Well Disney's film "The Princess and the Frog" has hit the screens. The film has been the subject of much discussion for a few years. Below I share a response I sent to an email I received back in 2006 from a mother that wanted to arouse the Black community to confront Disney Studios about the absence of a Black Princess. This was long before the public had knowledge that Disney intended such a portrayal.
Personally, I hope the public, will boycott the film, for the limiting and stereotypical images that it presents in this day and age. It really illustrates the absence of creative genius in terms of possible story content over at Disney.
It doesn't matter the special effects wonders or how cute the cartoon characters are...if the words coming out of their mouths, and the songs they're singing, and the actions they're involved in are imprinting an ideal that we as people have moved beyond...we need to boycott it and clearly express our displeasure. We also need to dissuade our friends, co-workers and anyone that will listen, to NOT spend their money to see the film, or on any of it's merchandising.
Kentke~
"I thought I was the only one who noticed there were no BLACK princesses. Everybody thinks that when they (Disney) ALLOWED Brandy to play Cinderella, the slate was cleaned.
NOT.
Alison."
Interesting thought
Subject "How come there's no Princess here that lookslike me?"
Dear Disney Company,
In December 2005, I made my first visit to DisneyWorld with my family. The experience was breathtaking.Throughout our journey, the adults were astonished byhow 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' minishows. 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 spoketo 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,
K. Y. H. and others
Please press forward and circulate to everyone in your address book.When we reach 1000 names, return to K. H., of CLT, NC
The "Alison" above was the 114th name when it reached my box.
This was my response.
June 1, 2006
Food for Thought~
Y'all forgive me if I have offended anyone....I was gonna send this to Oreatha 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 please never 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, lazy and criminal, or as clowns and buffoons (the jive-talking crows in Disney's DUMBO).
In other words, knowing the circumstances of the beginning, 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 on the Disney Corporation's beginning. However, if you've kept up with their latest shenanigans well documented in the financial and entertainment publications in the last 15 years, then you know that the Disney Corporation of today is truly a hell hole 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 would be 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, that humans 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 a princess in pink standing 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 wanting something, 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 the story of princesses of African descent is primarily our responsibility as parents, blood and extended family members. Researching and teaching truth is also a function of our 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 their copy-written, patented and licensed characters, and or designing theme parks, Disney is about using creative genius to bring greater financial wealth to it's owners. It's not about morals....for all we know, the folks that have run this business have never even considered the issues that trouble you.
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 just bring 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 have the ability to use 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 that we'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 out small as a weekend theme park that we pull together with artists, writers, producers, musicians, set designers, sound and light designers, story tellers, actors/actresses, engineers, magicians and performers. It could be the final day of the one of our major conferences (IE: Essence, or the National Black Lawyers, AKA, Delta, Black Educators, Black Civil Servants 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. Imagine rides 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 Divine ideals and dreams and quickly manifest them in reality insures that all the 'giggly ones'* face no blocks in realizing their potential.
Sincerely,
Kentke
Kentke is the formal name 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 legislators, priestesses, and warriors.
Our Kentke is a writer/producer/actress/educator.
*'giggly ones' = children, because if they are allowed to be children, laughing is one of the ways they spend most of their time ....
PS. Here's a few links.
The first to 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 authoratative. Read it all, it's definately deals with our discussion.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 undoubtably supposed to 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.
Personally, I hope the public, will boycott the film, for the limiting and stereotypical images that it presents in this day and age. It really illustrates the absence of creative genius in terms of possible story content over at Disney.
It doesn't matter the special effects wonders or how cute the cartoon characters are...if the words coming out of their mouths, and the songs they're singing, and the actions they're involved in are imprinting an ideal that we as people have moved beyond...we need to boycott it and clearly express our displeasure. We also need to dissuade our friends, co-workers and anyone that will listen, to NOT spend their money to see the film, or on any of it's merchandising.
Kentke~
"I thought I was the only one who noticed there were no BLACK princesses. Everybody thinks that when they (Disney) ALLOWED Brandy to play Cinderella, the slate was cleaned.
NOT.
Alison."
Interesting thought
Subject "How come there's no Princess here that lookslike me?"
Dear Disney Company,
In December 2005, I made my first visit to DisneyWorld with my family. The experience was breathtaking.Throughout our journey, the adults were astonished byhow 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' minishows. 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 spoketo 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,
K. Y. H. and others
Please press forward and circulate to everyone in your address book.When we reach 1000 names, return to K. H., of CLT, NC
The "Alison" above was the 114th name when it reached my box.
This was my response.
June 1, 2006
Food for Thought~
Y'all forgive me if I have offended anyone....I was gonna send this to Oreatha 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 please never 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, lazy and criminal, or as clowns and buffoons (the jive-talking crows in Disney's DUMBO).
In other words, knowing the circumstances of the beginning, 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 on the Disney Corporation's beginning. However, if you've kept up with their latest shenanigans well documented in the financial and entertainment publications in the last 15 years, then you know that the Disney Corporation of today is truly a hell hole 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 would be 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, that humans 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 a princess in pink standing 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 wanting something, 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 the story of princesses of African descent is primarily our responsibility as parents, blood and extended family members. Researching and teaching truth is also a function of our 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 their copy-written, patented and licensed characters, and or designing theme parks, Disney is about using creative genius to bring greater financial wealth to it's owners. It's not about morals....for all we know, the folks that have run this business have never even considered the issues that trouble you.
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 just bring 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 have the ability to use 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 that we'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 out small as a weekend theme park that we pull together with artists, writers, producers, musicians, set designers, sound and light designers, story tellers, actors/actresses, engineers, magicians and performers. It could be the final day of the one of our major conferences (IE: Essence, or the National Black Lawyers, AKA, Delta, Black Educators, Black Civil Servants 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. Imagine rides 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 Divine ideals and dreams and quickly manifest them in reality insures that all the 'giggly ones'* face no blocks in realizing their potential.
Sincerely,
Kentke
Kentke is the formal name 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 legislators, priestesses, and warriors.
Our Kentke is a writer/producer/actress/educator.
*'giggly ones' = children, because if they are allowed to be children, laughing is one of the ways they spend most of their time ....
PS. Here's a few links.
The first to 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 authoratative. Read it all, it's definately deals with our discussion.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 undoubtably supposed to 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.
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