Racism in Disney Movies Essay - 5488 Words

Anastasia Trus WRTG 3020 Professor Pat Sullivan 30 March 2010 Racism in Disney During the last several decades, the media has become a strong agent in directing and controlling social beliefs and behaviors. Children, by nature, can be particularly susceptible to the influencing powers of the media, opening an avenue where media created especially for children can indoctrinate entire generations. Disney movies, like all other media â€Å"are powerful vehicles for certain notions about our culture,† such as racism. (Giroux 32). Racist scenes in Disney movies are often identified as simply being â€Å"symbols of the time† when the films were produced. Furthermore, Disney racism is often passed over as simple humor, or as a simple guide to†¦show more content†¦Her troubling presence was simply cropped out of the movie even though you can still see the Aryans she used to pamper. Eliminating Sunflower from the movie may have been intended as harmless and as an attempt to be politically correct; however, it is cine matic decisions such as this that contributed to Disney’s reputation of being insensitive to issues of race. It was insulting enough for Disney to include the smiling servant stereotype to begin with, but to make matters worse, they started denying Sunflowers existence with the Fantasia re-release in 1960. How does that possibly make things better? A few angered African American communities said, No, you misunderstand. In our perfect, Fantasia world, Africans arent servants. They dont fucking exist† (Weinman 64). A contemporary film critic said, Whats fun though is that Disney says they never had such a character! Were all delusional† (Brunette 123). Maybe it was acceptable in the past to portray characters that had such blatant racist features; nevertheless, it is strange to deny its existence to audiences who had already seen the original version. This is how we deal with our ugly past: we deny it, trivialize it, gloss over it with pretty distractions and wishf ul thinking. Doing so, we deny ourselves a glimpse of the compelling reality of naked history. The well-meaning rush to unmake evil deeds by hiding them from the critical eye of modern sensibilities does nothing to honor the peopleShow MoreRelatedDisney s Role As A Monopoly1578 Words   |  7 Pages Disney is always being bashed about how they portray girls as being beautiful and skinny or how the portray ethnic groups in their movies. Disney also is haggled about being a monopoly and taking over other companies to be the only ones. Disney has been around since 1923, which Walt Disney and his brother started making short films about Mickey Mouse. 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Discrimination in today’s society is not primarily associated This essay is not completely effective because children do not yet understand social concepts and she did not have enough reasons to back up some of herRead MoreAll s Not Well And The Land Of The Lion King 1452 Words   |  6 Pages In the article â€Å"All’s Not Well In The Land Of â€Å"‘The Lion King’†, Lazarus discusses how the movie: â€Å"The Lion King† negatively portrays a society to children by using racism, homop hobia, and social inequality. In American culture, racism and homophobia are both very common and controversial. Discrimination in today’s society is not primarily associated This essay is not completely effective because children do not yet understand social concepts and she did not have enough reasons to back up some of