Disney's Upcoming Blockbuster to Spin a Fairytale of Black History
"Blacks were never subservient to whites?" Kids say the darndest things.
At least, they will after viewing Disney's upcoming "The Princess and the Frog," the unwittingly controversial introduction of Disney's first black princess. Alas, nobody warned Mickey about portraying pre-Civil Rights Act blacks in today's Don Imus world. Now the company has a political nightmare on its hands, and in its continuing efforts to mollify the race police, Disney has rewritten American history against the interests of our nation's children.
In the past, Disney has smartly stuck to the safe territory of retelling European fairy tales, exploring the secret lives of animals and personifying objects. These stories easily avoided controversy. Mickey and Minnie were mice but never multiplied like mice; Aladdin and Co. were all the same race; and the beast didn't eat the beauty.
The backdrop for Disney's newest fable, though, is much different. The story takes place in New Orleans during the Roaring Twenties, when the jazz was hot, the gumbo was hotter and segregation thrived.
People get a little sensitive about that last part, and they've been fighting to excise it from the film.
In the original script, the black princess worked in a Cinderella-esque role as the chambermaid for a rich, spoiled, white Southern debutante. It was a role undoubtedly played by thousands of young black women at the time, and it fit well into the story.
Unfortunately, it also reminded people of the unpleasantness of past race roles. Some people objected to the portrayal, and instead of defending the story, the producers gave in and quietly changed the script.
You see, kids? It's like racism never even happened!
There's more lunacy where that came from. Originally, the princess was named Maddy. But the "moniker mafia" protested that Maddy sounded a bit too much like Mammy, the slang name given to the period's matronly black women, like Aunt Jemima and Scarlett O'Hara's slave in "Gone with the Wind." ...
Read entire article at The Guardian (student newspaper, UC San Diego)
At least, they will after viewing Disney's upcoming "The Princess and the Frog," the unwittingly controversial introduction of Disney's first black princess. Alas, nobody warned Mickey about portraying pre-Civil Rights Act blacks in today's Don Imus world. Now the company has a political nightmare on its hands, and in its continuing efforts to mollify the race police, Disney has rewritten American history against the interests of our nation's children.
In the past, Disney has smartly stuck to the safe territory of retelling European fairy tales, exploring the secret lives of animals and personifying objects. These stories easily avoided controversy. Mickey and Minnie were mice but never multiplied like mice; Aladdin and Co. were all the same race; and the beast didn't eat the beauty.
The backdrop for Disney's newest fable, though, is much different. The story takes place in New Orleans during the Roaring Twenties, when the jazz was hot, the gumbo was hotter and segregation thrived.
People get a little sensitive about that last part, and they've been fighting to excise it from the film.
In the original script, the black princess worked in a Cinderella-esque role as the chambermaid for a rich, spoiled, white Southern debutante. It was a role undoubtedly played by thousands of young black women at the time, and it fit well into the story.
Unfortunately, it also reminded people of the unpleasantness of past race roles. Some people objected to the portrayal, and instead of defending the story, the producers gave in and quietly changed the script.
You see, kids? It's like racism never even happened!
There's more lunacy where that came from. Originally, the princess was named Maddy. But the "moniker mafia" protested that Maddy sounded a bit too much like Mammy, the slang name given to the period's matronly black women, like Aunt Jemima and Scarlett O'Hara's slave in "Gone with the Wind." ...