Disney Racism

My grandparents grew up with transistor radios blasting that old Motown sound and other sounds of cultural change. My parents grew up with color television, MTV, and other forms of media that introduced them to a visual world of various cultures never before seen from the comfort of the home. Each generational cohort is marked by a significant and symbolic innovation of cultural expression. It is no secret that my own generation followed suit with the creative phenomenon known as Disney.

Being the mega-vehicle for creative entertainment that it is, Disney has played an integral part in the cultural development of children, including myself, for decades. Also, because Disney has such a large influence on such a large amount of people, it can be assumed that it has used its media to convey certain messages about situations in life. People typically pattern themselves after a standard they feel is real and true – Buddha, Ghandi, Jesus, etcetera. However, in this case, Disney is that standard. The old adage is true, “with much power comes much responsibility.” The question is, has a powerhouse like Disney abused its authority and undermined its responsibility to children across the world?

Like the “Midas touch”, subliminal messaging and brainwashing is found in just about everything the media touches. Think back to a time when you found yourself unintentionally humming the tune to that irritating cereal commercial that got stuck in your head years ago. The generation of children born in the late 1980s to early 1990s – Generation Y – were happily tormented by an onslaught of these subliminal messages through the mass appeal and distribution of cartoons. At the forefront of the cartoon industry – and all other things that kids love – we find The Walt Disney Company. It would seem that Disney has had a monopoly on cartoons since the fifties when they created Mickey Mouse. The importance of this type of media to Generation Y is undeniable. Since the 1980s, the effectiveness of parent-child relationships has diminished as cartoons have uplifted children with a false sense of reality.

With the throng of the ‘great’ Disney movies in the 1990s, children were introduced and transported to fantastic worlds of happy endings, prince charmings, and magical beasts. Little girls waited impatiently for their “magic carpet ride” and dreamt of being whisked off their feet by a handsome Beast. Young boys hoped they would one day stalk their own fair-skinned Cinderella or maybe even free the legs of a red-headed mermaid. Without doubt, Disney films have crafted the most visually compelling expressions of morality and righteousness for kids and have carved themselves into the hearts of millions. But that’s just surface-level entertainment. What do we see when we plung deeper into the message of the films? Evident in such blockbusters as The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas, we find the most fantastic scheme ever devised to program racism, sexism, and blatant disregard for history into the minds of children.

(research-intensive explanation coming soon)