Quote:
Originally Posted by JoshAussie
Then is it unknowingly racist? Surely (besides the names "red man") Disney hasn't added anything blatantly racist into the show. I just don't think a Japanese child (or any child) without being told specifically why it's "bad" can know that it's racist unless told otherwise. If the name loses it's context then it can't be racist anymore, well it can't be directly racist. It can be indirectly racist, for example if a Japanese child called a black child "red man" would it be racist? Only if the one of them knew the history behind the name. otherwise it's context would be a Disney cartoon.
The topic of racism is to large I do not like these sort of discussions because I am horrible at getting my point across, people often get the wrong Idea (something I may not have meant at all) and can never be bothered trying to explain again.
I do see however, if in any cartoon, there were only 1 black child was called red man and all the asian children (in the cartoon, I say children because im thinking peter pan) could use that to bully another child. But children are dumb, if they are going to pick on each other it's down to bad parenting. What they say has no context (children will pick on other children for any reason if they are going to argue anyway) but by disney singling out a "skin color" to a specific name I see how it's original context could hang around. however, if it in the show there 2 children of different skin color called redman, children could still use it to bully other children but the (here's the word again) original context would not be there. It would just be a disney cartoon and nothing else.
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Well, decide for yourself:
YouTube - Peter Pan in Japanese Part 6/8
Personally, I think that this is terrible negative stereotypical imagery.
The caricatures of red skin, hideous men, and similar bodies make the race unnatractive and takes away from human quality.
The "explanations" of the culture and language makes the culture seem petty and childlike as well as slightly primitive, what with the line, "The red man did not know a lot, but they learned by asking, 'How?'" and the suggestion that "they're red because the first Injun prince kissed a maid and blushed." According to the song, they've been blushing since.
A child doesn't necessarily know what is right or wrong, but that doesn't change the fact they'll grow up believing what they're told. I'll use myself as an example. When I was a kid, I LOVED Peter Pan, and I most certainly did believe the stories from this song.
As for a Japanese child, I don't know. That's an interesting point, because I've been told that there generally isn't an distinction between one race and the other here - "we're all just foreigners." However, even then, if a child were to say that I am "red" because the child put "red" together with "foreigner," I do still believe that's racist. I'm not the correct race the child is thinking of, but he or she still identified me with a red, ugly, faceless caricature with a primitive culture.