first time around welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’re counting
down our picks for the top ten insanely
racist moments and Disney movies that
you totally forgot about before we begin
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content for this list we’re ranking the
most embarrassing anachronistic or
cringe-worthy moments of racism that
Disney would likely want their fans to
forget or ignore we’re not passing
judgment on the people behind the scenes
at Disney here as many of these moments
were a product of their time but it
should also be discussed how many of
them haven’t exactly aged well number 10
sunflower Fantasia Fantasia was
certainly an early example of a Disney
classic an amazing combination of
classical music and animation that still
holds up today what perhaps doesn’t hold
up so well as a character included on
the film’s initial theatrical run her
name was sunflower and she was a black
female centaur or centaur Rhett who’s
seen waiting on her white brethren
during a segment titled the pastoral
symphony sunflower is drawn with
exaggerated black features and is a
clear example of a visual stereotype
that didn’t need to be there in the
first place perhaps this was the
reasoning behind Disney’s decision to
remove the character from prints
starting in the mid 60s
number 9 Japanese soldier caricatures
commando duck it may seem strange today
to think of cartoons as wartime
propaganda but this was actually a
common practice during World War two
commando duck was one such short by
Disney a cartoon that sees donald duck
parachuting into Japanese territory for
a secret mission the short tends to
focus its plot primarily on Donald’s
battle tactics but there are plenty of
racist moments specifically with how the
Japanese enemy is drawn
Donald’s foes are deliberately presented
with slanted eyes buck teeth and
overblown accents my pardon I bought my
stomach at you berry Reverend that’s all
right happy cherry blossoms to you
please this was certainly due to
anti-japanese sentiment of the time
although it has not aged well when
viewing the short today
number eight conveyor belt mammy doll
Santa’s workshop Santa’s workshop was a
holiday-themed disney short which on the
surface is a harmless tale of st. nick
and his elves getting ready for
christmas
however early versions featured a
troubling scene between santa and a pair
of dolls as the toymaker is overseeing
quality control on the assembly line a
white doll comes down a conveyor belt
says mama and gets approved by Santa
then a black doll tumbles down the belt
says mommy and stamps her own butt as
Santa watches on and laughs given that
the word mammy was slang for a black
nursemaid in the time of slavery and the
dolls exaggerated features
it’s no wonder Disney removed the scene
from all modern prints number 7 King
Louie The Jungle Book King Louie is a
beloved character from Disney’s
adaptation of read your Kipling’s The
but he didn’t arrive without his fair
share of controversy King Louie and his
ape subjects are the only characters
that speak in jive slang popular with
black jazz musicians of the day Richard
M Sherman was one of the songwriters on
the film and has been quoted as
initially wanting jazz legend Louie
Armstrong to voice the king but balked
at the prospect of potentially offending
the n-double-a-cp
with a black man voicing an ape so is
King Louie racist or is it all in the
eye of the beholder you decide number
six
Arabian Nights Aladdin the american-arab
anti-discrimination committee wasn’t too
thrilled with the soundtrack for
Disney’s in 1992 hit Aladdin they took
specific umbrage with a line in the
film’s opening song Arabian Nights where
the peddler sings where they cut off
your ear if they don’t like your face
the committee saw this as disparaging
towards the Arab people and complained
to Disney for a lyrical change the
company did comply and replace the line
for Home Video and on new versions of
the soundtrack the committee was also
reportedly upset about another
controversial line from the song it’s
barbaric but hey it’s home
but hey it’s home but Disney decided to
leave this one in for better or worse
flowers riches ooh I could afford some
manners Oh
number five Native American stereotypes
Peter Pan intent can be a funny thing
especially when it’s perceived much
differently years later this should be
most enlightening Disney’s Peter Pan is
an example of this notion as evidenced
by a shockingly racist musical number
with very innocent intentions the Native
American sequence in the film raises
flags with the song what made the red
man red we’re embarrassing Indian
stereotypes are the order of the day
although the scene is light and bouncy
and tone the effect years later is
rather cringe-worthy in its execution a
blemish on what’s otherwise a classic
slice of Disney nostalgia number four we
are Siamese if you please lady in the
Tramp the intentions behind Peter Pan’s
racism may be up for debate
but it’s a lot more difficult to defend
the outrageous cultural insensitivity
behind the Siamese cats in Disney’s lady
in the Tramp post-world war two tensions
are the only probable reasons behind the
obvious Japanese stereotypes of sy and
em to villainous cats who sing this song
the twins are drawn with the same
slanted eyes and buck teeth we saw
earlier in commando Duck and their
entrance is even marked by a gong
something that hampered Asian
stereotypes in film right through the
80s and 90s number three
shun gan and the alley cats the
Aristocats we continue with Asian
stereotypes here proof that negative
depiction of such characters wasn’t only
limited to the immediate aftermath of
world war two nope Asians were still
being drawn with the same old slanted
eyes and outrageous accents in 1970 as
evidenced by Schengen in the gang in the
Shangaan roles with thomas O’Malley’s
alleycat friends and performs his part
of the song everybody wants to be a cat
with chopsticks and a buck-toothed lisp
he isn’t the only feline stereotype here
however as there’s also Peppo an amorous
Italian and the trumpet playing scat cat
who’s modeled after black jazz musicians
of the 50s and 60s
number two the crows Dumbo the term Jim
Crow was used to describe laws or
regulations designed to enforce racial
segregation in the United States the
lead crow and Disney’s Dumbo is also
named Jim and has received his share of
criticism in the decades since the
film’s release in 1941 although Jim and
the other crows are generally friendly
towards Dumbo the fact that they speak
in stereotypical black slang could
easily be interpreted as lazy or racist
in their depiction of african-american
culture the gang does get to sing the
films most memorable song when I see an
elephant fly but this doesn’t change the
fact that modern audiences might see the
crows in a very different light before
we unveil our number one pick here are
some honorable or in this case
dishonorable mentions
I’m the pull of Brice man I’m working my
way to college number one Uncle Remus
Song of the South Uncle Remus wasn’t a
Disney creation but his depiction in
this 1946 film lives on as one of the
company’s most infamous moments Remus
was a fictional character responsible
for narrating classic african-american
folk tales when he hit the silver screen
however Remus and Song of the South
almost immediately struck a sour note
with audiences for starters the film
never explicitly presents itself as
taking place in a post-civil war south
leading many to believe that Disney was
marginalizing the impact of slavery
there were also a plethora of black
stereotypes to be found which eventually
resulted in the film failing to receive
an uncut home video release in the
United States to this day do you agree
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