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Racist Stereotypes is a negative belief or assumption about a group or an individual based on their race or ethnicity. These stereotypes attribute certain behaviors to people only because of their background without thinking about their individual differences. They can maintain harmful biases and discrimination by reinforcing unequal power dynamics. We need to recognize and challenge these racist stereotypes to promote equality and diversity.

Racist Stereotypes

Disney's Awareness

There are multiple films that before the movie acknowledges the racial content that will follow and adds that instead of viewing it as harmful, they view it as an example to learn from and improve for the future.

This is the new PR warning that Disney has added to some of its Disney plus movies such as Dumbo, Peter pan, Fantasia, and Lady and the Tramp

This warning stays on the screen for about ten seconds.
In 2019 there was a short warning added to Dumbo (made 1940s) “This program is presented as originally created. It may contain outdated cultural depictions”.
In this updated warning there is a link to a video:
- In the video says that what children see when they watch TV sets the framework for how they live their lives. If characters are stereotyped, strange, or one dimensional then it sends them a really powerful message. Singer/songwriter AJ Raphael says how crazy it is that he can't even think of one Asian person on TV who he was able to look up to. Seeing someone who looks like you as the main character makes it feel relevant and makes you feel accepting. “Were committed to reimagining tomorrow and creating a world where we all see ourselves and everyone belongs” - The Walt Disney company.
Since establishing disney plus, disney has chosen not to include its 1946 movie “song of the south”. The movie is unavailable on any platform which is probably because of its racial content of Black Americans
This all shows how Disney and the entertainment industry entirely are confronting racism from the past decades. Other examples besides Disney Plus are HBO max taking down “Gone with the Wind” but then a few months later adding it back with a warning before it plays that it “denies the horrors of slavery”

The New Ariel

In 2019 Disney announced that they would be remaking The Little Mermaid with Halle Bailey as Ariel, and the response was too many racist comments. People would Ariel she shouldn’t be black and if she is, then she isn’t the true Ariel. After getting 1.5 million dislikes on youtube, they even had to hide their dislike option.

On the other hand, Black children who saw this were ecstatic. Little girls would run up and hug Bailey in Disney world when they saw her.

Sherry Hope Culver said it's important to have a black actress play Ariel because their ethnicity is the underrepresented one in terms of Hollywood. Young girls often form one sided relationships with fictional characters, and it's just not fair to the black young girls because it is a lot harder for them to find a role model who is like them to have this relationship with. Having Disney change the character from white to black really leaves a positive image in these girls minds. It’s sad that people weren’t more empathetic towards this. Some people are clearly scared of diversity, and having a huge company like Disney address diversity only adds to people's fear. She hopes that there are white girls who look at this Ariel with as much love as the black girls will. Hopefully Disney has the power to do that.

Roland Williams said it's important because it allows the young generation to appreciate diversity and gives them a better sense of the world we are living in. The whole point of this movie is that it's mythical, a mermaid is never going to look like a human, so it can look like whatever the mind wants to imagine it as. Our society is just trained to imagine the mermaid in a certain way, and that all stems from the history of our country with racism. Many of the times when African American women have been shown in Hollywood, they have been the maids or mistresses in the movies, so now they are finally getting a chance to be the main character who is a princess.

Racism in the Movies

Dumbo (1941) - In the movie a group of crows help Dumbo learn how to fly, the lead crow’s name is Jim Crow which is a reference to the racist segregation laws in the South of the US.

The Princess and the Frog (2009) - La Bouff says to Tiana "Which is why a little woman of your background would have had her hands full trying to run a big business like that." Tiana's dream is to open her own restaurant "Tiana's Palace", and he is suggesting that because of her background she wouldn't be fit to run a big business like this.

Peter Pan (1953) - the movie refers to native people continuously and they call them “redskins”. The original movie had a song called “what makes the red man red” which received so many complaints that it was changed to “what makes the brave man brave”.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) - In the song Be Our Guest (1:35), the animated housewares sing "life is unnerving for a servant thats not serving". This implies that the poor enjoy serving the rich which is exaggerating class stereotypes.

Oliver and Company (1988) - Tito, a Chihuahua, is portrayed as a Hispanic character who gets in fights, chases women, and hot wires cars. This is making a less media portrayed culture be viewed negatively

Disney's Expansion

There was a new show released on Disney plus February 28, 2024 called Iwaju.

This is the first time Disney plus partnered with an external production company. The company is called Kugali which is led by three people from Nigeria and Uganda who are trying to raise representation of African animation.

The new movie is about a girl named Tola navigating through Nigerian Luxury cars that fly over different stuff in the city and everyone must have an AI pet.

Right after it was launched, it was given a 4 star rating which said good stuff along with saying it was such a fast pace and hard to follow. Additionally, people do say that it did a good job showing the economic inequality in the world and also showed how some people lack the technology that other people have.

Iwaju got mostly positive reviews, but many Nigerians are upset with it because even though it's focused on Nigeria they can’t have access to the show on Disney+ in Nigeria.

The Nigeria culture minister said “This is huge for Nigeria because at last we now have our own stories being told from our own perspective”.

Iwaju means future in Yoruba, so hopefully this will impact the future in creating more African centered films.