10 Offensively Racist Moments In Kids Movies That You Never Noticed
Kids movies, by their very nature, are generally quite lighthearted and innocent.
Anything that's aimed at the younger generation should have as little offensive material in
it as possible - but that's not always the case.Disney in particular - as you'll see
in this video - are guilty of some truly terrible racism.
Granted, most of the movies in this video are quite old - so it's a tiny bit more understandable
- but there are some modern movies - both Disney and non-Disney - that have some really
shocking racism and racial stereotyping in them.
In recent times, Disney have become known for their sensitivity and awareness about
being politically correct.
This year, for example, they've tried to tackle the subject of racism quite admirably in Zootopia,
but other movies can't say the same.So, let's take a look at ten offensively racist moments
in kids movies that you never noticed.
Despicable Me 2 Whilst still an enjoyable movie, Despicable
Me 2 didn't quite live up to its predecessor for a number of reasons - and one of those
reasons is undoubtedly its portrayal of fairly racist Mexican stereotypes.
The movie's main villain Mexican - and he's presented in quite an offensive way.
An obese Mexican restaurant owner with a mustache and a gold chain around his neck, "El Macho"
had a very thick accent and, when he spoke, he sort of danced around in a way that suggested
the people behind the movie just assumed all Latin people did that.
Moreover, his son Antonio was presented as an exaggerated version of the stereotypical
smooth "Latin lover" - and he even ended up cheating on his love interest, Margo.
Happy Feet It's hard to imagine that a movie about penguins
could possibly be racially offensive to the Latino community, but Happy Feet managed to
be exactly that.
The Arctic in the movie had an area best described as a "ghetto", where the supposed underclass
lived, that managed to incorporate pretty much every racist Latino stereotype.
The late Robin Willams' character, Ramón, was a prime example of this.
There were bad Latino accents, words like "Mami" and "homies" being thrown around, and
there were passionate Latin lovers.
To be saying this about a movie made as recently as 2006 is quite unforgivable.
Fantasia In the original release of this classic Disney
movie, there was a character included who is now seen as being very a controversial
creation.
“Sunflower” was a small, dark-skinned centaur with braided hair who was a servant
to the larger, light-skinned, blonde and dainty centaurs.
The implications of black slaves working for white people are obvious but, these days,
the scene has been removed from the movie, so you won't see it without looking online
or into the archives.
But it was definitely there back in the day and it's a prime example of Disney being incredibly
racist.
Dumbo Dumbo is one of the cutest Disney characters
to ever grace the screen, and it's both difficult and sad to say that his movie was tarnished
by some quite despicable racism.
For example, jet black crows appear in the movie, one of whom is called "Jim Crow" - a
reference to the Jim Crow racial segregation laws that existed in the USA until 1965.
There is also a scene that shows faceless black men performing menial labour, whilst
singing songs about how they never learned to read or write - that scene in particular
is arguably one of the most offensive and cringeworthy movie scenes of all time.
Song of the South Disney have actually not allowed the sale
of Song of the South since the 1980s - it's that unabashadly racist throughout.
For starters, there is a character called the "Tar-Baby", which is seen by many as a
derogatory term for African Americans.
The character is involved in a scene in which he gets caught in a beehive and, on Disney's
Splash Mountain rides, Br'er rabbit is depicted in the scene instead, as the character is
currently seen as being unsuitable for modern viewing.
Another character in the movie, Uncle Remus, is a black ex-slave who comforts another character
called Johnny with various tall tales about mythical animals, who themselves are mostly
terribly racist stereotypes.
Peter Pan There's an extremely offensive racial stereotype
in the Disney classic Peter Pan - and it relates to Native Americans.
Following Peter's rescuing of Princess Tiger Lily, she takes him to meet her father - Big
Chief - and his tribe of “Indians.”
The tribe break out into song and that’s where things start getting offensive.
The song is called “What Makes the Red Man Red?” and was meant to teach Peter and the
Lost Boys about Native Americans and their culture but, in hindsight, it was very racist
indeed, and its lyrics suggested that their skin was "red" because the first "Injun prince"
kissed a girl and it made him blush.
Surely you agree that that's highly inappropriate.
Lady and the Tramp Lady and the Tramp has a couple of very racist
aspects, not least in the form of the movie's cunning and sneaky villains, Si and Am. Si
and Am are Siamese cats who are portrayed with stereotypical Asian speech and, for want
of a better term, stereotypically slanted eyes.
They also move in complete symmetry and have no individuality - as if suggesting that they're
"all the same" in that sickening old-fashioned way.
The movie also has Pedro, the chihuahua with exaggerated Mexican attributes, but that's
not quite as bad.
The Little Mermaid In The Little Mermaid, there are a number
of problems regarding racist portrayals of characters.
For example, Ariel's friend Sebastian the crab has a Jamaican accent and advocated staying
"Under the Sea" because you don’t have to get a job down there.
Disney really do have a terrible history of portraying dark skinned people as being lazy,
which is absolutely awful.
In addition to that, the Duke of Soul and Blackfish characters are made to look and
sound like popular black musicians and singers and are drawn with much more prominent and
plump lips than the other characters.
The Jungle Book The Jungle Book features an abundance of great
and beloved characters, but there's something inherently racist about a particular type
of animal in the movie.
The society of apes in the movie were quite obviously meant to demean black people.
They speak with African American accents and sing about a desire to be human, with lyrics
describing how they want "to walk like you" and "talk like you" - all of which had an
offensive minstrel show feel to it as well.
In fact, the ape leader - King Louie - was quite obviously modelled on legendary black
jazz musician Louie Armstrong.
Thankfully, the live action 2016 remake of the movie didn't make the same mistakes as
the classic version.
Aladdin Aladdin is the only movie on this list in
which the lead character himself is actually quite a racist creation.
In spite of the fact that Aladdin comes from the same Arabic nation as the other Arab characters
who are portrayed as barbaric savages, he is basicalled designed as a white character.
Moreover, Jafar - the film's main villain - is depicted with far more striking Arab
features than he is.
The movie is essentially saying that people with Arabic appearances couldn't possibly
be portrayed as heroes, and that the more Arabic in appearance a character is, the more
evil they are - which is absolutely horrific when you think about it.
Thanks for watching our list of 10 offensively racist moments in kids movies that you never
noticed.
Did this video intrigue you?
Can you think of any other kids movies with racist moments in them?
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