AHAHAHAHA! Oh, Drunky Smurf, I’m so glad you bother to share your cleverness with the class. Imagine the moments of hilarity we’d lose if you ever filtered yourself, asking, “Is this really clever enough to post?” before clicking “submit.”
Right, they are fantasy “indians”. It’s a British kids idea of
Indians".
The article gets several other things wrong: “Song of the South” is set in the post war South- no one is a slave. My friend Jim Korkis has written a interesting book on the subject.
And come- on- a WWII Propaganda cartoon? A “kids classic”? Not even really racist, since it makes fun of all the Axis leaders. Hardly a “classic” since it can only be found on special collections.
"All This and Rabbit Stew" is also hard to find and hardly a “kids classic”.
Same thing as the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, you’d have to pay $50-500 to get a copy of that rare first edition.
Pretty much that article is 90% bullshit. Other than Peter Pan, which does not portray real Native Americans, the rest are not generally available to kids today.
But it’s OK to have a black “Annie”?:rolleyes:
In no way is that an excuse; in no way does that make the depiction less racist.
Racist depictions of people are by definition incorrect. Having a depiction of Native Americans that reduces them to silly little savages who exist to serve the imaginative purposes of white children is not a good thing. It is a prime example of racist, dehumanizing portraits of other cultures.
The British kids idea of Indians is a racist idea of Indians.
It seems a little specious to argue that stereotypes are okay because they’re stereotypes.
:rolleyes: back atcha. Tiger Lily’s character is predicated on her being Native American. Native Americans get hit twice by this casting decision: first, they’re stereotyped unacceptably; and second, scarce roles for native American actors are instead passed out to white people. These double whammy has been going on in Hollywood for generations, and it’s ugly.
Nothing about Annie’s character is predicated on her being white. Nothing about her character is a stereotype of whiteness. And there’s no tradition in Hollywood of scarce roles for white girls, much less a tradition of scarce white girl roles being given instead to black actors.
It’s cool how when you encounter racism against Native Americans you bend over backwards to look at historical context, but how you’re willing to ignore it completely in order to imply racism against white people.
Because magical animals and imaginary sentient appliances are exactly the same as people, yes, so the offensive portrayal of an ethnicity as say comic menials is no more problematic than showing a comic robot.
Just wait until after the inevitable robot uprising. You won’t be so dismissive of disrespectful portrayals then.
Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t say that stereotypes are okay, then.
No, she’s a member of a fantasy “indian” tribe.
This opinion reminds me of another majorly racist Disney movie: Dumbo. I found the movie on the whole rather boring and sad, with one exception: the singing crows scene.* Yeah, they were racist. But they were extremely cool, and they were voiced by some brilliant professional singers.
*Oh, yeah, and the psychedelic pink elephants scene that immediately preceded it.
What, really? You looked at the cats and equated them to Asian children? They were jerks but they seemed to be pretty much depicted as cats, obviously cartoon cats but still…cats. Cats are assholes. I just watched it to see if something looked different since the last time I saw it but…nope. Of course it is impossible for me to watch it as an Asian child but I have to say, as a child I didn’t relate ANY of the animals’ parts to people. Those cats were the villains. Of course they were jerks. I would be more likely to think (and I do think) that the creator of this didn’t like cats than that he was trying to put forth a racial insult.
(Also, crows are always the bad guy, and maybe it’s a reference to black people and maybe not, but IMO crows are even worse assholes than cats. There has to be a way to make a crow the bad guy without it being a racial insult.)
I thought the Lady/Tramp reference was going to be the stereotype of Italians owning a restaurant.
The problem is mainly those bucktoothed faces. If they didn’t have that, they’d probably be cool. I don’t think they’re supposed to be jerks because they’re Siamese. They’re jerks because they’re cats. It was a stereotyped view of cats. (It’s a cool song) And this is in a movie where the heros are dogs, so naturally the villains are cats. Siamese cats have traditionally been seen as very elegant and proud. (Although they’re actually very affectionate and very talkative)
(Siamese cats are pretty cool. Two of my cats are part Siamese. Loveable little snots)
Maybe it’s an early version of lolcat?
To clarify: my main objection was to the use of the term “Native Americans” to refer to characters who were not, in fact, natives of America (even though they are clearly based on stereotypes of Native Americans). It just seems linguistically wrong in much the same way that referring to the Star Trek character Tuvok as an “African-American Vulcan” seems wrong.
I think a black “Annie” is perfectly fine, but it does seem a little racist that, because “annie” is black, then the “Daddy” character also has to be black.
Imagine those legions of poor white kids who have grown up watching Homer Simpson, Barney, Mr Burns and thought to themselves…we are stupid drunk irresponsible evil. And how bout that damned Hansel and Gretl and how it makes all elderly German spinsters out to be witches and cannibals? It could be that you are being a bit too sensitive. BTW…Siamese refers to the breed of cat.
I agree with this. And as someone who has owned Siamese cats they can be quite temperamental.
Christopher Walken as King Louie??? Wow that’s just…wow, I cannot wait to see what that sounds like!
I recently got into an argument with a white guy over the racist imagery in the Tom and Jerry cartoons. According to him, I was a silly little girl for being bothered by Mammy. I was supposed to laugh when the crap dice, switchblade, and fried chicken would fall out of her pockets, because these are just JOKES. He found them funny, so of course I had to find them funny too.
And apparently I was a bad person for wanting these scenes removed so that future children could enjoy them without the same discomfort.
I didn’t grow up reading Peter Pan. I can’t remember Lady and the Tramp. I do remember the crows in Dumbo, but I don’t think they made me uncomfortable as a kid. But I do remember feeling weird when I’d see the pickaninny stuff on Looney Tunes. Once someone points it out to you and explains the “joke”, it’s kind of hard to unsee it.
I don’t blame anyone for wishing their children could enjoy the classics without feeling weird about their own identities.
I don’t see how that follows - Annie is an orphan. Daddy Warbucks adopts her.