I blog for the editorial page of my local newspaper and I am often told (in so many words) "to move on" and "stop bringing up the past." (That pesky "racism" topic is soooooo passe).
Easy to say; hard to do. ~(no)rave! --- In [email protected], bruce harden <bhsleepystude...@...> wrote: > > walt was a whiteman in that period a sheltered white man lets move on. > > On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 12:57 PM, Mr. Worf <hellomahog...@...> wrote: > > > > > > > Disney was a racist period. Let's move on. > > > > On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 12:34 PM, Kelwyn <ravena...@...> wrote: > > > >> > >> latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-disneyrace22-2009nov22,0,978597.story > >> > >> latimes.com > >> > >> ESSAY > >> > >> Walt Disney -- prince or toad? > >> > >> The studio pioneer's detractors insist that he was racist and mean. A > >> deeper look shows that the truth about the man is far more complicated. > >> > >> By Neal Gabler > >> > >> November 22, 2009 > >> > >> > >> Even before it opens later this week, Disney's new animated feature, "The > >> Princess and the Frog," is already considered something of a cultural and > >> animation landmark. After centering cartoons on a Middle Easterner > >> ("Aladdin"), a Native American (" Pocahontas"), an Asian ("Mulan"), and a > >> Hawaiian ("Lilo & Stitch"), Disney animation has entered the post-racial > >> era. The new film features a black protagonist alongside the green one. > >> > >> It has been a long time coming, but it is an event that, if you believe > >> Disney detractors, would have old Walt spinning in his grave (or his > >> cryogenic chamber). > >> > >> That's because there is a long-standing belief among those detractors that > >> Walt Disney was anything but the amiable, avuncular, kind-hearted figure he > >> appeared to be on his television program and in his promotions. The real > >> Disney, so this version goes, was a rabid reactionary who was intemperate, > >> crabbed and mean -- racially and ethnically insensitive at best, a racist > >> and anti-Semite at worst. Under his supervision, the Disney studio was > >> inhospitable to minorities, few of whomwere said to have workedthere and > >> they were virtually verboten on the screen, except to be ridiculed. > >> Disney's > >> was a white, Protestant, middle-class studio and fantasy. Minorities need > >> not apply. > >> > >> How much of this portrait was the product of a smear campaign by Walt's > >> enemies and how much a product of Walt's own unenlightened attitudes is > >> difficult to determine. What one can say is that the truth about Walt > >> Disney > >> seems much more complicated and nuanced than either his enemies or > >> supporters would have you believe. > >> > >> Labor fight > >> > >> Disney came by those enemies honestly when his animators staged a strike > >> in 1941 complaining of paternalism and low wages and Walt responded by > >> hustling the supposed union ringleaders off the lot and firing other union > >> members to quash their organizing. Even after the four-month-long strike > >> was > >> settled -- under duress by the federal government -- the wounds did not > >> heal. Disney would feel betrayed for the rest of his life by what he saw as > >> ungrateful employees. The aggrieved employees got their own measure of > >> revenge by portraying Walt thereafter in the least flattering light. Most > >> of > >> what we hear about Disney as a racist or anti-Semite was circulated by > >> animators who had struck in 1941. I know, because several of them made the > >> same charges to me when I was working on my biography of Disney. > >> > >> Unquestionably, especially after the strike, Disney was a political > >> conservative by way of anti-communism. He was certain that the strike was > >> instigated by communist agents in the Screen Cartoonists Guild who were > >> determined to sully the Disney brand -- this after Disney had been extolled > >> by the left for years for his collaborative enterprise and exemplary > >> working > >> conditions. > >> > >> Though Walt was something of a political naïf -- he had no interest in > >> politics before the strike and little after it -- he was an easy recruit > >> for > >> the most reactionary elements in Hollywood. They enlisted him to join an > >> organization called the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of > >> American Ideals that was really dedicated less to preserving American > >> ideals > >> than to ridding the film industry of leftists. This was Walt's war too. > >> Still, the organization was so toxic to much of Hollywood -- many of its > >> members were known anti-Semites -- that even such staunch anti-communists > >> as > >> Louis B. Mayer and Jack Warner declined to join. > >> > >> And yet even if Walt were guilty by association -- and he was -- it would > >> be unfair to label him an anti-Semite himself. There is no evidence > >> whatsoever in the extensive Disney Archives of any anti-Semitic remarks or > >> actions by Walt -- only a few casual slurs by his brother Roy. Moreover, > >> Joe > >> Grant, the one-time head of the Disney Model Department and an esteemed > >> story man, was Jewish, as was Harry Tytle, a longtime production executive, > >> and the head of the Disney merchandise arm was a Jewish entrepreneur named > >> Herman "Kay" Kamen, with whom Walt was especially close. Though the studio, > >> as one of the only ones in Hollywood not operated by Jews, had the > >> reputation of being less than minor- ity friendly, prompting Tytle to > >> confess to Walt that he was half-Jewish. Tytle told me that Walt responded > >> by quip- ping that he'd be better if he were all Jewish. > >> > >> This doesn't mean that Walt was particularly sensitive to minorities. He > >> was, after all, a Midwestern Protestant by temperament as well as birth, > >> and > >> he seemed to subscribe to many of the ethnic stereotypes of his time. "The > >> Three Little Pigs" featured the wolf dressed as a Jewish peddler -- a > >> characterization that the American Jewish Congress protested was so "vile, > >> revolting and unnecessary as to constitute a direct affront to the Jews." > >> (The scene was reanimated years later.) Walt could refer to Italians as > >> "garlic eaters" and used a variety of crude terms for blacks, according to > >> materials at the Walt Disney Archives -- though there didn't seem to be any > >> malice in these words, just obtuseness. To this day, many regard the crows > >> in Dumbo as broad stereotypes. But Walt was no closet racist. At home he > >> always preached racial, religious and ethnic tolerance to his two > >> daughters. > >> > >> The main evidence for Walt's racial insensitivity, however, is "Song of > >> the South," his 1946 combination of live action and animation based on the > >> Southern folk tales of Joel Chandler Harris, known as Uncle Remus, which, > >> though set in the Reconstruction era, makes the black former slaves seem > >> dependent upon and excessively grateful to their former owners. From any > >> modern racial perspective, the film is cringe-inducing, and it isn't much > >> mitigated by Remus, played by James Baskett, being the most dignified and > >> sympathetic figure in the movie. (Its reputation is such that to this day > >> it > >> is not available on DVD in this country.) Indeed, "Song of the South" seems > >> to give credence to the idea that Walt was clueless when it came to race. > >> > >> A firestorm > >> > >> But Walt anticipated these criticisms and actually went to great lengths > >> to make the film as racially sensitive as he could. He hired a Jewish > >> left-wing screenwriter, Maurice Rapf, to do a draft of the script because, > >> as he told Rapf, "You're against Uncle Tomism and you're a radical." Before > >> signing Baskett, he approached the black actor, singer and leftist activist > >> Paul Robeson to play Remus and asked him to review the script. And he sent > >> the script to a number of black notables for comment, including the actress > >> Hattie McDaniel; the secretary of the NAACP, Walter White; and, via his > >> friend producer Walter Wanger, Howard University scholar Alvin Locke. Walt > >> even did something that he had done on no previous film: He invited White > >> to > >> the studio to work on revisions with him. White begged off, saying he was > >> too busy. In short, Walt did everything he could plausibly do to get input > >> from the black community. The usually peremptory man was anything but > >> peremptory here. > >> > >> Yet Walt was more politically obtuse than he was racially obtuse. When the > >> film opened, he was stunned by the firestorm of protest from African > >> Americans who thought it was condescending and demeaning, among them Walter > >> White, who complained to the New York Times that the black-white > >> relationships in the film were a "distortion of facts." Former admirers, > >> like the producer Billy Rose, condemned Walt as well. One group, the > >> Theatre > >> Chapter of the National Negro Congress, picketed theaters where the film > >> was > >> shown. Walt came to blame the black actor Clarence Muse, ironically one of > >> those he had solicited for suggestions. Muse, he said, had wanted the role > >> of Remus, and when he didn't get it, he turned to black newspapers to > >> attack > >> the film. > >> > >> But remarkably for a man who took everything personally, this > >> disappointment did not sour Walt on race relations the way the strike had > >> soured him on unions. He successfully fought to get Baskett an honorary > >> Oscar when Baskett fell seriously ill shortly after the film's release, and > >> he was especially solicitous to Baskett's family. > >> > >> Moreover, his later live-action films typically promoted racial tolerance, > >> and he was much more sympathetic to Native Americans than most of his > >> contemporaries. One scholar, Douglas Brode at the University of Texas, has > >> even made a persuasive case in his book "From Walt to Woodstock" that > >> Disney's films, by encouraging conservation, community service, skepticism > >> toward authority, wariness toward materialism and identification with the > >> marginalized, were a major force in fostering the counterculture, including > >> its promotion of racial sensitivity. > >> > >> All of this, of course, is very much at odds with the prevailing portrait > >> of Walt Disney the archconservative. But when "The Princess and the Frog" > >> opens in Los Angeles and New York on Wednesday, it may turn out not to be a > >> contradiction of Walt Disney's racial vision; it may be a fulfillment of > >> it. > >> And Walt will be resting quite comfortably in his grave. > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> ------------------------------------ > >> > >> > >> Post your SciFiNoir Profile at > >> > >> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/app/peoplemap2/entry/add?fmvn=mapYahoo! > >> Groups Links > >> > >> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scifinoir2/ > >> > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > -- > > Bringing diversity to perversity for over 9 years! > > Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/ > > > > > > >
