For all Disney’s contributions to American culture, Disney children’s films are not without fault. Widely accused of sexism and poor ethics, several Disney movies also express and romanticize racism, one of the ugliest traits seen throughout American history.
While it could be argued that racism can be seen to some degree or another in nearly every Disney film, some of the corporation’s movies illustrate racism to a deeper or more offensive degree than others. Because children learn ethics and social conduct through mass media, these Disney films may require some degree of parental explanation or guidance.
Disney Racism: Aladdin
Released long after most of the other overtly racist Disney films, Aladdin received heat even from its first release. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the film was a set of lines in the opening song, “Arabian Nights”. The song described the Middle East as a land, “Were they cut off your ear/if they don’t like your face/ It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” The line was altered slightly in the more recent releases of the film.
The film could also be considered racist in that it portrays Arab culture as deeply oppressive of women and brutally violent. Princess Jasmine is trapped mercilessly inside her palace home, and the palace guards threaten to cut off her hand at one point in the film. It might also be noted that the villains in the film look distinctly more “ethnic” than Aladdin and Jasmine, who both appear Caucasian. The message to kids: good guys are white, bad guys are not.
Disney Racism: Lady and the Tramp
One of the most well-recognized racist symbols perpetuated by Disney is the portrayal of Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp. Like stereotypical Asians, they are buck-toothed and have slanted eyes, and speak in ridiculously exaggerated accents that bear little, if any, resemblance to actual Thai speech patterns. They were portrayed as cunning, manipulative, and evil.
Other racist stereotypes can also be seen in the film, including a jolly Luigi-type owner of an Italian restaurant and a stupid and submissive Chihuahua who exemplifies Mexican stereotypes. While these examples of Disney racism are often passed over as simple humor, they guide children’s understanding of cultures, leading to prejudice.
Disney Racism: The Jungle Book
In The Jungle Book, based on the Rudyard Kipling story of the same name, Mowgli stumbles upon a group of monkeys (or possibly orangutans) who leap down from the trees and begin singing about their desire to be human. This is viewed by many as a humorous highlight of the film: monkeys are always amusing, right?
It is painfully obvious, and beyond coincidence, that the apes are the only characters in the film voiced by African Americans. All the refined characters speak in British or white-American accents, but the monkeys swing down from the trees, speaking in jive and jibberish. This makes them seem sub-human, even compared to the other animals in the jungle. When children hear this, they will most certainly learn to recall the image of crazed monkeys the next time they hear someone speaking in Ebonics.
Disney Racism: Fantasia
The original release of Fantasia included several features not seen in the modern release. During the Pastoral Symphony, the original release included a young centaur named Sunflower, a giddy picaninny who acts as a sloppy servant to the other mythological creatures in the scene.
Unlike the other centaurs, who were half human and half horse, Sunflower was half human and half donkey. She ran around giggling and attending to the needs of the others, tossing her head from side to side. Although she was removed from Fantasia in every release since 1969, the current releases still include two black centaur servants who are part zebra.
Disney Racism: Dumbo
A long-time favorite film about a mute baby elephant who learns to fly, Dumbo contains several unfortunate racist scenes. Perhaps the most memorable is the scene in which Dumbo encounters three black crows (one of whom is named “Jim Crow”) who portray every existing stereotype of black American culture. They smoke cigars, speak in jive, and spend all their time doing nothing but observing the more civilized world.
Disney’s racism spikes again in a scene in which faceless people with dark skin pitch a circus tent. The song sung during this scene is enough to make anyone’s skin crawl, with lines such as “We slave until we’re almost dead/ We’re happy-hearted roustabouts” and “Keep on working/ stop that shirking/ Pull that rope, you hairy ape”. The message that they are “happy-hearted” (repeated several times in the song) implies that abused members of society are content in their position.
Disney Racism: Peter Pan
Disney’s racism hits an unprecedented peak in Peter Pan, in which the protagonists encounter a tribe of fairy tale Native Americans. The Indians (or “Injuns” as it is pronounced) are all essentially mute except for the chief, himself a crass, inaccurate stereotype, and communicate like animals in a variety of crude grunts and mumbles. They have bright red skin, are portrayed as patriarchal and oppressive, and are very ugly.
The worst aspect of this train-wreck racist portrayal is the song “What Makes a Red Man Red”, which is sung by the chief in broken, primitive English. The song explains that “Injuns” say “Ugg” –because, according to Disney, they communicate only in grunts — because of an occurrence when the “first brave married squaw”. It gives a similar explanation for why “the red man is red”, as if to imply that the default skin color is white and all variations require explanation.
These portrayals may be easily dismissed as unimportant in the overall development of children’s psyches. However, they have major effects on the overall perspective that children have regarding other races and their own. Many white children will retain the belief that Indians have bright red skin and don’t know how to talk, and many black children may subconsciously associate African American language patterns with the lazy crows in Dumbo or the almost-human apes in The Jungle Book.
Some parents may choose to censor their children’s exposure to these films to eliminate confusion, although others may be content with providing guidance and explanation for these negative racist portrayals. Regardless of the choices that parents make regarding these films, the racist attitudes of Disney at least bear notice, if not outrage.
Sources Used:
All films mentioned. Disney- “What Makes a Red Man Red” Lyrics, Peter Pan; Disney- “Song of the Roustabouts” Lyrics, Dumbo; The Memory Hole- “The Character that Disney Cut from Fantasia”, accessed 23 Dec 08.
