# Disney and race issues of the past **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** disney-hulu\ **Created:** [October 19, 2021, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754 "2021-10-19T12:46:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StraightTalk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straighttalk/32/9982_2.png) [@StraightTalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StraightTalk)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/1 "2021-10-19T12:46:04Z")
I have Disney+. I was watching a show from 1966 about Disneyland. It was an episode of the Wonderful World of Color I think. Before the show started, they put up a notice that said “This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together.” I watched the show and I’m not sure which things were wrong. Nothing jumped out at me as “Ooh, that is just wrong.” For part of the show, they were talking about New Orleans Square as it was just opening and they did show a couple of boys (performers) that were dressed as shoe shine boys and were dancing and singing. I suppose that might have been what they were referring to. But I can’t be sure. This got me thinking, if they were ok with this content with a notice, why don’t they do the same with Song of the South. I know it is controversial but I’ve seen the movie and James Baskett’s performance (as Uncle Remus) was wonderful and I think it is a shame that his performance can’t be seen. Maybe I am naïve, but I saw the story in the movie as a story about the relationship between a boy and Uncle Remus and what Uncle Remus taught the boy about how to deal with situations in life. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/2 "2021-10-19T12:58:22Z")
Probably the basis of one but not the other is the difference between something being perceived as “incidental” and something that is perceived as pervasive through the whole work. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/3 "2021-10-19T13:09:39Z")
Probably because the issues with Song of the South were realized before the medium of streaming, or at least Disney’s ability to control distribution through that mechanism, were available to enable them to set that message, so the excision of SotS from the available Disney catalog was done as a much more blunt instrument, and just not yet re-visited. Perhaps now that Disney+ has been successfully launched, Disney will consider releasing it with a similar warning if there is enough demand. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/4 "2021-10-19T16:44:24Z")
I will be curious to see if SotS comes to D+. I think it should, but the high-profile nature of the original controversy and the overt nature of the issues probably calls for something a little more heavy handed than the simple disclaimer. Maybe a brief video intro in which someone important (in lieu of Walt himself) explains the problems and cautions against the content. Just like we don’t erase nasty stuff from our history books, we shouldn’t erase cultural products that arose from those same events. Seeing how this stuff evolved then might help us avoid or recognize similar mistakes from today’s prejudices that maybe aren’t yet universally recognized. ---
**Author:** ![StraightTalk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straighttalk/32/9982_2.png) [@StraightTalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StraightTalk)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/5 "2021-10-19T17:37:24Z")
For those of you that have seen the movie, what do you believe the issues are? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/6 "2021-10-19T19:11:50Z")
Disney has apparently put the notice up for several films. I can easily guess the reasons **Dumbo** – the crows **Lady and the Tramp** – Siamese cats **Aristocats** – ethnic cats, especially the Chinese one **Swiss Family Robinson** – east Asian pirates, no doubt Disney’s caution extends beyond these obvious cases. I once saw a documentary on war cartoons that mentioned (but didn’t show) _Der Fuhrer’s Face_, apparently to avoid slandering caricatures of Germans. Actually, quite a few of Disney’s cartoons are problematical about such things. I re-watched their "_Man into Space_’ series, and the depictions of Chinese people in the historical cartoon segments wouldn’t have been made today. Things were different as recently as the 1960s. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/7 "2021-10-19T19:24:39Z")
In order to truly understand SotS, you should read “Who’s afraid of Song of the South” by Jim Korkis. I agree with the OP this should be done, but due to the overwhelming ignorance about the film, it likely never will be. Having seen the film, and read the book, the main issue is ignorance. However, yes there’s some stereotyping going on, and today it is not “woke”, for sure. It is problematic, but not racist. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/8 "2021-10-19T20:28:14Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Disney’s caution extends beyond these obvious cases. I once saw a documentary on war cartoons that mentioned (but didn’t show) _Der Fuhrer’s Face_, apparently to avoid slandering caricatures of Germans. The explanation I’ve seen was that they didn’t want to promote the image of Donald Duck in a Nazi uniform. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/9 "2021-10-19T20:31:25Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The explanation I’ve seen was that they didn’t want to promote the image of Donald Duck in a Nazi uniform. I find it easier to believe that they’re not trying to insult their potential German customers. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/10 "2021-10-19T20:35:48Z")
Nazis are fair game. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/11 "2021-10-19T21:49:16Z")
The cartoon shows Donald Duck living in Nazi Germany. At the end, he wakes up in America, and is overjoyed to find out that it was only a nightmare. I can easily imagine the corporate suits being afraid that someone would take a snippet, completely out of context, and accuse Disney of being pro-Nazi. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2021, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/12 "2021-10-20T02:23:50Z")
> [@StraightTalk](#): > > For those of you that have seen the movie, what do you believe the issues are? It’s set on a plantation, and costars this happy black man named Uncle Remus whose only concern is the plantation owner’s little boy son. He lives in a shack off the property with other black people, and is clearly bossed around by the owners. It’s technically set after the Civil War, but this isn’t explicitly stated in the film. To may of the day, it came off as whitewashing what slavery (and even Reconstruction with the sharecroppers who were slaves in all but name) was like. The animated segments use some stereotypical imagery of the type that you’d expect in a Disney film featuring black-inspired characters, and Uncle Remus himself has some of that black accent used back then. I’d say that, however, that’s at the level of films at the time. It’s the happy slavery thing that got the film attacked at time of release. ’ The NAACP came out against it. It was picketed by black organizations. So Disney has direct evidence that it was seen as racist, not just going by what some “woke” people said. That said, they kept it around for a lot longer than you’d expect, rereleasing it (like it did all its movies) in theaters up until 1996. Not everyone didn’t like it. But it definitely got more backlash than the content on Disney with the disclaimers. I suspect Disney wants to do more with it. They said back in 2010 that they planned to do _something_ with it—eventually. More info on the reception: > **[Song of the South](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Song_of_the_South#Controversies)** > > Song of the South is a 1946 American musical film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures, based on the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris. The live actors provide a sentimental frame story, in which Uncle Remus relates... ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disney-and-race-issues-of-the-past/952754/13 "2021-10-20T02:35:13Z")
I remember noticing a lot of casual racism\* in early Disney stuff, but I like their disclaimer because whne I was a kid, almost every media depiction of minorities was cartoonishly off-the-mark. \*In one discussion on their portrayals of blacks, I called it _Disney’s Wonderful World of Coloreds_