We're just looking at the character differently. She seems to me to be the inevitable "class clown," always looking for attention, anything for a laugh. Food as compensation. Her cruelty toward captives and her love of hazing show a mean streak, suggesting she's unhappy beneath the jolly exterior.
If anything, she reminds me strongly of Chop-Chop from the old BLACKAWK comics. Dwarfishly short and obese, the comic relief who comes through in a fight. One big difference is that Etta is not the punchline to a joke at the end of each issue, but then she doesn't have the racial element in her stereotype.