Mickey Mouse The Racist

The theory that Mickey Mouse's design, by Ub Iwerks, was inspired by the racist show known as blackface minstrelsy appears here and there in texts about comics (and animation, I guess, but I don't read those...).You may think that it's just a theory lacking empirical proof. That may very well be... until now, that is.

You just need to look below, here's the smoking gun.

Left: gag by Floyd Gottfredson (Mickey Mouse daily, April 16, 1930); 

Right: Mammy, CD Compilation (1988) showing Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer, 1927.