Disney Racism

I decided to write my last blog post for this race, gender and mass media class similar to that of my first post. Only this time I wanted to investigate racism and racial stereotypes among Disney films as opposed to sexism and gender stereotypes. This idea came to me after viewing in class the "Aladdin" "Arabian Nights" theme song. I honestly had no idea that the lyrics had been changed from the original song. On Cracked Entertainment website, I found a list of the "9 Most Racist Disney Characters." This article summarizes the various stereotypes that Disney portrays in its movies and each character listed is typically accompanied with a short video clip. In class we have already talked about two of the racist stereotypes including the Indians from "Peter Pan" and the merchant from "Aladdin." The most shocking character(s) to me that I'm surprised I never personally caught were the crows from "Dumbo." The 1941 Disney Classic includes among its characters a "jive-talking" band of 3 black crows. Their poor English and rowdy manner stereotypical with African Americans would not be as offensive if the main crow's name was not "Jim Crow." The crows are depicted as very poor and uneducated and are shown behaving similar to that of African American stereotypes. The Racist Characters list also includes "Sebastian" from "The Little Mermaid" and "King Louie" from "The Jungle Book."

I was happy to learn that Disney has tried to correct it's racial stereotypes through the movie, "The Princess and the Frog," and their new preschool cartoon, "Doc McStuffins." Although "The Princess and the Frog" may not have been seen as successful in many critics eyes, I believe they tried to bring a princess that all young girls could embrace. I was especially interested to read about "Doc McStuffins." Aimed at preschoolers, the show features a 6-year old African-American girl whose aspires to become a doctor like her mother. She takes care of dolls and stuffed animals when at home with her stay-at-home dad. So far the show has generated lots of positive reviews from critics, teachers and parents. Hopefully this is an indication of the future that Disney has for correcting its past racial stereotypical characters. I look forward to seeing what Disney comes up with as I hope that my children will watch Disney and learn racial equality for all.

Here is a more in depth article talking about Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" :: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/fashion/31disney.html?pagewanted=all

Here's a good video I found on Youtube that was made for an English project getting more in depth with Disney Racism.