Essay on Racism in Disney Films

The Mickey Mouse Monopoly documentary reveals the obscure social messages behind the animated films created by the Disney Company. Although we are conditioned to believe that these movies are pure forms of entertainment, further examination has proved that there are hidden messages concerning gender, race and class that Disney is instilling in the minds of children. The speakers in the documentary argue that Disney is extremely political and hides its ideas behind innocence, magic and fun. When masked by features that are appealing to a younger audience, it is difficult to realize these ideas without taking a closer look.

While Disney animated films are the ideal family movies, it is undisclosed to many that such racism is being portrayed. "Rarely do we ask about the origins and intentions of the messages we encounter through mass media; sometimes we forget that [producers] have origins or intentions at all" (Lipsitz 5). The social inequality found in such popular culture can be due to several reasons. According to David Croteau and William Hoynes in Racial Crossroads, media content can be the reflection of producers, audience preference, or society in general (Croteau and Hoynes 352). In their films or other such media, producers often reflect on personal experiences. In other words, they may "draw on their own family lives

Hollywood’s leading animation studio has had many instances of stereotyping and being racially insensitive. Two main examples of their racism towards Native American tribes have been Peter Pan and Pocahontas. In both instances, there have been controversial songs that have the Native Americans at the center. Both depict the stereotypes that are not necessarily true of the tribes.

Through the eyes of the general public we see The Lion King as an entertainment asset but in the eyes of Gail Robertson; a diverse ethnicity towards characters is pointed out. After watching Disney's The Lion King under critical analysis, assumptions can be made that many characters grouped together are by race. In Robertson's Snow Whitey? Stereotyping in the Magical Kingdom, he bashes the fact that within Disney movies “a world filled with racism, sexism, ageism and heterosexism” (42) has to be viewed by the parents in order to understand Disney’s views on each stereotype.

Disney creates gender roles, racial roles, and white supremacy through socialization within their motion pictures. For example, Walt Disney’s “Snow White”, “Fantasia”, and even “The Little Mermaid” all show females as obscenely beautiful, male dependent and flirtatious creatures who couldn’t save themselves from a Chinese finger trap. Males are the perfectly sculpted rescuers who can be easily wooed by a woman’s body; and these exaggerated roles create a false standard for children and can lead to severely underdeveloped sociological skills. Moving onto the racial roles; in the movie “All dogs go to

For many parents, these Disney/Pixar movies are something nice they can show to their children, they grew up on many of them and they wish to share this joy with their kids as well. If one was to walk up and tell them “These movies are fairly racist, you should show them to your children lest they get the wrong idea!” in most cases, they will find them to be just a closet nutcase and ignore that like it never happened. Society and these movies have conditioned the people so much that people cannot even identify the racism present, because when they see it, those cases are not seen in there head as unnatural but the opposite so then it fades into the background and unless asked to focus they probably

Many Americans grew up watching Disney movies. As a child, these films probably seemed innocent. However, scholars would disagree as Disney has been under heat for having racist elements in their movies. One film in particular that has received the attention of many scholars is Dumbo. One Scholar, Sheri Joffe wrote A Critical and Contextual Analysis of the Changes in African-American Character Representation in Disney Animated Films from Dumbo (1941) to The Princess and the Frog (2009), discusses how Disney portrayed blacks. The main topic of the thesis was on how in both films, black characters and caricatures were depicted in a negative light. For the purpose of this essay, only the depiction of black characters and caricatures will be discussed. Joffe analyzed how in two scenes Dumbo had problematic illustrations of blacks. After researching the topic, scholars are of two minds of whether or not Disney was racist in the film Dumbo.

Walt Disney’s animated classics are prominent and affluential for the millennial generation and are loved by many people all over the world, preferably by the western socialized population. Because of its dominance, Disney’s subliminal impacts on children and even adults are presented as an enormous socialization factor throughout Hollywood. Disney’s portrayal of race and culture is predominant throughout its characters, settings and music, specifically in the last 2 ½ decades. The following analysis investigates Disney’s utilization of race and culture, throughout its films and correlates with its awareness in social responsibility. A paramount example would be Disney’s, A Bug’s Life, presenting many key components of race and culture and how the lives of the main characters are impacted as a whole.

Racism: discrimination which exemplifies stereotypical differences between the ethnic groups to which people belong. While Disney animated films are the ideal family movies, it is undisclosed to many that such racism is being portrayed. Disney’s movie Aladdin (1992), “was a high-profile release, the winner of two Academy Awards, and one of the most successful Disney films ever produced” (Giroux, 104); however, what is often disregarded is the obvious depiction of careless racism towards Arabs seen in the illustrations of the characters, the statuses into which they are placed and the lyrics of the opening song near beginning of the film. Furthermore, with the movie disguising itself as innocent and wholesome, children are exposed to these

During the last several decades, the media has become a strong agent in directing and controlling social beliefs and behaviors. Children, by nature, can be particularly susceptible to the influencing powers of the media, opening an avenue where media created especially for children can indoctrinate entire generations. Disney movies, like all other media “are powerful vehicles for certain notions about our culture,” such as racism. (Giroux 32). Racist scenes in Disney movies are often identified as simply being “symbols of the time” when the films were produced. Furthermore, Disney racism is often passed over as simple humor, or as a simple guide to

The mistakes Disney has made as far as racial, gender, and  cultural stereotypes

According to Cheu (2015), Disney films are criticized for their “reliance on racial tropes and racist representation in both their classic films and more recent attempts to create films that incorporate diversity” (p.92). In the films like Pocahontas (1995), The Little Mermaid (1985), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and Aladdin (1993), there are stereotypical images of each woman’s ethnicity and over-sexualization of women of color which highlights their differences and otherness. The portrayal of race in Disney films not only affect its viewers, but it is also a reflection of how our society views and feels about such topics. We will discuss four Disney films that have caught our attention with their racial remarks, innuendos, and portrayals.

It seems like the entertainment icon Walt Disney Company has been around since the beginning of time, entertaining the public with its lifelike and imaginative animations and characters. Nearly every parent and child that has been born in the last century has experienced a Disney animation or film at some point in their lifetime, which has left either a negative or positive impression on them. The experiences with Disney films leaves most viewers with a warm and fuzzy feeling inside or the feeling of happiness, because the films themselves take the viewer on a ride out of their reality into the World of imagination, fairytales, and fantasy. On the contrary some ethnic viewers leave Disney films feeling misrepresents, disrespected, and upset regarding the way that Disney choses to represent race and cultures other than Caucasian in their films. Minorities claim that the Disney Company is racist, and does not take into consideration the cultural differences between ethnic groups but instead deliberately stereotypes and homogenizes all racial groups and protagonist in their films.

Racism in Aladdin Disney movie, Aladdin creates stereotypes that may cause children to believe that Arabians are evil, thus clouding their judgement triggering them to generate unrealistic orthodox opinions. Aladdin is a Walt Disney movie that tells the story of a young poor man named Aladdin. He and is monkey abo survive poverty by stealing food form the market place. One day he saves young women named Jasmine who had gave a hungry little boy an apple without paying for it and was going to lose her hand as a consequence. He instantly falls in love with her and later finds out that she is really the princess.

Many Disney movies can be analyzed to show racism and stereotypes of different minorities. One good example of this would be Aladdin and the images that it conveys about Arabs. The story of Aladdin is a twisted tale of his love for the princess and the manipulation by an evil man who seeks a treasure that can only be retrieved by Aladdin. Throughout this story Disney is able to convey a negative stereotype about Arabs by displaying their religion, sexuality, and behavior in a negative manner.