The Portrayal Of African-Americans In Disney Movies

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One of the many cultures that are portrayed negatively in Disney is African- Americans. Three movies of Disney particularly stand out and they are Tarzan, The Lion King, and The Jungle Book. Tarzan is a movie set in Africa about Tarzan, an orphan, who is raised by apes. Tarzan believes that they are his family until he saves a women named Jane Porter. After saving Jane he realizes he his women and has to decide which family he belongs to. Even though is set in Africa, there is only English people. According to Caitlyn Olen, “ The only natives that the film portrays are the animals, and the gorillas are portrayed as the “African natives.”” Olen believes that the children learn inaccurate vision of African- American cultures because of how offensive …show more content…
One person in the Mickey Mouse Monoply named Marisa Peralta questioned “Latino characters in Disney movies? Oh, well, one comes to mind, the Chihuahua--and that’s about it.” One of the movies that is focused on in Mickey Mouse Monopoly is Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. Marisa says that the latinos usually will just end up doing things that shouldn’t, like when Alonzo stole a car. Alonzo even gets insulted about women and still wants them even when they insult him more. Manys say that it shows that the Latinos are desperate. In The Lion King they talk about how the bad people are played by an African American and a Latino and their voices aren’t hard to miss. The latinos are portrayed as either being macho or of a greaser bandito. They also are dirty, unshaven, missing teeth, and greasy hair. The macho look is more portrayed in the movie Despicable Me 2 by the character name …show more content…
Erin Winkler is a professor at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. Winkler has her Ph. D which she recieved at the University of California, Berkeley. She did a study called “Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race” which reports on what, when and how children learn racially bias and stereotypes. She found out the children as early as 6 months can recognize an unfamiliar face of a different race than that of their own race. Then the children young as “...two years use racial catergories to reason about people’s behaviors”(Winkler 1). Many studies that Winkler has looked at as shown that children’s views on certian races are not just related to their parents. Winkler states “Children, he argues, are motivated to learn and conform to the broader cultural and social norms that will
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