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Miloš Milovanović „Racizm in cartoons, hidden by cenzorship“

Racism in cartoons, hidden by cenzorship


In our english course called „Hidden“, during the first semester, we spoke of
numerous hidden agenda from more distant to more recent past of so called „west
civilization“.

So far, we have discussed rascism in America, Great Britain’s denial of their own
holocaust reading texts about the daring journalist and writer, John Reed, and analized
numerous movies such as „Cradle will rock“ „Hidden“ , „Black power salute“ „Traces of
the trade“ , „Olmpijski plamen“ and many others.

What intrigued me the most is how racism in USA lives even today, almost 150 years
after formal abolition act. It is a paradox that even Tomas Jefferson, man who created
Declaration of Independence , actually was directly involved in trading slaves.

All that hypocrisy had a strong impact on film history. The most obvious example
gave us David Griffith with his „Birth of nation“ in which he tells us about „all
humiliation that white south had to accept so the new nation could be born“ . African
Americans were shown as lazy uneducated people who raped and imprisoned inocent
white people. As Grfifith explains, white people „were forced to organize Ku Klux Klan
so they could defend themselves from terror of free black people“.

That is just one of many examples, but I don´t want to discuss about racism in
Hollywood feature movies because it would be too superficial . Instead, i would like to
scratch the surface of the movie made for the youngest – for kids.

Considering that today´s children spend more time with cartoon than with eternally busy
parents, media corporations producing entertainment for children take a greater part in
their education. The children are learning what values are important and what lifestyles
are advisable and because of that , cartoons were, and still are an excellent tool for
imprinting conservative and racistic ideas into the minds of innocent children.

The most significant and surely the biggest cartoon producer


was Walt Disney.

In every biography book, Walt Disney was accused to be


involved with Hitler’s Nazi party.

It is written in biography that the German filmmaker Leni


Riefenstahl, whose documentaries in the mid-30s had glorified the
Nazis, claimed that "after Kristallnacht [1938], she applied for
work at every movie studio in Hollywood ,but no studio would screen her movies except
Disney. Walt Disney expressed his admiration for her work but if it had become known
that he was considering to hire her, it would damage his reputation.

Disney was bitterly hostile towards communists as well and working unions. In
1941, Disney studios animators and other artists went on strike because they were
unsatisfied that they didn’t get any onscreen credit for their work and were paid less than
animators at other studios. Disney saw the strike as a result of the "growing Communist
conspiracy" in the United States. Eventually he was called before the House Unamerican
Miloš Milovanović „Racizm in cartoons, hidden by cenzorship“

Activities Committee as a friendly witness, naming names of suspected communists in


Hollywood.

Something similar had happened in Great Britain, where Nazi propaganda infiltarted
the theaters, but Eizensten’s movies on comunistic revolution were highly cenzored by
British Board of Film Censors which president was Lord Tyrell, Under-Secretary of State
at the Foreing Office.

Surely, the early works of Walt Disney were openly racistic – African Americans were
depicted as funny characters, uneducated, with ridiculous haircuts. In time, the obvious
hatred was replaced by the hypocritical empathy. In this essay I’ll analyse only the racism
in full-length cartoons. You can find many exapmles of that subtle racism, but I’ve chosen
to point out just a few of the most evident ones:

1. Dumbo
In the first scene of „Dumbo“ we can see black men pitching the circus tents in the
rain, and singing : "We work all day, We work all night, We never learned to read or
write; We work all night, we work all day; And can't wait to spend our pay away."
The song continues with other derogatory lyrics, reinforcing the stereotypes of
blacks as ignorant workhorses who deserve to be slaves.

At the end of cartoon, Dumbo gets help from black birds who act
in a manner thet stereotypically resembles African-Americans.
The crows are very specifically depicted as poor and uneducated.
They're constantly smoking; they wear pimptastic hats. the sad
fact is, for that time, this portrayal of the crows was almost
progressive.

2. „Jungle book“
After the portrayal of African-Americans as crows, in 1967 Disney decides to
portray them as monkeys instead .All animals in the jungle speak in proper British
accents. Except, of course, for the monkeys. Should I mention they desperately want
to become "real people?"

3. Aladdin (1992)
In Disney movies, the racism is not strictly resverved just for Afroamericans. That
became clear in the opening song "Arabian Nights" which was censored because of
political incorectness. So the lyrics were changed from "Where they'll cut off your
ear if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home," in the to "Where
it's flat and immense and the heat is intense/It's barbaric, but, hey, it's home."
Also, only the villain had arabian accent, all the others spoke pure american
english. The question is why?

4. „Peter Pan“
In musical number, the "Red Man" explains his people's
history and culture. The song says a long time ago, a Native
American blushed red when he kissed a girl, and, as science
explains, it's been part of their race's genetic make-up since. You see, there had to
be some kind of event to change their skin from the normal, human color of
"white."
Miloš Milovanović „Racizm in cartoons, hidden by cenzorship“

5. In Pocahontas, John Smith, historical personality and the assassin of Indians, is


presented like very polite and politically correct multicultural young man, trying
to raise bridges between civilizations. On that way, Disney is writing again the
history of the American continent, and take off all responsibility for the
extermination of Indians from the white conquerors.

6. Song of the South

This Disney film’s story revolves around the friendship


between Afro-American worker uncle Remus and white boy,
owner of the plantation.

Even early in the film's production, there was concern that the material would
encounter controversy. Disney publicist Vern Caldwell wrote to producer that "The
negro situation is a dangerous one. Between the negro haters and the negro lovers
there are many chances to run a foul of situations that could run the gamut all the way
from the nasty to the controversial." As we can see, defenders of black human rights
and racists were equally troublesome for Disney studios at that time.

James Baskett, known for his role of Uncle Remus, was unable to attend the
film's premiere in Atlanta, Georgia because he would not have been allowed to
participate in any of the festivities in what was then a racially segregated city. On the
other hand, he received a special Academy Award for his performance and became
first male performer of African descent to receive an Oscar.

In this movie, Disney used well-known formula of denying and idealyzing


rasistic past so if you are a kid and you are not familiar with the matter, you will think
that the late 1800s were a great time to be African-American. It's as if someone had
made a children's musical about Jews in post-World War II Germany that had a song
titled " Nothing Bad Has Happened to Us, Ever."

However, for the past few years Disney studios had carefully used human rights as a
motif , rising up to promoting them in their cartoons. Much like the irony noticed by
Michael Winship in his article, that on the stairway of the courthouse, same place where the
slaves were sold 100 years ago, you can now hear a victory speech from Afro-American
president of the United States of America, Disney’s new cartoons have the goal to show
devotion to multicultural society . In Disneys new motion picture „High school musical“
about half of all characters are African American, and the main girl role is played by a
„latina“.

The question remains if Disney really learned the lesson, or is it just capitalistic
economy with simple goal - make more profit by accessing new target groups.

Anyhow, bitter taste of racism in Disney cartoons remains and there is no post-
productional censorship that could sweeten it up. There is no excuse for racism in any form ,
because, even when slavery was legal, there were abolitionists, proving that compassion is
crucial regardless of time and place. Just because racist propaganda was more common
during certain periods in time, doesn't make it any more justified.
Miloš Milovanović „Racizm in cartoons, hidden by cenzorship“

Sources

Watts, Steven, The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, 1997

Eliot, Marc, Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince, 1993

Cohen, Karl F., Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in
America, 1997

Thomas, Bob, Walt Disney: An American Original, 1976

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