It all started with a little mouse. Now it's a billion dollar company
with over 100,000 employees worldwide. So how has it been able to
successfully transition through a century of monumental change?
Obviously, with a touch of creativity and smart investment policies.
But this post is not interested in that. No, this post is going to be a
journey through Disney's shadows.
I happened to be watching Dumbo the other day (for reasons which I will
happily leave to your imagination) and when it came time for what had
always been my favorite scene, I had to turn the TV off and deeply
consider my own views on race. I concluded I'm not racist, but those
Crows (the head bird's name: Jim Crow) are a class A example of racial
exploitation. The crew of ruffian birds are depicted as poor,
uneducated, they are always smoking, and are the end-all-be-all of
everything cool. A blind person could watch Dumbo and still pick up on
the waves of racial slur.
It got me thinking about other Disney favorites that I might now look
back on a little bit differently. Luckily before I strained my brain
too much I found a website that listed the top ten most racist Disney
characters :
http://www.cracked.com/article_15677_9-most-racist-disney-characters.html
But do these characters make these movies bad? Should we not show Dumbo
to our children? Or if we do, should we explain what's wrong about
those hip crows? I don't think when I first saw Dumbo I ever could have
connected them to reality let alone to race. Does that make Disney
innocent then? Hardly, as it is subliminal messages like these that
continue the spread of hate through the generations. No, rather than
restrict such classic movies, it is important to teach children morals
by example and in the real world so they learn to understand for
themselves why those crows are racist. For while these movies may have
undertones of hate, they also have inspirational messages that our
children need to hear.
Still though, I'm happy Pixar has overthrown Disney in the children movie arena.
(Possible Follow-up: Disney's terrible current television)
