"Song of the South"

Hi guys,

I wanted to post the link to a clip of the Disney movie "Song of the South" that I mentioned in class on Thursday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ogVlL9SXg

This link takes you to youtube, and it's a video that shows a bunch of different scenes from the movie, including the "Zipidee Doo Da" song. I remember I used to have a VHS of "Disney singalongs" and included in the tape was this song, and I remember the scene where the song appears, which in itself is not completely racist. It's interesting to see other scenes though and get a little more context.

I also wanted to show you guys another clip from a Disney movie. In the original Fantasia movie, there was a scene in the "Pastoral Symphony" with the Centaurs where a black Centaur named "Sunflower", with very stereotypical black features, is waiting on one of the blonde, white Centaurs and is basically a servant to her. Disney cut this scene out and in all versions of Fantasia after 1966, you will not see Sunflower. When asked about the original movie, the Disney company has been very hush hush and have not offered much insight into the racism in its original context. However, when you search on youtube or other such sites, you will be able to find the original clips.

Here is a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPKpFNm3QMM
Sunflower appears about one minute into the scene.

Last class when we were talking about the Pomona almer mater, some people commented on what happens to our society when we try to cover up bleak parts of our past. This made me think of Disney cartoons and movies, especially the ones made from 1930's to 1960's. Later on, the Disney company has tried to cover up a lot of these scenes that originally showed racial stereotypes, and it makes me think about the type of society we will have if we aren't even allowed to view these scenes in question in order to have a discussion about it. Luckily, there's youtube! But I would love to see Song of the South in its entirety and make my own judgments about the racism present in it.

If you do searches on youtube for "racism in Disney" you will find some really interesting things. Check out some of the stereotypical characters Disney uses. We mentioned Jim Crow from Dumbo, but there's a lot more. Cracked.com did an article on the "9 Most Racist Disney Characters."

The link is here: http://www.cracked.com/article_15677_9-most-racist-disney-characters.html

The article also has links to clips of racist scenes in Disney movies. What's interesting to me is in the original Aladdin movie, in the title sequence, during the song "Arabian Nights", there was a line that said: "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. It's barbaric, but hey, it's home." If you watch Aladdin on DVD, you will not hear that line. They changed it to, "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense."

Check this stuff out and let me know what you guys think. You can tell I'm really into Disney - I might do my final project on it. You can also look up old Disney cartoons - the ten minute black and white shorts - and see a lot of racism in those too. They were made in the 1930's and 1940's.

See you guys in class!

Greer