What does the rat represent in American popular culture? It represents the turbulent, conflictive relationship between whites and blacks. Rats are representations of relationships between black citizens and white institutions or consciousness. Take Mickey. I was amazed that no reference was made in the article to the theory, which is substantiated by the timing of the cartoon's emergence, it's characteristics and appearance, that Mickey Mouse is a minstrel character in blackface. You talk about Mickey as having originally demonstrated quite outrageous behavior that was later domesticated. That's a trajectory that coincides with white fantasies both about the black buffoon and the domesticated negro. Over and over, where we see rat characters populating the fringes of society but striving to be known as characters imbued with souls, dignity, and complex social arrangements, we are seeing deliberations on black society through challenges to the hegemonic view that black people are uncivilized. The next person who takes up the charge of exploring the figuring of rats in popular culture would be advised to analyze it from a critical race perspective that I suggest.