Secondary Research 3

For more data, I personally watched the Disney film Peter Pan. It was sickening. All the scenes including the Native Americans were hideously racist. As a result of this film, children will think that all Native Americans sit cross-legged and say "How". Also, the Native Americans were always wearing warpaint. Is Disney trying to show that all Native Americans are constantly fighting? This movie has been giving misconceptions to so many little children who do not wonder if what they are watching is factual or not. All they want is to have fun. They do not know that they are being fed other people's racist opinions. This is pitiful.

Bibliography

Robertson, Gail. "Snow Whitey? Stereotyping in the Magical Kingdom." Canadian Dimension Sept./Oct. 1998:

Shaheen, Jack. "Aladdin Animated Racism". Cineast. July 1993: P. 49.

Reflection

After seeing all of the data supporting my opinion that Disney is racist, my stance has been strengthened. I had already known that Disney had a tendency to be racist, but all the data, reviews, and movies that I have recently seen make it so much apparent in my mind. I will never watch another Disney film without criticizing it for its lack of diversity or misrepresentation of people groups. Oh well. They weren't that good anyways.

Conclusions

From my obviously extensive research, I have deduced that Disney is, indeed, racist. All of the movies I watched had some misrepresentation of a culture or people group. Every article and movie review I read about Disney films have said that Disney is portraying its non-white, non-male characters in an offensive light. Last but not least, the majority of the people that I interviewed believed and showed that they thought that Disney is racist. I think that this compilation of data clearly shows that Disney has shown itself to be at least mildly racist.

Interpretation of the data

This is a good representation of what I am trying to prove.














I'm surprised that anyone thinks that shows its non-white, non-male characters anything more than fairly.













I'm glad that Nemo did not get any votes. It is the best movie of all time. It's crazy, though, that people think that Shrek I was racist.
















It's kind of lame that everyone tends to choose neutral whenever possible, but besides those, everyone chose to say that Disney shows women more negatively than other movie-makers
















This is a good graphic representation of the point I am trying to make. Disney is racist. End of story.

secondary research 2

Second Article:
Aladdin Animated Racism-
Does it make sense that one of the most racist Disney films is the most financially successful? I find this sad. The opening song is bashing the heritage of as many Arabs as there are people in the U.S. If I were Disney, I would not want to aggravate that many people.
Also, the video is in the stereotypical desert castle setting, with poverty, thieves, harem girls, and sketchy looking vendors. What a great way to portray a culture.
And why are all the Arab soldiers in the movie lacking a sense of justice? When the princess takes an apple and gives it to a starving child, a soldier tries to cut off her hand. When Aladdin cuts in, the soldier screams something about taking his head for a trophy. Again, why has Disney chosen to show Arabs this way? For entertainment.

Primary Research

For my primary research I plan to conduct a survey asking people's opinions about Disney and its lack of diversity and racism/sexism.

Here are my survey questions:
1. Disney is
a. strongly racist
b. mildly racist
c. neutral
d. mildly diverse
e. strongly diverse

2. Of the following movies, which do you think is the most racist?
a. Nemo
b. Aladdin
c. Shrek
d. Twilight

3. Who is the least diverse?
a. Pixar
b. Disney
c. Dreamworks

4. How do you think Disney portrays its non-white, male characters?
a. super-negatively
b. mildly-negatively
c. neutrally
d. mildly-positively
e. super-positively

5. Pixar portrays women more negatively than Disney
a. strongly agree
b. agree
c. neutral
d. disagree
e. strongly disagree

Secondary Research

For my secondary research, i plan to view articles and videos that prove that Disney is indeed, racist.

So far I have come up with only one article: Snow Whitey? Stereotyping in the Magical Kingdom
It said that kids spend more time viewing the media than learning in a classroom, and that we should realize that children take a lot more away from the average Disney movie than one would suspect. What kind of messages is Disney giving to children?
Disney is very sexist. In Lion King, the mother is subjected to a supporting role. During The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, the women in the movies have no aspirations other than leaving their perfect lives to pursue a prince, who in Beauty and the Beast is abusive and bad-tempered. Also in The little Mermaid, Ursula says losing your voice isn't a bad thing, "Men don't like women who talk too much".
Disney is also pumping racism into its movies. In Aladdin, the opening song bashes the Arabic culture describing it as "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" and "It's barbaric, but hey, it's home". Furthermore, every Arab in the movie has a beard, is overweight, and has an overly large nose with the exception of Aladdin, who looks and speaks like an American. These movies are not ethnically diverse, they are downright racist.

Questions to be Answered

Why has it taken until 2010 to have a black princess in a Disney movie?

What message is the lack of diversity in Disney movies giving to the viewers of the films?

When the writers of Disney have chosen to use diversity in their films, how are the foreign cultures portrayed?

Research Topic

For my research topic, I will investigate the lack of diversity in Disney movies.
I, like many of you, have watched many a Disney movie during my childhood. Until the past few years, I have just let the subtleties of the films just pass through my head. But as I have recently noticed in their films, the writers of Disney seem to be a wee bit racist.
Now that I have come to such an obvious realization, I will investigate in depth just how Disney tends to display foreign cultures in these classic movies that everybody seems to love.