First of all, it should be obvious that this movie is set in the late 19th Century after Reconstruction, and not in the time of slavery.
The graceful, leisurely tone of the movie obviously depicts the fully mature rural America of the late 19th Century and not the rough frontier society of the slavery days or the booming Imperial drama of the early Hollywood depiction of the old South, and was obviously meant to represent the America that Walt, who was born decades after the end of slavery in 1901, knew when he was growing up in Missouri.
Walt Disney's Song of the South is Not racist because it depicts the ordinary life of Black sharecroppers in the early years after Reconstruction and the end of slavery!
And it is certainly not racist for showing these people trying to be happy anyway in the face of such difficulty!
This is not racist- it's Black history!
It's chronicling the conditions that 'Black' people triumphed over to give us the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis!
Now I will admit that this is a subject that is really, really hard for a movie to do justice to, as movies so thrive on the spectacular and beyond the ordinary.
Below at the bottom of the page (the P.P.S.), I will tell you of a song that treats this important period in history better than any movie or novel ever has.
But the attempt should not be shamed, even if telling the Uncle Remus stories is far more central to the movie that treating history is!
Walt's mission in his life of teaching us to keep our head up and rise above difficulties, like his Cinderella and Snow White, called for a focus upon what the Uncle Remus stories can teach us, and of the attitude of holding your head high and trying to be happy anyway, just like Walt's Cinderella and Snow White, and not on the difficulties of the wider Black history of this period. Just as Snow White does not dwell on the fact that someone tried to murder Snow White, but rather shows our hero starting her life over anew, the movie dwells upon what the Uncle Remus stories can teach us, and how we can hold our heads high and be happy anyway.
Keeping up hope and trying to be happy in the face of the difficulties of sharecropping and appreciating that your people are finally free is not something to be ashamed of!
To smile in the face of tears like Louis Armstrong of old is not weakness or lowering yourself to ridicule- it's strength, to be admired! Only a fool would ridicule Louis Armstrong for his smile in the face of difficulty! Walt certainly did not! For these were his values too! (And mine as well! To me Louis Armstrong is a hero when he smiles, a hero like Captain America or Superman!)
Why are we so ashamed of happiness in the face of difficulty?
Why do we think that it is equated with ridicule?
Why do we celebrate rap music depictions of Blacks being gangsters and call it racist when Blacks are depicted as being happy and holding their head high and smiling in the face of tears- and not the other way around?
Walt himself certainly did not ridicule these values! He took them seriously and admired them! This was the central message behind Disney's Snow White and Cinderella- to keep up hope in the face of difficulty!
This is not racist- it's Anti-racist!
This is Black History!
This is preserving the memory of a real period of time, and the kind of stories that helped 'Black' people in America keep their hopes up, and the conditions that they triumphed over!
And the portrayal of this period in the movie is not meant as a portrayal of Black life in general in that period, which is not the subject of the movie, but to give a portrayal of the cultural backdrop of those who originally told the Uncle Remus stories, and the message of the stories to keep your head up in the middle of difficulties, which specifically prevents there from being scope for portraying the difficulties of Black life in this period.
The difficulties of Black life in this period are implied in the simple fact that they are telling stories of keeping up hope- the same values that allowed Disney's Snow White and Cinderella to overcome abuse and even, in Snow White's case, an attempt on her life, but the movie is about the stories and the keeping up of hope and not depicting the difficulties in detail. They are there as the implied need for the stories, and in the Black heroes taking the role of the abused Snow White and Cinderella
But the Uncle Remus stories too are Black history, and it's okay to have a movie devoted to their cultural backdrop specifically and not Black life in general!
Because it would be very difficult for a single movie, let alone the framing story of a kid's movie, to encompass the whole scope of Black life in this period!
You can take issue with the accuracy of the movie, but a movie doesn't have to be perfect science to be innocent of racism! Since the point of the movie is the uncle remus stories specifically, and not a portrayal of the period in general!
And the uncle remus stories are a very real achievement of Black Americans in this period!
Don't let the memory of this important period in Black history in America die!
Don't forget the quiet process of quietly building a new life for ourselves that led out of slavery to the triumphs of people like Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix!
And don't let keeping up hope in the face of difficulty become something that we are ashamed of!
Walt himself was certainly not ashamed of it! To him these were heroes!
This is Black history!
And telling this Black history is Anti-racist!
Don't let the memory of how our Black brothers and sisters quietly built a new life for themselves and their descendents and the conditions that they had to work themselves out of- and in this movie, the stories that gave them the hope they needed- don't let the memory of these things die!
For this is Black History!
This is the story of what we triumphed over!
And one more thing... for the completely clueless, this movie is not in the time of slavery- it is in the post-Reconstruction late 19th Century, before Blacks had a chance to seek new homes in places like Chicago!
God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
P.S. I may not be Black, but when my Black brothers and sisters triumph, I triumph too, for they are family!
P.P.S. This period in history is not really suited to cinema. I love cinema, most of my influences and literary heroes are from cinema and not literature, and there are not a lot of limitations to cinema, but cinema thrives on the spectacular, the beyond the ordinary, the brightly colored and bold, and things that move around seeking or searching or seeking out a goal, and this is a period of quiet, ordinary holding on, a difficult subject for storytelling poorly served by most forms of storytelling, and better suited to simple country, gospel, and blues songs, where the music can carry the emotions and the necessary forward motion, and there is less of a need for a driving plot. Perhaps only music and poetry among all forms of storytelling could really possibly do justice in any way to post-reconstruction, pre-jazz Black life in America. For a real worthy treatment of this period in history, which gets to the truth that is between the extremes of Disney's Song of the South and Spielberg's The Color Purple, look up the wonderful Kenny Rogers song 'Reuben James'. A simple blues, gospel, or country song that tells a story does justice to this period in history in ways that no other medium possibly could. Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple is probably as good a treatment of this period of time as a movie or a novel or anything similar possibly could, even though it hardly represents typical quiet ordinary life in this period, but that is exactly the point- a movie or a novel would need to sensationalize this period in history into something dark and nightmarish, or simply use it as background for something else (like Disney does), to give the driving plot necessary, while poetry or music can get around this with the power of its music. Getting up day after day, ignoring the taunting, and simply working the fields and holding your head high does not make for a driving plot, but it makes a fine song. If you really want to get to know the truth of this period of Black history, seek out this wonderful Kenny Rogers song, written by Alex Harvey. It's called 'Reuben James', and it pays tribute to the simple spirit of holding on and rising above it like nothing else but a country or blues or gospel song ever could!