Sex, Race, America, and Disney (response to Susan's post)

[Ebony Elizabeth Thomas]

Susan wrote:

> > It's not PC, I know.  I can be shallow at times.  ;-)
>
>
>Well, we can all be shallow at times. I know I can. But I am
>disgusted by blatant racism and sexism..I don't want it in my home
>nor do I want my kids exposed to it........they of course will see
>all the trash of popular culture later, but why now?

Ah... well, I've experienced both blatant racism *and* sexism on a personal 
level.  Trust me, Disney is *not* it.


>But lots of folks are re-learning how to make crust-- it's real easy
>with a little cuisinart (which is cheap).....
>We are rediscovering that home cooked food is cheaper, more
>nutritious and tastes ten times better.....

Thank God for the turnaround!  Several of my students have serious 
gastrointestinal problems (one of my fifth graders even has an ULCER, for 
heaven's sake... from stress and diet mom says) because they eat fast food 
more than 3 nights a week for dinner!  When your lessons are interrupted 
time and again because of complaints that "my tummy hurts", when children 
are left at school past 6 p.m. by parents who simply did not make provisions 
for them to be picked up (we're a magnet school and take in kids from all 
over the city), and when elementary students nod off in class because "my 
mama don't care when I go to bed... she falls asleep before I do", it makes 
me *angry*.

>Yup, as American as apple pie, and genocide against native americans,
>and lynching of African Americans, and ....this is not about p.c.
>this is about recreating a real culture that we are comfortable
>having our kids learn about!

Every country on this planet has at least one chapter of shame in its past.  
America is not unique in this regard.  America does not have a cornerstone 
on committing atrocities.  We also have many proud and shining moments in 
our nation's history, contributed by all people.

First, on lynching.  You know, my great-grandfather was lynched.  His crime? 
  He owned a store in Alabama at the turn of the century in a county where 
blacks were not supposed to own anything.  There was a mob and a scuffle, 
some knives and a gun.  When it was all over, Great-Grandma Amanda was a 
widow.

His son, my grandfather, was among the first to integrate Henry Ford's 
assembly line 30 years later.  His many civic contributions in the city of 
Detroit caused him to receive many honors on the local and state level.  He 
was also listed as one of the most notable Detroit citizens of the 20th 
century (he'd lived here from 1919 to his death in 1999).

David Bray was erased from history.  James Bray made history.

Now, you might think that my grandfather would have been bitter because of 
what happened to his father... and what it did in turn to his mother.

Quite the contrary.

We were taught by him to value culture, gender, and community.  
Consequently, I love being an African-American woman, and I actually like 
living in Detroit most of the time.  But we were also taught to value being 
American, and to value other perspectives.

Patriotism isn't just for beer-bellied militiamen drilling in the woods.  
It's for women too.  It's for people of color (will be glad in a few years 
when we can toss the term "minority") too.  Shame on mainstream American 
society for letting these clowns usurp what is rightfully ours... what made 
our country great.

And the lack of it will break America in our lifetimes.  I'm sure that we 
will live to see this.  Our country is better in some ways than it was 30-40 
years ago, but in many ways it is a lot worse off.

I say "our country" because while I call myself African American or black, I 
am at least seven to ten generations removed from the Motherland.  My 
ancestors' blood, sweat, tears, and toil helped to make this country what it 
is today.  So the way I see it, I'm just as American as one of those 
militiamen drilling in the woods.

Disney is part of my American culture.  Disney has a legacy that is both 
racist and sexist, but so does Ford Motor Company, which fed my 
grandfather's family.  So do a thousand other governmental and corporate 
institutions.

If I boycotted every institution that fell into the above categories, I'd 
never get anything done.  I wouldn't own a car, watch television, visit 
CompUSA, eat at certain restaurants, or do a thousand other things that 
anyone else does.  I'd live in a shack.  I wouldn't do business with just 
about any financial institution.

And I would have missed out on a lot of great Disney movies.

It's not that I don't care about racial and gender issues.  Race is 
something that all African Americans *must* think about, and think about 
often.  We do not have a choice.  If you forget for a while about the color 
of your skin, be assured that there will be someone who will remind you in a 
hurry.  And I did go through a phase in high school during which I loathed 
Disney... and in truth, loathed most mainstream American culture.  It was 
around that time that I began having my first personal experiences with 
institutionalized and personal racism, and I was highly impatient with 
anything or anyone that either treated me as if I was invisible, a cancer, 
or a cockroach.  Or worse, a spot to be paraded about proudly--"see?  Look 
how liberal I am!  I've got a spot!"  It gave me headaches, which is why I 
made the undergraduate college choice that I did.

And feminist issues vary across the color lines.  This is a well-documented 
and researched fact... another fact is that many African American women feel 
alienated from the feminist movement because *it does not address our 
concerns*.  The recent discussion about title is a case in point:  I'm not 
overly concerned about what will happen to my last name when I marry.  First 
of all, my last name is not that on my birth certificate, and both last 
names originated not from some ancestor, but from some random slaveholder 
who saw my ancestors as chattel.  Second, I'm more concerned with having the 
opportunity to get married at all, as many American black men aged 18-34 are 
not in a position to get married at all, being dead, locked up, or otherwise 
incapable of entering a partnership of equals.

So as much as I'd love to see Disney finally make an animated feature film 
with an African-American protagonist, I'm not holding my breath until it 
happens.

I fight so much in real life.  I've chosen to make fighting injustice, 
inequity, and ignorance my life's work... at considerable financial expense, 
might I add.

But when I watch a Disney movie or visit Disneyworld, I lay down my sword 
and shield for a moment.  I laugh, I cry, I have my faith in mankind and my 
belief in happily ever afters restored.

And I see nothing wrong with that.

>The history channel and pbs and a bunch of other places has stuff
>that is far more interesting, textured, informative and fun than the
>crap that Disney is producing...

The History Channel?  Most of the "history" on that is indeed His Story--the 
story of the Western European male experience over the past 500 years.  I 
certainly don't see much "diversity" on that channel!  I used to like "In 
Search of History" a few years back, but even that doesn't come on regularly 
any more.

I also hate to see history inaccurately depicted.  The winners write history 
over to their liking... and the so-called "ivory tower" of historical 
scholarship is but another cog of the machine that has dominated the world 
for the past half millennium.  Read "Lies My Teacher Told Me", which won a 
National Book Award, and exposed the blatant errors contained in most 
traditional high school history textbooks and documentaries.

I like PBS, Discovery, and other channels too... but my liking Disney 
doesn't negate my enjoyment of them.

>And I will never give up my demands to have heros of both genders be
>nonwhite...

I have heroes and heroines of all races.  Disney wasn't my only source for 
them as a child, and I thank God for that.

I sighed over Sleeping Beauty as a child, but didn't adopt Disney's 
aesthetic standard as my own.  Those standards came from my mother, who 
modeled locally and nationally until I was born, and my young aunt, who won 
pageants locally and on the state level.  I remember when I was a little kid 
wanting to be *darker*-skinned, so I could look like my aunt!  I don't think 
Disney damaged me much in that regard.

And I never expected that "someday my prince would come", like Snow White's. 
  Hip-hop feminist Joan Morgan, Amiri Baraka's daughter Lisa Jones, and 
other young black scholars explain why we understood not to apply Disneyian 
principles into our own lives.  I think it's the same reason why recent 
studies show that African-American teenage girls in general have a 
"surprisingly healthy" body self-image... we know that most of pop culture 
is not intended for us, and so can watch Disney and view print ad models 
with some detachment.  To be sure, I grew up in a majority-black context, so 
black children growing up in integrated neighborhoods (don't get me started 
on integration--that's an entirely different post) may have had different 
experiences.

Now, you have instances like Toni Morrison's protagonist in "The Bluest 
Eye", and Lil' Kim's seeming desire to morph herself into a Barbie doll (not 
to mention Michael Jackson's fading).  Rest assured that these are *not* the 
norm.  Even hair relaxing, the bane of African American women's existence, 
is waning... it really helps that now the *corporate* sector isn't requiring 
us to relax our hair anymore... and the Black Arts Movement of the 60s and 
70s didn't hurt either.  (My hair and I are strange bedfellows... it wasn't 
until my New Year's resolution to stop relaxing my hair that I'm finally 
happy with it.  But that's another story and another post.)  Suffice it for 
now to say that within a generation or two, I fully expect most black women 
will stop frying their hair in shame and realize just how beautiful it is.

Long rant, I know.  Perhaps not very coherent... I'm just coming home from 
school and was with kids all day with no break.  But this post hit a twin 
nerve, and I *had* to respond.  Will respond again if needed.

Closing with a poem by Harlem Renaissance poet Claude McKay.  One of my 
favorites... sums up the way I feel about this country of mine and my place 
in it perfectly... I have my seventh graders learn it.  It's called simply, 
"America".

Although she feeds me bread of bitterness,
And sinks into my throat her tiger's tooth,
Stealing my breath of life, I will confess
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth!
Her vigor flows like tides into my blood,
Giving me strength erect against her hate.
Her bigness sweeps my being like a hood.
Yet as a rebel fronts a king in state,
I stand within her walls with not a shred
Of terror, malice, not a word of jeer.
Darkly I gaze into the days ahead,
And see her might and granite wonders there,
Beneath the touch of Time's unerring hand,
Like priceless treasures sinking in the sand.

--Ebony (who read *Aida* to her fifth graders today and thinks it would make 
a great Disney movie--but again, isn't holding her breath.)

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Ebony AKA AngieJ
ebonyink at hotmail.com

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"Not that great German master in his dream
Of harmonies that thundered amongst the stars
At the creation, ever heard a theme
Nobler than 'Go down, Moses.'  Mark its bars--
How like a mighty trumpet-call they stir
The blood.  Such are the notes that men have sung
Going to valorous deeds; such tones there were
That helped make history when Time was young."

--James Weldon Johnson, composer, Negro National Anthem

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