My Advenures Toward Teaching!

Monday, October 29, 2007

Dear Disney,

Wow! After growing up and not being led under the guise of a child's innocence, I have noticed so many overtly racist things in your movies. Images of the Native Americans as "Red Men" or "Injuns" in "Peter Pan", literally colored a bright cherry-red, and dancing around and talking as simplistic as can be, I have found myself in shock. Portrayals of the Native Americans in your child-focused eyes have brought many racist thoughts to my head. And, as I look back on other Disney films, I see the same amount of shocking descriptions of people and cultures. Again, with the Native Americans in "Pocahontas", we see a better version than previously developed, but still have that undertone of bigotry when discussing and developing their culture. Also, this is extremely prevelent when looking at other movies such as "Dumbo" and "Aladdin". In "Dumbo" we see a literal working of black face, which is a technique used in minstrel theatres in history to portray African-Americans. No matter if it was a white man or a black man being depicted on the stage, their faces were covered in black face, a tone of black as black as can be. And, in this Disney film, all of these African-Americans are greatly portrayed in black face and they have no other characteristics drawn out. All they are said to do is to be constantly working and losing all the money that they make. But, we see a drastic difference in the description of the Arab culture by the physical characteristics put together. The large noses, the big eyes, the small stature; all of which are stereotypical characteristics of an Arab person. The saddest thing here, is that these are all just breif examples I have found within the many films you have produced. As a child, I always enjoyed your movies, and I still do. My only problem, is that I look at them through a new window of bigotry and stereotyping. I, as an adult, no better than to belief everything you have put out to the public. But, my biggest concern is that the rest of the population probably does not. As a company greatly known for children's movies and being incorporated into all children's lives, I simply wish for you to be aware of the impact you make and actually do something about it.

1 comment:

Shannon said...

Great letter Amanda. I often hope we will send these documents off to Disney. I wonder what their response would be?