Reflection Post

Racism in Disney

Disney is a company famous for creating movies that kids love. While young children most likely don't notice the subtle racial nuances, older people certainly do. In many of the Disney classics, the villains are blatantly of a different race. Even in a film like Aladdin, which exclusively features an Arab population, racism is present. Aladdin is a fair round faced boy, and Jafar, the evil Sultan, has dark skin and pointy features.

The lack of diversity in Disney movies is fairly appalling. With over 25 movies to date, the Disney film studio has not really strayed away from the racial depictions. In the film Dumbo, a group of crows have heavy African American accents, and the leader of those crows is in fact named "Jim Crow." Isabel's lecture has pointed also pointed out that homosexuals have never been portrayed in the Disney movies. While the reasoning behind that is that they do not want to expose young children to homosexuality, some can still contend that such a practice is quite prejudiced. Regardless of that, however, Disney has had a history of portraying racist characters in many of their movies.