Racial Stereotyping in Disney Movies

Introduction

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) notes that kids in the age bracket 2-5 could learn about gender, ethnicity, race and disabilities. Children in this age can distinguish between black and white through toys, pictures and people. The racial identity development, thus, takes place in this age. According to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary, racism is defined as “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and those racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”. Stereotypes are preconceived or oversimplified generalizations usually, but not always, involving negative beliefs about a particular group. Contemporary media has been accused of developing gender and racial stereotypes. Several Disney productions cartoons, including Tom and Jerry and are on the list (Schroeder and Walt Disney, pp. 12-89). Countless acts have been committed throughout the history against those who are different from the rest, either because of their status, color, or religious beliefs.

In fact, the belief in a supposed "race" has been learned from the society stereotypes about those who, by custom or tradition or simple genetics, live in a different way and are very different from us. The film and television, in particular, have served as a vehicle to spread ideas against certain minority groups. Cartoons essentially keep certain innocence and tenderness. However, they have also served for many to vent their anger at the thought of others. Some of the cartoons which contain symbols of racism are Aladdin, Dumbo, The Jungle Book, Chip and Dale to the rescue, and Fantasy.

Discussion

While the Walt Disney movies represent racist stereotypes, they are of interest to a child audience. All age groups can attend with interest to the feature films of Walt Disney animation studio, even though children are more sensitive than adults. These cartoons are also popular for parents because they act as great moral educational lessons and fun. Evil is represented separately, usually associated with ugliness or, until recently still, in the guise of ethnic minorities (Tieck, pp. 141-168). Virtue is being rewarded, vice punished, and it is not a long-stamped Disney animated film that concludes with an optimistic end. Political correctness reigns supreme in the films of Walt Disney. But by wanting to decipher the world of Disney, it is frequently found in cases of projection, that the viewers decipher the film signs in terms of their own interpretive grid. We then witness the aberrations, the feature-length animated Tarzan, produced by the studio in 1999, having been accused by the African American community not to stage as whites (Wilson, Felix and Lena, pp. 84-123). This is much too much to put on the side of political correctness that consists in revisiting the works of the past based on the look of this. Another symbol of artistic conservatism is when Tintin was entitled to the same treatment recently for its colonialist vision of Africa.

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