Was Walt Disney Racist Essay

The mouse we all grew up to love and adore, Mickey Mouse, the face of the Walt Disney Corporation, has a racist past. Although he was initially created to become a satirical character, he ended up as the face of racism as well. Sadly, not many are aware of Mickey Mouse’s cartoon shorts, Mickey’s Mellerdrammer and The Opry House, which incorporate blackface in a minstrel and vaudeville show. Considering, that these films were made in the early 1930s, it is not surprising that they contain racist ideals. Thus, this raises questions about Disney’s past. It even makes me wonder if this all started from the creator, Walt Disney, because many assume that “Walt Disney himself was a famous anti-Semite, and under his direction, notoriously racist and sexist films were completed” (Dague 1). For instance, after the Mickey Mouse debacle, films, such as Pocahontas and Peter Pan; contained racist characteristics. Ironically, Disney always reiterates the importance of teaching a moral lesson, so it is quite baffling that they would have forms of racism and cultural appropriation in their films.

In 1955, Disneyland was created by Walt Disney because of his love for cartoons and continued to be built by Roy in 1966 after Walt Disney’s death. Walt Disney was born December 5, 1901in Chicago, Illinois. He did not have the idea childhood due to his family being financially unstable and his father was not the nicest to him. As a child Walt’s father Elias believed in corporate punishment and beat him regularly. Since the family was poor, they had to move around a lot so they could find jobs. Walt and his brothers were forced to get jobs at young ages to help pay the bills for the family. In 1910, Walt moved out to a farm in Kansas City, Missouri. On the farm, Walt would sketch the animals with charcoal and that was when he developed his love for drawing cartoons.

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

The Walt Disney Company, more commonly known as Disney, is a company that was founded in October 16, 1923 by brothers Walt Disney and Roy O. Disney under the name of Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio. The company eventually changed its name to the current Walt Disney Company in 1986. The company was headquartered in Burbank, California. The company is a public company that has diversified to live-action film, television, and even theme parks.

Walter Elias Disney was an American animator, voice actor, entrepreneur, and film producer. He is known as a national cultural icon, and became famous around the world for the American animation industry. Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney quickly developed a love in art and drawing. He moved to Hollywood in the early 1920’s and set up the Disney Brothers studio with his brother Roy O. Disney. He made characters like Mickey Mouse, Pinocchio, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, and Bambi. In the 1950’s Disney opened up Disneyland, an amusement park that focuses on his creations. Disney was a heavy smoker throughout his lifetime and died of lung cancer in December 1966. However, there are two key facts about Walt Disney that stand out, the fact that people accuse him of being

Influencing our youth and future world leaders, Disney can create a racist society. Disney’s films have the capability to create a racist culture in the near

The Walt Disney Company started off on the dreams of one man, Walt Disney. He started the Walt Disney Studios in 1926 to make animated films for children but was not satisfied with his accomplishments. As his motion pictures and television programs became successful, he felt a desire to branch out. One area that intrigued him was amusement parks. As a father, he had taken his children to carnivals and other entertainment enterprises, but he always ended up sitting out the rides while the kids had all the

Walt Disney started out by producing short animated films in 1922 and in 1928 introduced Mickey Mouse, the world most famous cartoon character shown in Figure 4 below (Olsson 1996; Kramer 2002). Following this breakthrough, Kramer (2002) found that Disney proceeded innovatively with new film technologies of sound and colour that resulted in the first successful animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.

The Disney Corporation has had both positive and negative effects on American society. Disney has majorly affected both the youth and adults in America by way they interact with each other, what they expect from each other, and how parents bring up their youth in harsh and unrealistic expectations according to Disney. Disney has fostered a strong sense of imagination in the past, present and future youth of America. This sense of imagination is necessary to the development of children when it comes to success in life and self-confidence. The Disney Corporation knows how to work it’s audience for a profit and mastering that skill has allowed Disney to accumulated billions by advertising and selling fantasies to young children and their parents. It’s also these very ideas that influence what Americans believe our government and policies should be founded on. In “The Mouse That Roared” the author states “Education is never innocent, because it always presupposes a particular view of citizenship, culture, and society. And yet it is this very appeal to innocence, bleached of any semblance of politics, that has become a defining feature in Disney culture and pedagogy” (Giroux 31) This quote defines Disney at large. Disney has created the idea of ‘imagination’ in American society and perpetuates it in everything America does and influences everything America stands. In everyday American life, politics and business, The Disney Corporation has a hand in it.

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 Walt Disney Company started as a small entertainment company in 1923 (Disney.com, 2011). Since that time the company has used various strategies enabling them to grow into a global entertainment company.

After losing everything, Walt and Ubbe decided to create another cartoon character now known as Mickey. After creating a series of short cartoons Mickey became the world’s most popular cartoon character in the 1930s. Walt created his first full-length animated musical feature in the production of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” which exceeded over $1,400,000 in profit (IMDb, 2010). Throughout 1937-1947 he continued to create full-length movies such as “Pinocchio”, “Fantasia”, “Dumbo”, and “Bambi”. Following his cartoon success, Walt

The Walt Disney Company was first founded in 1923 by Walt and Roy Disney (Wasko, 2011). It was first known under the name of the Disney Brothers Studio, before changing its name in 1986 (Disney’s history of magic: Timeline, 2013) (Timeline, 2013). In 1927, Mickey Mouse was created and soon became the symbol of the Company (Wasko, 2011). Internationally recognized for its animation, the Studio was the first to present a ‘’full-color cartoon’’, Flowers and Trees, which later went on to win ‘’ […] the first Academy Award for Best Cartoon’’ in 1932 (Wasko, 2011). Five years later, Disney released Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, its first ‘’full length animated film’’(Timeline, 2013). It wasn’t until 1940 that the Company became public and, therefore, available to be traded on the stock market (Timeline, 2013). Fifteen years later, Disney was opening its first theme park in California under the name of Disneyland (Disney’s history of magic: Timeline, 2013). Incidentally, the

Founded on October 16, 1923, Disney was known to be one of the largest media and entertainment conglomerates. It had specialized in television, radio, and theme parks & attractions. Walt Disney and his brother Roy produced many short animated films starting with their series of collective films called Alice Comedies and quickly gained their success from there. Within months, the Disney brothers created their own studio and thus the creation of Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, and the rest of the Disney characters was born.

To maintain this competitive advantage and market share, Disney set a goal of releasing two feature–length films per year, in addition to a large number of shorts. As the company was skyrocketing in sales and revenue, Disney began to scale up, and employee base grew sevenfold and they even built a new studio in Burbank. In order to finance these new additions, Disney Brothers Studios went public in 1940. World War II was a sluggish time for Disney so in 1944 Disney began another trademark tactic of re-releasing its full-length classic cartoons every few years so as to capture the interest of all the new generations of children. This strategy became an important source of profits for Disney. After the war ended, Disney diversified further by creating Walt Disney Music Company to control music copyrights and to recruit the finest artists. Disney took the diversification strategy to new heights by offering