But that quote of yours from the Wikipedia article is just referencing the exact same telegram from White that I already quoted in my previous post. There’s no new information there; it still STM very much a matter of interpretation whether White’s statements imply that he thought the action of the film was actually set in the antebellum era.
As I noted, there was a lot of detailed information about the film making the media rounds before White sent his telegram, and he had certainly been well aware of the SotS project at least since Disney invited him to consult on the script while the film was still in production (an offer White declined).
So I remain somewhat skeptical that at the time of the film’s release White believed, or meant to give the impression, that the action of SotS actually took place pre-1965. And so far, nothing that you’ve cited conclusively demonstrates that he did.
(And having read the script myself, I personally would agree that the film is indeed presenting “a dangerously glorified picture of slavery” and “an idyllic master-slave relationship” in Uncle Remus’s nostalgia, and the plantation-bound subservient subordinate status of all the black characters. Even though the setting is ostensibly post-1865, AFAICT no black character in the film is shown doing anything at all that an enslaved person wouldn’t have been doing in an idealized antebellum “happy plantation family”.)
Well, evidently he nonetheless knew enough about the movie to give a pretty accurate assessment of it, AFAICT from reading the script and a bunch of discussions over the succeeding decades.
“Remarkable artistic merit” in music and technical developments? A bit generous, perhaps, but reasonable. “Effort neither to offend audiences in the north or south”? Definitely. Encouraging “a dangerously glorified picture of slavery” and “the impression of an idyllic master-slave relationship”? Check; check.
I’m not clear on what point you are trying to make here.
Are you saying they were wrong in saying there were racist depictions in Song of the South because there are no racist depictions in the movie?
Or are you saying they were wrong in saying there were racist depictions in Song of the South because there even though there are racist depictions in the movie, they did not have sufficient evidence of that at the time they said it?
They were wrong about racist depistion in the film because they had not actually seen it. And, IMHO- there were none.
“The food at that restaurant tastes horrible”- “Oh, when did you go?” “I have never eaten there, but based upon the name of the restaurant, I know it’s horrible”.
You’re the one who said they were wrong. I was just asking you what you felt they were wrong about.
Then we disagree. I feel that the racial situation depicted in Song of the South was clearly racist because it depicted black people as being contented with a servile lifestyle and social inferiority and as needed white people to give them direction. I feel that the majority of black people living in 1946 would have agreed this was racist (even if they were afraid to say so). So I feel that the NAACP and other civil rights figures were correct in denouncing Song of the South.
And what’s more, I don’t feel that black people need me, a white person, to give his approval before they denounce something for being racist. Black people are going to experience anti-black racism more clearly than I or any other white person does.
Moderating: Please don’t link to sites showing non-Public Domain movies. Especially ones belonging to massive corporations like Disney with more Lawyers than we have users.
And, really – these critics knew the source material. From their activist POV that would probably be enough to suggest that a Disneyfied presentation of that source material was not what you wanted to see at that time in the development of society.
And of course, what Little_Nemo said later. Just because it’s not Birth Of A Nation does not mean it’s “clean”. This is the kind of racism that for the longest time most of the country felt comfortable with looking the other way as long as everything stayed peaceful.
