Disney, for the first time in its history, is about to unveil an African-American princess movie (Happy now Favorite Person?). "The Princess and the Frog" won't be out until December, but it's already creating a stir. In the movie the princess is a cook and the story is set in New Orleans in the 1920s.
Apparently, folks are upset with Disney for a number of reasons including: it's insensitive to set a story about Blacks in New Orleans given what happened during Hurricane Katrina, it's a stereotype to give her a profession as a cook, and the prince has a fair complexion with "decidedly non-black" features.
I'm not suggesting that cartoons over the years, especially those produced by Disney, have not furthered the ignorant notions of stereotypes, but are we being a little too sensitive? Setting a story in New Orleans I think conjures up memories of the intriguing history and beauty of the city; in the 1920s Black women didn't have a large diversity of careers other than cooks or maids, yes some were teachers or nurses but let's look at the majority of what Black women were employed as; and while I understand there are features we normally characterize as Black (I, myself containing most of them), it's an uninformed mind who thinks that all Black folks have wide noses, large lips, and dark skin. We are indeed the most diverse in appearance people in the world.
Disney may very well be sneaking in some biases. I've seen it with my own two (or four) eyes in movies from them. But am I being naive to think that maybe they have good intentions and we are being too sensitive? Is it possible that if there are stereotypes in the movie they were unintentional and arise out of someone's misinformed mind but good intent nonetheless?
1 comment:
Sounds like oversensitivity. Bias and stereotypes are more the norm than not (especially the ones about African Americans), but they don't always spring from a well of negative intentions. They're so prevalent and (often) subtle that the one with the preconceived notion doesn't even realize the notion. Humph...sadly, the more overt stereotypes are often the ones advanced by the members of a targeted group. Some stereotypes have proven to be so prevalent in fact that they can cause the targeted group to grow ashamed of distinuishing characteristics and begin to believe that different means inferior. I know it can hurt and even infuriate the group targeted by a stereotype, but the targeted group doesn't want to become so emotional that an opportunity to inform the misinformed is missed. They especially don't want to miss an opportunity to challenge the acceptance of erroneous and negative preconceived notions within their group.
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