Essay on Racism in Disney's Aladdin

For my research project I chose the topic of Racism in Children's Literature. I chose this area of study because it is something that bothers me and I know as a child in school I was very uncomfortable with assignments that dealt with racism. One day I would like to make a difference to all the people who are affected by racism. My hypothesis states that if educators are better trained to deal with the delicate subject of racism in children's literature, books would not be banned, yet actually teach the lesson the authors of these books intended for all of us to learn.

These films have included certain features that can be seen as covert racism, a form of racial discrimination that is disguised and subtle, rather than public or obvious. In their film Aladdin, released in 1992 introduced the sixth Disney princess Jasmine, Disney include a song as the opening credits that created great controversy. The original song lyrics were, “Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place where the caravan camels roam. Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face. It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” After receiving negative criticism Disney agreed to change the lyrics of the song after obtaining approval from the song producers. However, the Arabic community was not fully thrilled about the song after the change. It was "nowhere near adequate, considering the racism depicted in 'Aladdin,' " said Don Bustany, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (Fox). In the film, Disney attempts to recreate Arabic culture by including what they believe as producers will represent the culture. “When they show a market where the signs are meant to be in Arabic but are written in a form of gibberish, it implies there really isn't a culture in existence that uses that language" (Shweffi). For their latest film Moana, the producers of the movie attempted to fully capture and represent Polynesian culture to the best of their

What images come to mind as one reflects upon his or her childhood? Playgrounds, blackboards, and soccer balls may be among the fondest of memories. Yet, for many, mermaids swim their thoughts, princesses get swept off their feet, and lions roar to their royal place in the animal kingdom. Disney films have captivated the American culture for years and have become a pivotal part of popular culture as well as a form of education. However, these films have devoured the youth of America and, in the process; have perpetuated an institutionally racist society based on harsh stereotypes. Minorities are often underrepresented, and even completely left out, of many Disney films such as Dumbo (1941), The Lion King (1994), Aladdin (1992), and

How Arabian Nights redactors borrowed love-story motifs from pre-Islamic Iraq and applied them to historical personages such as the caliphal vizier Jafar the Barmecide and Abbasa, sister of Harun al-Rahid. Jafar and Abbasa are then made to behave

Using the language of the moving image, which includes cinematography, editing, sound, music and mise-en-scene, this essay will investigate the ideology of Racism in film. OxfordDictionaries.com describes racism as “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.” When we, the audience think of racism in film, we traditionally think of movies for adults and often overlook the sinister aspect of racism in children’s films. I have chosen to contrast a recent R-rated film with a G-rated Disney movie from the 1990s. Disney films, even up until the 1990s have persistently reinforced the image of blacks or latino and asian races as being below whites. The

In “The Lion King”, Disney uses animals to tell a coming of age story. In this film, characters are used to symbolize racism. From the beginning of Simba’s life, his father forbids him to go to the Elephant Graveyard. Upon further investigation, the viewer learns that the graveyard is resemblant of the ghetto. Even the inhabitants of the graveyard are voiced by minorities and participate in illegal activities one would imagine happening in the ghetto: i. e. stealing food, kidnapping the king’s son. Gail Robertson’s essay, “Snow Whitey?”, states that the “embedded messages [ in “The Lion King”] can only be described as despicable” (43). This essay also on points out the “ghettoization of Blacks and Hispanics” (43). In the film, the integration

Moreover, he has funny and clever ways of stealing and escaping the irrational police with his monkey friend, Abu. Even though stealing is a bad thing to do, Aladdin gives away the stolen loaf of bread for poor children and this portrays him as a hero. The idea of an Arab hero is rarely used in not only by Disney but also the Western media industry as well. Then comes Jasmine, a victimized Oriental woman who is oppressed by the males in her life, a common idea about the women in the Orient. Just like Aladdin, she has an American accent and has a bit lighter skin than other supporting characters. The accent and skin color make the two main characters of the movie superior and help Western watchers

The world of Disney it is not necessarily magic for everyone. In Western popular culture there is an endless buffet serving stereotypical ideologies for racially marked women. The media often relies on representation of articulation of ethnic women as animalistic, inferior and outside the natural. Films tend to utilize signifiers that express race, class and gender to develop characters. For this assignment, I have chosen to critically analyze Disney’s (1992) Aladdin; this movie exemplifies the racialization of female bodies through visual illustrations that reinforce ideas of stereotypical roles of Middle Eastern that have been over-looked through the eyes of children. Aladdin; is considered a modern example of Edward Said’s concept of orientalism from a Western perspective. In this paper I will examine how Disney’s Aladdin perpetuates ideas of ‘othering’ through orientalism, over-sexualized characters and reinforces islamophobia.

By continually representing the Muslim or the Arab as the heartless villain, even cartoon movies contain a biased perspective against the Muslim image in America. All that glitters is not gold, and this is true for films fresh off the reels of Hollywood, as some contain an unfair perspective of Muslims.

Traditionally, Disney tales have a common theme where their princesses or princes’ curses need to be broken by the spell through a kiss of love, so the dream becomes a reality. In the first feature-length animated film from Disney, The Snow White, and Seven Dwarves. Jasmine the princess and Aladdin the street boy both they had chemistry and realized their wishes against Jaffar and Middle-Est culture. Passing over the fabulous story of Ratatouille, Alfredo Linguini and Remy that is the story about rejected someone according is status. Disney animated movies blend social diversity through their tales, but they didn’t realize to go so far until they see the first African – American president in the White House, Disney made a First American princess who is black, The Frog and the Princess. Moreover, Disney animated movies are diversities whose people knew as The Jungle from Indian culture, Mulan is a Chinese tale, the Amerindian- Princess Pocahontas, and so on. Thus, Disney animated movies include more various cultures and teach children to know and appreciate diverse cultures.

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

Disney has been known to have racial messages located within their movies for many years. During the time period when some of the more racial films were made, racism was more common in society. It was not nearly as frowned upon and was more culturally accepted. As time has progressed, the Disney Corporation has also progressed as well. They went from being completely stereotypical and racist against African Americans in Dumbo to having an African American princess in The Princess and the Frog. Many try to find arguments that show Disney is no better today than it was in 1940’s, but it is evident that Disney no longer wants to be seen as a racist and impure company. In their newest animated film, The Princess and the Frog, the lead character

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

Even the most seemingly harmless of __ can change the way we treat peopl. In Aladdin, Aladdin is a street rat until he finds a magic genie lamp, which can grant him three of his wishes. However, the villain Jafar, who put him up to finding the lamp, has a different idea for its uses. In the end, Aladdin has to save Princess Jasmine and the city of Agrabah with the influential help of the genie from Jafar and his evil forces. In Disney’s Aladdin, the culture in Agrabah is presented through an orientalist lense, suggesting the population in Agrabah needs, wants, and would be better off with the influence of western culture; this representation is in order for Disney to justify the United States cultural colonization.

BlackRock is one of the world’s largest asset management firms with over 5 trillion assets under management. It’s a multinational investment management firm, based in New York City. It manages the assets and also provides guidance to investors like individuals, financial institutions and professionals. BlackRock started its operations in 1988 and was founded by eight people; Larry Fink, Robert S. Kapito, Susan Wagner, Barbara Novick, Ben Golub, Hugh Frater, Ralph Schlosstein, and Keith Anderson.They started this organization with a shared view of providing asset management and risk management services to institutional clients. Transformational leadership and advanced technology paved the way for BlackRock’s success. BlackRock has its own investment platform called Aladdin, which combines trading, risk management and client reporting. BlackRock as an investment and risk manager is distinguished with the Aladdin’s capacity for insight. Aladdin also laid down foundation for BlackRock Solutions Business.