the episode that Tom’s owner appeared in was the episode that two shoes had a party and ended up passed out if memory serves me correctly.
Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 12:15 pm ¶
FrancesM wrote:
As a youth I loved Tom & Jerry & am so glad Mammy Two Shoes was brought up because I never noticed the racism there before. I’m also so glad Meera pointed out that the shoes were slippers. As Kim noted Cinderella did wear slippers also. However those shoes looked NOTHING like Mammy’s. I mean slippers made of glass. How much housework could get done in those?
~F
Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 12:55 pm ¶
deb wrote:
Wow. I remember the woman in the cartoon and Lillian Randolph, but never would I have contected the two. And, looking back, I don’t think it dawned on me that the woman was a maid.
Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 7:54 pm ¶
Koko wrote:
Dang….I thought she was the owner too…
That sucks, cause this is was my favorite show back then.
Posted 27 Mar 2007 at 9:29 pm ¶
merq wrote:
Count me in among the many who didn’t realize she was a maid in my childhood years. It was when I was in college that I saw an old episode and had to fight to keep my food down.
Posted 28 Mar 2007 at 6:37 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
Me too - I had no idea until much much later.
Maybe we should all be glad that as children, our assumption was that the black woman was the homeowner?
Posted 28 Mar 2007 at 9:26 am ¶
Stefanie wrote:
I was thinking the same, Latoya. If I’d been a kid in an earlier era I’d have probably “gotten it” that the woman was a maid, but since I grew up in the 80’s and having domestic help was not the reality of anyone I knew, I had to interpret the images to reflect my own experiences. What else could she be but the homeowner? Ah, the naivete of youth…
Posted 28 Mar 2007 at 1:03 pm ¶
rafi wrote:
My son used to be a big fan of the doodlebops as he has rock star inclinations.
And yes that scatting character is ridiculous.
The racial politics of modern kid shows would be an interesting topic. There’s a lot to analyze in shows like doodlebops, hi-5, hip-hop harry, dora/diego, etc.
Posted 29 Mar 2007 at 8:52 am ¶
Fay wrote:
Mammy is no house maid. She is Toms owner.
In saturday evening puss you clearley here her call the house her own. “A party? At my house?”
Her appearance is considered a racial stereo type and becuase of this she was replaced later on with a skinny white couple and even later than that with a single white woman but she was toms origonal owner and it has been said that her character was inspired by Hattie McDaniel, (Mammy - gone with the wind.)
Posted 30 Jul 2007 at 6:50 am ¶
cw wrote:
Faye, mammy was a maid. She kept the white peoples house most of the episodes. The white peoples house was neat, clean, and modern. The episodes when she is Tom’s owner she is in her own dilapidated house. They have censored many of the episodes. Those of you who watched in the mid 80’s to the present have watched censored episodes.
Posted 26 Oct 2007 at 11:24 am ¶
O.T.Goodman wrote:
According to the Tom And Jerry website “Mammy” is the owner of both Tom and the house. He is first called “Jasper and the mouse is “Jinx”. I guess that explains her wearing slippers and an apron.
Posted 15 Dec 2007 at 10:12 pm ¶
The Doctor wrote:
Let’s also not forget that racism, like lying, takes intent. A cartoon by Chuck Jones, entitled “Coal Black an’ De Sebben Dwarfs” has been banned for years - yet when Chuck made it it was intended as a compliment to both black culture and black music that he had heard. Is it possible - just possible - that Mammy was included simply because it was something people knew, rather than out of some horrid racist intent? We are, after all, looking at them some, what, 50 to 60 years later? I don’t know the artists’ intent - do you? I say don’t judge from the 21st century and try to hide things that are part of our culture as though they never existed. Use them as a way to teach that even though it may be funny, (because the cartoons ARE funny) it’s not reality or an appropriate way to show people.
And Mammy was shown to be Tom’s owner - so those who want to insist she was “just” a subservient maid have to believe it because they choose to; not because it’s the truth.
Which is racism of it’s own kind, isn’t it.
Posted 25 Jun 2008 at 6:05 am ¶