'Disney's first black princess - a good thing?'

[RebelRising]

On the Walt Disney being a racist thing...

I was responding to a thread about HP Lovecraft, the creator of the Cthulhu 'world', and someone stated how he was a racist, and looking into it, there's some reasonable evidence to point to this.

However.

When he was alive, I don't think 'racism' really existed, as it was just assumed that blacks were inferior in all ways to whites. No-one was thinking 'is this really fair to judge a man on skin colour?'.

Who can tell if, bringing Lovecraft and Walt Disney into this era, and educating them as to how things have changed, whether they would accept racial equality or cling to their own 'knowledge' about race.

On one hand, the question of racial equality had been around ever since the mid-1840's, with the Second Great Awakening, then with various Republican and Abolitionist movements for black rights, then with the movement of blacks into popular culture in the 1920's. Racism was present, and after Reconstruction failed, the question of racial justice had remained dormant for a time

At the same time, Lovecraft was very much a victim of his time and place, having come from a privileged, WASPish, New England background. I don't think his racism was outright malicious, rather, it was just underexposure and preconceptions. I do know that he softened up a bit in his later years, such as when he learned of the atrocities committed by Hitler after World War II; he regretted that the Jews, amongst others, had suffered so much.

Now, a background like Lovecraft's, with as diverse an ethnic background as we now have, and different values, I don't imagine he would have been racist at all really.

 

[Del-Toro]

The Black Princess thing, it's not a bad thing, but when you consider they've covered every other racial base it's not some huge huge thing. That it's actually hand drawn (or at least 2D animation) like the old school Disney masterpieces (I admit to having Snow White on Blu-Ray) is much more intriguing to me. Besides, you can't really blame them, "princesses" in the context that Disney uses were/are more of a European concept than an African one, and it sure as hell didn't transfer over to the new world (there is no heir to the American crown now is there... yet...) and with Walt Disney being who he was it's not suprising that Disney didn't get around to making a black princess, since you couldn't actually just force her into medieval Europe without people calling bullshit. New Orleans works nicely, I think.

 

[Mcupobob]

I want to see the first jewish princess. Everthing is just to gentile in the media. Also want to see the first latino princess.

 

[TheGreatCoolEnergy]

The world would only be truly racially free if a film like this could be released without people even talking about it. Why should there be a fuss? It's a film set in the South, like anywhere, it has black people there. It's the same people who kicked up a fuss when they heard that there was black zombies in L4D2.

And RE5, which was an absolutely stupid debate becuase it was in Africa. But you know the media these days, it's only acceptable to kill white people (which weirdly enough isn't seen as rascist...)

 

[BlumiereBleck]

disney is always looking for new minorities to win favor with. and if i recall correctly this movies idea only came into place after novemeber 9th two years ago. hint hint