Greetings Community,
I just joined BNVillage, so I could contribute my 2 cents to this discussion. I'm writing you from the citadel of distortion and deception. No, not Washington, D. C.,.....but Hollywood. Actually from Los Angeles, but for some reason, many equate the two.
Last year, I got an email, that was bemoaning the fact, that Disney had no Black princesses. The writer was soliciting signatures, to send to the Disney Corp. and had acquired about 150when the email got to me. Here's her email, and it's followed by the responseI wrote the sister that was attempting to roust Disney to 'do right by us'.
Sent around the U. S.: May 31,2006
Interesting thought
Subject "How come there's no Princess here that looks
like me?"
Dear Disney Company,
In December 2005, I made my first visit to Disney
World with my family. The experience was breathtaking.
Throughout our journey, the adults were astonished by
how the themes were brought to life. The children were
fascinated and engaged particularly by the Princess',
Minnie's House, the fake snow that fell at night, the
parade, meeting the characters and asking questions as
well as taking pictures with the characters. Above
all, the girls were intrigued by the Princess' mini
shows. However, my daughter had a question. She said,
"How come there's no Princess here like me?" I asked,
"What do you mean?" She replied, "You know, a Princess
like "That's So Raven or Penny Proud". I responded by
saying, "Unfortunately, Disney has not created
fairytales for children like you. In other words,
there are no Princess' of African American descent."
As the evening came to an end, I began to ponder on
her question. I thought to myself...well, why aren't
there any African American Princesses in such a place
where the motto is "We Make All Dreams Come True". I
decided to email your company to ask why. A few weeks
later, I received a surprising call. The woman I spoke
to reassured me that my question and concern was taken
seriously and would be looked into further.
During this conversation, I asked why there aren't any
African American Princesses. The woman stated because
there aren't any African American fairytales. She
said, "Well we have Pocahontas who represents Native
America, Mulan who represents the Chinese, Jasmine who
represents the descendants of the Middle East and the
African Americans have Lion King out of Africa". That
reply left me with the thought that she just compared
African Americans to wild animals. After that
statement, I just laughed and respectfully ended the
conversation. One thing I realized was that I can't
blame her for her response. Disney has not created an
African American fairytale.
As an educator/parent, we all know that through life
experiences what we can touch, see, feel, taste, and
hear leaves a lasting impression. Disney, you hold the
power to make life experiences become a reality to a
melting pot world, which includes African Americans.
Disney's motto is "We Make All Dreams Come True".
Well Disney, my child and other children like her have
a dream and through their Disney experience, they are
depending on you to make it come true.
Thank you,
************************************************** ******************
Here's my response sent to all on the list: 1, July 2006.
Y'all forgive me if I have offended anyone....I was gonna send this to my sister for editing, deleting or approval, but ...oh well....here it comes~
I appreciate the questions that your visit to Disney's playlands elicited. However, I will try to keep my response simple and short, and ask you to pleasenever think I am lacking in compassion for your concerns and feelings.
The greater question for me is, 'Why would you expect Disney to create a character that presented a positive image of the African American life experience? Please do some research, see if you can find a good film library and review some of the first Disney cartoons and characters. I am sure you will realize that just like your good ol' U. S. Constitution, the founders of the Disney corporation held a tainted view of African descended people. In cartoons, just as in the Constitution, the value of our lives was not going to be regarded in the same way as the rest of the race deemed human.Quite naturally, thinking from such ignorance, their images, and characterizations would only depict Black characters to be laughed at (through speech, voice tones and physical movement), regarded as slow thinking, lazyand criminal, or as clowns and buffoons (the jive-talking crows in Disney's DUMBO).
In other words, knowing the circumstances of thebeginning, and the early history, accepting
that for what it is, as being REAL about those phenomena, can help one to frame an undeluded understanding. There's
nothing in Disney's beginning that says they would portray a beautiful sweet lovely African American princess in what they offer in the marketplace.
Now those are just my thoughts onthe Disney Corporation's beginning. However, if you've kept up with their latest shenanigans well documented in the financial and entertainmentpublications in the last 15 years, then you know that the Disney Corporation of todayis truly a hellhole at it's top. The treachery, the scheming, all speak of a value system at work that if buying consumers cared about integrity through and through.....well Disneyland wouldbe shunned.
But we know how life is. People do not really
think deeply, so of course, they don't
look deeply into what really is at work, in the situations and circumstances that we deal with. All that to say, thathumans are extremely influenced by the 'appearance of things', yet phenomena in Life is always much more than what it simply looks like. And here is a key to Disney's success....they play on the appearance, the pristine cleanliness of their parks, the painted smiles on the characters,-----the dazzling GLAMOUR of aprincess in pinkstanding before a beautiful castle that is actually a hollow facade.
My question to you at this point is....Is that what we want our children to buy into? A dream of a life as a 'princess or prince' in the context of the minds of Disney creators, America's value system,or European history as in the King Arthur/Camelot myths. Let me qualify here, European history as we knew it
before films like Braveheart, hit the screen that for the first time, allowed us to really see the type of people (murderous, afflicted with vile diseases, wicked, ugly beings), these'held on high pedestal' kings and queens of England and Europe truly were.
Can we free our minds from wantingsomething, just because it's been glamorously portrayed and promoted to us as being desirable.....but that in truth is really a questionable way to "be in the world". Before we start yelling, "Hey....we don't have that! We should have one too," can we give ourselves permission to QUESTION...DO WE REALLY WANT, DESIRE, OR NEED that? Especially today. Come on my Beloveds....I think we can do better.
In any case, sharing thestory ofprincesses of African descent is primarily our responsibility asparents, blood and extended family members. Researching and teaching truth is also a function ofour role as educators. Disney's role is not to educate or even to enlighten it's audiences.
It is simply a creative business. Whether through animation, marketing of theircopy-written, patented and licensed characters,and or designing theme parks, Disney is about using creative genius tobring greater financial wealth to it's owners. It's not about morals....for all we know, the folks that haverun this business have never even considered the issues thattroubleyou.
In closing perhaps instead of sending 1000 names to Disney to ask them to do something they will probably laugh at,
let us have some fun. Let's do some research, let's tap into our creative genius and see what we come up with. Let's accumulate the names and stories of 1000 'princesses and princes' that we want our children to know about. They can be real histories, and fantasies that teach lessons or just tickle the funny bone. The bottom line is why spend the energy trying to force someone to see your vision?!?! Let's justbring our vision into manifestation. Who knows, the stories may be so interesting, fun and valuable, that they may become a Saturday cartoon show, or a series of books. Today we havethe abilitytouse our creative genius to also design a theme park, that children all over the world would beg and bug their parents to visit.I've had an idea for a retreat site with an area set aside to enable those desiring, to have a virtual experience of certain periods in our history. I invite anyone interested in discussing it, to contact me.
Well meaning, and useful in the past, I question accumulating 1000 names to send to a corporate head. It's an old paradigm.To make an impact, we must come up with
new, fresh, and cutting edge solutions and means
to create the world thatwe'd like to see.Our activities, our movement has nothing to do with anybody else.
We don't need to change Disney. We need to change ourselves. We are endowed with the autonomous authority to make our world. Even if it starts outsmall asa weekend theme park that we pull together with artists, writers, producers, musicians,setdesigners, sound and light designers, story tellers, actors/actresses, engineers, magicians and performers. It could be the final day of the one of our majorconferences (IE: Essence, or the National Black Lawyers, AKA, Delta, Black Educators, Black CivilServants Union, whatever.)
A phenomenal day where everyone pools their talents to give the children
our vision of who and what they are today, who we have been and what we've done here and globally thruout history. Imaginerides and exhibits that demonstrate that we use
these moments of Beingness not arguing,debating,angry or sad
,but GRATEFUL and fulfilled, because the Grace that enables us to capture Divineideals and dreams and quickly manifest them inrealityinsuresthat all the 'giggly ones'* face no blocks in realizing their potential.
Sincerely,
Kentke
Kentke is my sacredname. It is the ancient and formal version of Candace (
pronounced Kendahsi).The name is actually an ancient title from the Merotic civilization, which was located in today's nation of Sudan. The title means Your Majesty, Your Highness, or Ruling Queen, which is the title given to a lineage of women that ruled from 340 BC to 340 AD. The women were priestesses, rulers, legislators and warriors.
Todays Kentke is a writer/producer/actress/educator. Among other functions, she ignites joy and enlightenment by facilitating LaughterYoga sessions in the corporate world.
*'giggly ones' = children, because if they are allowed to be children, laughing isone of the ways they spend most of their time....
PS. Here's a few links.
The firstto a site that asked a question about Blacks in recent Disney movies. I don't consider this authoritative, but just gives you an idea of what the masses think.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=1006030506797
This link I would definately consider authoritative. Read it all,it's definately deals with ourdiscussion.
http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_popular_culture.htm
And to be fair...here's a link to Disney's online educational site, to let you see what they do to offer educators support for classroom and historical curriculum.
http://dep.disney.go.com/educational/lessons?id=202
Below are the Product Notes for the Disney film DUMBO. I showed the short film Dumbo to a primary age audience not too long ago. I swore that the voice of the 'jive-talking' crow, giving advice to Dumbo was that of Rochester, of Jack Benny fame. He wasn't listed, but here's some info on that film, where the Crow character was
undoubtablysupposedto be Black. Interesting too, that though the Crows were supposed to be humorous,as also seen in the Little Rascals films
, the Black character was the one with the wisdom, that ultimately saves the day!
Product Notes
Deceptively simple, beautiful, moving, and hilarious, DUMBO is often overlooked when considering Disney's greatest films because perhaps of its lack of extravagance, its brief running time, and its simple story. Baby elephant Jumbo Jr. is delivered by the stork to his elephant mom with much fanfare but soon receives a cold shoulder from the snobby female pachyderms and the rest of the circus due to his oversize ears. When his mother goes on a rampage in order to protect him from some snickering rubes, she winds up locked away. Dumbo is left without a friend in the world until the street-smart Timothy Mouse decides to become his manager and a telephone line full of
delightful jive-talking crows convince him he can fly. Highlights include Dumbo accidentally getting drunk and experiencing the surreal musical sequence "Pink Elephants on Parade" and a soundtrack packed with such priceless songs as the Oscar-winning "Baby Mine" and the crow's soulful number, "When I see an Elephant Fly." There's nary an imperfect moment to be found in this raucous, tender, sublime film, which has been delighting audiences for generations.
Theatrical release: October 23, 1941.
Rereleased in 1949, 1959, 1972, and 1976.
DUMBO is the fourth full-length animated feature from Walt Disney Pictures.
Shot in three-strip Technicolor.
The film won the 1947 Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Animation Design.
imported post
Sponsored links
Though 
Linear Mode
