Not trying to excuse anything, but I wonder how much this kind of depiction was an artefact of animation/video production in a black-and-white or early-colour era, much like how old cartoon animals with black fur often wear white gloves, to give hands/mouths some contrast and make movement visible.
Arguably, even "modern" cameras are apparently not designed with noncaucasian skintones in mind, something interest groups do not tire to bring up.
Zero. Nada, Nothing.
The history of blackface begins with stage and musical performances "aping" actual black musicians and banjo players [1].
There wasn't a lot of film work happening in 1848 . . .
Not saying it isn't related to cameras, so. But if it is, I'd suspect it to be much more of an issue with in-camera created JPEGs, RAW files don't do white balancing (at least all my Nikons don't). I have zero clue how dedicated video cameras work, so...
However, to your point, even recent photographs in color and black and white depict the tonal contrast one could imagine inspiring the cartoon character in question:
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3e50441087256791f079ff...
https://get.pxhere.com/photo/black-and-white-people-white-ph...
Until you get to the name Inki... tips their hand a bit.
That doesn't make a lot of sense. Can you give an example of why you think that?
[1] https://www.npr.org/2014/11/13/363517842/for-decades-kodak-s...
I wonder if that's why the first colour grading exercise in the training material for BMD DaVinci Resolve is an excerpt from a documentary about rhinos, where you need to balance a reasonably clean shot of a white woman, a gorgeous but fairly tricky shot of a black man (in profile, strong sunlight on his nose, eyes and cheek, rest in deep shadow), and a couple of mid and long shots of black gamekeepers walking around.
There's a lot to get right and a lot to get wrong, and you can end up making everyone look a pretty sickly colour.
What's sad about the racist aspect of the show is that the depiction of a child at play in this show totally mirrors the behavior of children when they get a bug catching net. It's a Merrie Melodie, so there's no speech or inner monologue that is forced upon all children's shows day. Just a kid being a kid.
Could have been a cute animation about a kid biting off more than they could chew. And a hapless lion and a bird that takes not shit. It's a shame they had to shove the nastiness in there.
Lips of lighter tone than skin are not necessarily blackface.
Pale lips (black and white):
https://get.pxhere.com/photo/black-and-white-people-white-ph...
Pale lips (color):
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-3e50441087256791f079ff...
On the other hand, "Inky" isn't great...
For those who are unaware, the Inki character in this short was a small tribal African child in a grass skirt who spent his days attempting to hunt various animals with a spear. And by African, I mean the blackface depiction with the white lips that is reminiscent of old Al Jolson films.
Now, I didn't remember ANYTHING about this part of the video. I had last watched it when I was a small child. But I enjoyed the part I did remember, namely the Minah bird, because the bird was methodical, walked in step with Mendelssohn's "The Hebrides," and could whup the crap out of anything. So when it came time to choose an avatar during a period of time when people were not using their faces as screen shots, I used this character.
It wasn't until years later that my girlfriend, who happened to be black, asked me why the cartoon bird was my avatar. So I looked it up and... let's just say I discontinued use of the avatar before the topic was broached again.