We are not racist, we are just....

Disney once again tries to justify their use of stereotype, which will always receive negative criticism. One of the negative criticism of Disney is from Macleod's "The Politics of Vision: Disney, Aladdin, and the Gulf War." At the beginning of the chapter, it is clear to us the Disney tries to deny any sort of speculation or cynicism toward Disney's portrayal of race. Pro Disney scholars argue that Disney is not racist at all. One of the biggest excuses Disney makes is "Despite this mounting evidence, Disney continues to insist that its animations are fantasies that have nothing to do with life today"(184). This is probably the worst lie Disney could ever make because Disney makes money off of portraying social norms in its films. Take the topic of racialize animals, Disney portrays racialize animals and still manages to profit so much from the film shows that the public accepts this form of racism. Not only are Disney films racist, they are perpetuating a larger problem: society is racist. The fact that people "accept" these stereotypes portrayed in Disney films just shows that people also accept these standards in real life. It doesn't take a scholar to understand that Disney will always use dark colors for villains and light colors for the heroes. Since children have no concept of race and color, Disney's animation film is even more dangerous. If the child's first exposure to race is from a Disney film, they would probably favor being "white" implicitly. Think about the negative impact it has on a black girl watching Disney films growing up. Her race is not represented up until Princess and the Frog. They can immediately tell that they are not the same skin color as Cinderella, Little Mermaid, etc.

However, I do want to also critique Macleod's chapter. Her argument that Jafar looks like Hitler is too stretched. They look nothing a like. Also, her argument about orientalism, Aladdin, and the Gulf War don't quite match up. There is little evidence to show that the US government was cooperating with Disney to create propaganda to support the Gulf War. Nevertheless, Macleod brings a great point about race in Disney films.