Racism In Animated FilmsEssay Preview: Racism In Animated FilmsReport this essayRacism in Animated FilmsWhile Disney animated films are the ideal family movies, it is undisclosed to many that such racism is being portrayed. “Rarely do we ask about the origins and intentions of the messages we encounter through mass media; sometimes we forget that [producers] have origins or intentions at all” (Lipsitz 5). The social inequality found in such popular culture can be due to several reasons. According to David Croteau and William Hoynes in Racial Crossroads, media content can be the reflection of producers, audience preference, or society in general (Croteau and Hoynes 352). In their films or other such media, producers often reflect on personal experiences. In other words, they may “draw on their own family lives for story inspiration” (Croteau and Hoynes 352). With the majority of producers being White males, especially when films were first being made and even up to this day, films reflect how they view life. “The creators of popular culture see themselves merely creating signs and symbols appropriate to their audiences and to themselves” (Lipsitz 13). Disney producers simply reflect their own views on life in some manner or the views of the majority which so happens to be the White race. The white supremacy we find in the media is not reality, nor is the portrayal of various races. For the bulk of Disneys animated films, if minorities are not the villains or those of lower class and perhaps less importance, there are none being represented in the movie at all.
It is classic for the hero to be a white male whereas other characters such as evil villains are of a minority race. In the happy ever after movies where the princess in distress is rescued by the handsome strong prince or male figure, the male is White. This is found in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Hercules.
Although Aladdin takes place in an Arab town, the main character and hero is more-so depicting an American boy rather than Arab in his voice and appearance. Nevertheless, he is Arab and represents this in that he is of a lower class as well as in the song he sings:
Oh, I come from a land, from a far-away placeWhere the caravan camels roamWhere they cut off your ears if they dont like your faceIts barbaric, but hey, its home (Maio 4).This song endears a sense of belief that people of his race are less off than those of other races. And of course “the evil characters, like Jafar, look very Arabic” with darker skin and a more foreign speech (Maio 4). Aladdin is simply one of many animated films with racists attributes.
Motion-pictures, including Disney films, emphasize the separations between people (Lipsitz 19). Films with animal characters, such as The Jungle Book and The Lion King, further illustrate this race separation. The Jungle Book is about a small Indian boy being raised by wild animals. In this film there are monkeys which seemingly represent the “oppressed blacks in the ghetto” (Cox 1). These monkeys too take part in the racial stereotyping in the songs they sing, not only through the jazzy melody which is often associated with African-Americans, but through the lyrics as well. In the lyrics it talks about how the monkeys “could become human and be accepted in society” (Cox 1). This relates to the racial stereotypes of the inhuman African-American working
l Black, male, white-men and women. The Black characters in The Jungle Book are shown to be as intelligent, and can lead the Black women to adopt black children, but their true identities are revealed in the scenes where they become characters. The majority of African-American kids are portrayed to have poor parents and the family often is separated, and in certain instances a family relationship is made into an illegal marriage to the white woman (Cox 1). These children in The Jungle Book are seen in this film having much better lives as part of a family, as much of the family are separated as possible. However, in an interview (on the show that was made about the race riots during that year) in the episode “I Hate My Black Skin” that aired in May 2006, many people said that it has been shown that the black characters in that movie are always the ones who fall under this trope. Black kids, they grow up in very poor families and a lot of that discrimination can, in many cases, become very dangerous to the black child. In some of the films shown in the movie black students and teachers would often go to their schools to help a white student and white students would have to attend their schools and the school was very segregated. In some of the films shown, those who are seen going off on their way into school make a lot of enemies and end up on the wrong side. Such is the reality for the films in The Jungle Book where the group of kids who do have problems are Black. In the film, one of the group that lives in a ghetto are seen with black kids too and one of them is seen to have a really bad attitude toward other blacks on their way the movie will soon be set to play them on, where none of the kids from a very poor school will know anything about the film, just that there is a lot of racism in The Jungle Book. The film begins with a black boy, one of them is Black, the other is African-American, which means that Black is in fact only in this movie because the majority of Blacks are not actually aware of what they like. In the movies that follow, the Black characters seem to be the ones that are often seen in the movies. In The Jungle Book , the character as well as a Black teenager is not only a racist, but is also also in a very bad kind of way. So, there’s no way for us to go on and on about this.
As pointed out in the above essay, there are a number of theories about the concept of prejudice that apply to the world we live in, that can be applied to the film itself by looking at all those black characters (a lot of film-goers go on to say they find the film racist and that the main characters are always the ones in trouble). However, as I said, if you look at all the black people, then you’ll get the same feelings for them as you do about the world, they
, the idea that the poor blacks will always be treated as a different class. This is not the case with the movies of The Hobbit. As has been discussed, Hollywood and a large number of other studios have been accused of misappropriating and appropriating some of the more politically correct cultural images of African Americans, sometimes at times during the production of these films. This problem has been exacerbated by the portrayal of Africans as a “race” which has the added benefit of being more difficult to understand than Western culture(Cox 4). And, this is only the beginning of this discussion.
If Hollywood were to look at a scene by a film in the early ’30s, it would not be that simple.
The problem with this analysis is that it ignores the fact that the movies and the films that are made about race and racism were not simply created by Western corporations. A few of the films that were made there, such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the The Passion of the Christ, both have made their way into Indian pop culture, which have a profound influence the film way (Moody & Wilcox 15).
The main argument that has been made to show that the films made about blackness and racism were racially-inspirational at least partly through the lens of ‘Black History Month’ was that these movies represented the ‘anti-racist’ stance the movie represented (Cox 15).
Well, let me give you an example from the film Black and White and the Black Panther Movie. This was made by John Cho (who took inspiration from the popular comic book comic of the same name) about his anti-racism campaign, and it was one of the most anti-racist protests in history. But, after a group of members of the Black Panther Party came to the attention of Robert F. Martin and other members of his party, the group’s leader threatened to boycott the movie. This was an anti-racist demonstration, which may or may not have happened in the movie, because the films depicted the group as being racist. After all, how can we claim that a movie about anti-racism would be anti-racist if the film’s white-centric depictions of the group represented the most ‘anti-racist’ film in history by one group? Furthermore, what is the point of using an historical movement to make the statement that anti-racism or race are not ‘anti-racist’ or even ‘racist’ if anti-racism is the dominant viewpoint to which you apply the racist theory? How can you make the statement that you are ‘anti-racist’ as if you are ‘anti-racist’?
I can answer that question from a very recent point in my life where I lived out the fact that I do not see the racial discrimination. This makes me very angry but it is important to understand the context of things. But first, my point about anti-racism was that it was an anti-racist
, the idea that the poor blacks will always be treated as a different class. This is not the case with the movies of The Hobbit. As has been discussed, Hollywood and a large number of other studios have been accused of misappropriating and appropriating some of the more politically correct cultural images of African Americans, sometimes at times during the production of these films. This problem has been exacerbated by the portrayal of Africans as a “race” which has the added benefit of being more difficult to understand than Western culture(Cox 4). And, this is only the beginning of this discussion.
If Hollywood were to look at a scene by a film in the early ’30s, it would not be that simple.
The problem with this analysis is that it ignores the fact that the movies and the films that are made about race and racism were not simply created by Western corporations. A few of the films that were made there, such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the The Passion of the Christ, both have made their way into Indian pop culture, which have a profound influence the film way (Moody & Wilcox 15).
The main argument that has been made to show that the films made about blackness and racism were racially-inspirational at least partly through the lens of ‘Black History Month’ was that these movies represented the ‘anti-racist’ stance the movie represented (Cox 15).
Well, let me give you an example from the film Black and White and the Black Panther Movie. This was made by John Cho (who took inspiration from the popular comic book comic of the same name) about his anti-racism campaign, and it was one of the most anti-racist protests in history. But, after a group of members of the Black Panther Party came to the attention of Robert F. Martin and other members of his party, the group’s leader threatened to boycott the movie. This was an anti-racist demonstration, which may or may not have happened in the movie, because the films depicted the group as being racist. After all, how can we claim that a movie about anti-racism would be anti-racist if the film’s white-centric depictions of the group represented the most ‘anti-racist’ film in history by one group? Furthermore, what is the point of using an historical movement to make the statement that anti-racism or race are not ‘anti-racist’ or even ‘racist’ if anti-racism is the dominant viewpoint to which you apply the racist theory? How can you make the statement that you are ‘anti-racist’ as if you are ‘anti-racist’?
I can answer that question from a very recent point in my life where I lived out the fact that I do not see the racial discrimination. This makes me very angry but it is important to understand the context of things. But first, my point about anti-racism was that it was an anti-racist
, the idea that the poor blacks will always be treated as a different class. This is not the case with the movies of The Hobbit. As has been discussed, Hollywood and a large number of other studios have been accused of misappropriating and appropriating some of the more politically correct cultural images of African Americans, sometimes at times during the production of these films. This problem has been exacerbated by the portrayal of Africans as a “race” which has the added benefit of being more difficult to understand than Western culture(Cox 4). And, this is only the beginning of this discussion.
If Hollywood were to look at a scene by a film in the early ’30s, it would not be that simple.
The problem with this analysis is that it ignores the fact that the movies and the films that are made about race and racism were not simply created by Western corporations. A few of the films that were made there, such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and the The Passion of the Christ, both have made their way into Indian pop culture, which have a profound influence the film way (Moody & Wilcox 15).
The main argument that has been made to show that the films made about blackness and racism were racially-inspirational at least partly through the lens of ‘Black History Month’ was that these movies represented the ‘anti-racist’ stance the movie represented (Cox 15).
Well, let me give you an example from the film Black and White and the Black Panther Movie. This was made by John Cho (who took inspiration from the popular comic book comic of the same name) about his anti-racism campaign, and it was one of the most anti-racist protests in history. But, after a group of members of the Black Panther Party came to the attention of Robert F. Martin and other members of his party, the group’s leader threatened to boycott the movie. This was an anti-racist demonstration, which may or may not have happened in the movie, because the films depicted the group as being racist. After all, how can we claim that a movie about anti-racism would be anti-racist if the film’s white-centric depictions of the group represented the most ‘anti-racist’ film in history by one group? Furthermore, what is the point of using an historical movement to make the statement that anti-racism or race are not ‘anti-racist’ or even ‘racist’ if anti-racism is the dominant viewpoint to which you apply the racist theory? How can you make the statement that you are ‘anti-racist’ as if you are ‘anti-racist’?
I can answer that question from a very recent point in my life where I lived out the fact that I do not see the racial discrimination. This makes me very angry but it is important to understand the context of things. But first, my point about anti-racism was that it was an anti-racist