For years the Walt Disney corporation has been viewed a racist company and the only ethnic cartoon characters they presented were animals or terrible stereotypes. This is a link that brings attention to what people think are the top most racist characters from Disney, http://www.listal.com/list/racist-disney. Well my recent discovery bright some light as to why the world has been saying this for so long.
Just under a month ago my god-daughter receive a Disney princess adventure hut for her birthday. I immediately notice that the ethnic princesses like Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Tiana were nowhere on the play hut. I then began to wonder exactly how long ago the hut was designed and looked to the ever google search engine. Not only did I find out that the hut is relately new, the that Rapunzal became a Disney princess in 2010, when Disney released the film, Tangled.
I was told that my disvovery was just me over reacting and there were other huts that featured those missing princesses. This particular play hut featured Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White, Aurara (Sleeping Beauty), and Belle.
I then began to look up the different huts that were available on the toys-r-us website, and out of the five different models only one displayed those other characters. I called the local toys-r-us to see how many of the specific model they had available and they were “sold out” of that particular one. A sales associate informed me that the store only orders a certain amount of each item so when they are out of one item they’re just out, but you have the option to order online. For example, if a toy store orders 50 units of each product and 20% of the products feature characters of the minor, that 20% would be “sold out” before the other 80%. But my question is; why isn’t there a equal amount products distributed to the same toy store? When it comes to boy toys and girl toys there are equal amount of product in the stores, so why not for the majority and the minority?
A lot of people blame it on the area that the toy stores are in, and on what product they think parents would be more interested in buying for their children. I refuse to blame it on the demographic of a specific area. Not only is thing matter shown in the products Disney release, but in the children’s movies. While looking into this matter I ran across an article from Libby Brunette, Claudette Mallory & Shannon Wood titled, Stereotypes & Racism in Children’s Movies http://www.nhaeyc.org/newsletters/articles/Racism_in_Childrens_Movies.pdf . In the article, it basically spoke of how young children are introduced to racism through movies alone. It listed a few movies where the unlined racism didn’t go unnoticed.
Disney is sending the wrong messages to the youth. By being the leading company in children’s entertainment, kids are inspired and influenced by what they see through Disney. Much like society, Disney is painting a one dimensional picture of what is acceptable in the worlds eyes. By putting accents on certain characters sways the mind of children. Disney puts out a message that if you do not speak with an American accent or have fare skin than your not good enough or good at all. So what do we do as a society? How do we teach our children that what they see in their favorite movies isn’t always the best? Do we try to fight one of the biggest entertainment corporation in the world and let them know that what they doing isn’t right nor fair, or do we continue to think… is Disney being absent minded or racist???
– Deon
The Deon Blog 