This is a subset of "Yes: Note" - return to full list
Songs are listed by movie / musical / source material
*GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
The SAT Subcommittee has carefully considered this issue and concluded that we should evaluate songs in this category on their own merits.* However, such songs cannot be fully separated from their originating movies/musicals or source material/author. Therefore, we are rating songs in this category as YES: Note, providing all pertinent details regarding the issues with the originating movie.
Ultimately the SAT is an educational tool, so unless a song itself is racially problematic (as established by a careful review of the song’s history, lyrics, and message), our role is to provide all related research details to Sweet Adelines members so they may make the best decision for their ensemble and audiences.
*Zip a Dee Do Dah, however, remains inadmissible because within the movie, Song of the South, it is used as a direct vehicle for the highly problematic message (see research document).
My Strongest Suit is admissible because there are no issues with its lyrics and message. It is a song from the adapted musical version of Aida, the Verdi opera. Aida has less of a problematic history than Turandot. Unlike Puccini’s Turandot, which was composed with no real connection to the area it represented, Aida was commissioned specifically by Egypt’s rulers at the time and premiered in Egypt. The reason it’s problematic today is because it is still common for the performers--if they are white or light-skinned--to perform in blackface. It is becoming less common, but still happens regularly.
While this isn't blackface in the American minstrel tradition, blackface (or brown- or yellowface) is nevertheless highly problematic and negates the existence of and denies opportunities for talented performers of color.
Anna Netrebko, Aida, Opera, and Race | The Mary Sue
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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[Song] is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The Disney movie for which it was written--Aladdin--is problematic. The story itself (pre-Disney) and the 1992 movie (which this song is from) play on stereotypes:
“The Aladdin story, not just the Disney film, has always been associated with depicting Arabs and Muslims as barbaric, uncivilized “others,” following a long pattern of anti-Muslim attitudes in Hollywood. Film critics should consider commentary and scholarship by experts as they review the current Disney production.” reference
The 1992 film revels in a lot of Orientalist stereotypes: Its mythos reeks of mystical exoticism, with Agrabah explicitly described as a “city of mystery.” Jasmine is a princess who longs to escape an oppressive and controlling culture; her ultimate aim is to gain enough independence to marry for love rather than political expediency, which made her strikingly evolved for the time but seems hopelessly limiting now. Meanwhile, her father, the sultan, is a babbling, easily manipulated man-child. The citizens of Agrabah are frequently depicted as barbarous sword-wielders and sexualized belly dancers. Worse, the opening song, “Arabian Nights,” originally contained the ridiculously racist line, “They cut off your ear if they don’t like your face / It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” reference
Please carefully review the info and references above. If you select this song, please consider thoughtful emcee content to introduce the song with regard to its positive message in contrast to the issues with the movie, Aladdin.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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This song is admissible and does not have problematic lyrics or message. The 1997 animated musical film Anastasia from which it originates has -- despite being a fictionalized account -- been heavily criticized for taking excessive liberties in the retelling of Russian historical events and its representation / omission of historical characters.
Many historians criticized the film as a sanitized, sugar-coated reworking of the story of the Czar's youngest daughter. While the filmmakers acknowledged the fact that "Anastasia uses history only as a starting point," others complained that the film provides its audience with misleading "facts" about Russian history, which, according to the author and historian Suzanne Massie, has been falsified for so many years. Similarly, the amateur historian Bob Atchison said that Anastasia was akin to someone making a film in which Anne Frank "moves to Orlando and opens a crocodile farm with a guy named Mort."
Reviewer Leith Skilling notes:
But the film doesn’t just paint an inaccurate depiction of one historical figure’s life. More offensively in my opinion, it also makes the laughable decision to portray all of Anastasia’s family as heroes, whose opulent existence is justified because of how elegant and righteous they are. The truth is that the Romanovs (specifically Tsar Nicholas, Anastasia’s father) were tyrannical aristocrats who unknowingly orchestrated their own destruction. And in reality, the Bolshevik Revolution was spurred by Russia’s poor and battle-worn citizens, who rose up in protest of the Tsar’s crimes against his people – they were not inspired by demons under the control of the mystic Rasputin.... Obviously, movies are going to mess around with the truth: animated family movies especially. But who makes an animated family movie about a brutally murdered Tsarist princess to begin with?
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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Reevaluation: Apr 9, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
This song, written for the 1977 musical Annie, is admissible because its lyrics and message are not problematic. The song also appears in the popular 1982 film Annie, "which includes racist stereotyping in the form of bodyguards Punjab (Geoffrey Holder) and The Asp (Roger Minami)" [1] (Punjab and The Asp do not appear in the musical or its 1999 adaption.)
"The 1982 adaptation is ... riddled with racist undertones, most notably with the character of Punjab. Punjab’s role in the film is solely to be the magical, mysterious Indian man with supernatural healing powers. We see Punjab make objects levitate, control a barking dog, fix a broken leg, and much more using only his mystical mind. There are no other actors of color in the movie, and it’s disheartening that the only actor of color is depicted as a wizardly enigma." [2]
"If ever there was a learning opportunity to examine the “magical negro” racist trope, look no further than the character Punjab, a magical powers-wielding supposedly Punjabi Indian (played by Geoffrey Holder--the late Tony Award winning Trinidadian-American actor) who serves his wealthy master/pet orphan while entertaining them with flights of fancy including telekinesis, shotput-twirl-bomb-throwing, and life-saving-by-helicopter/unraveled turban." [3]
References:
[1] Annie (1982) Movie Review | Common Sense Media
[2] Taking a Look at the Three 'Annie' Movies, What Worked and What Didn't
[3] You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Life-Saving Magical Turban, AnnieCast Changes, Rewrites and More: From Yesterday to "Tomorrow," Annie's History on Stage and Screen
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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Reevaluation: Sept 19, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible because it contains no racially problematic messages or lyrics. The 1946 Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun from which it originates has been criticized for its portrayal of Native Americans. Common Sense Media notes that “the movie's depictions of Native Americans are extraordinarily dated at best and outright racist at worst -- Native Americans are depicted as ignorant savages who frivolously spend money on things like eclairs and speak broken English and make Annie an honorary Native American during a cringeworthy song called I'm an Indian, Too."
In Singing Redface Christina Giacona notes:
Annie Oakley goes through an 'Indian' ritual in order to become Indian. During the ritual she repeats back phrases in Hollywood Injun English, is given a feather, and then starts dancing as the music transitions into the song I'm an Indian Too.
They sit cross-legged with their arms folded across their chests, and they raise their right hand when then say 'how.' Their wide-open mouths quiver while they sing, they have huge, humped noses and strong angular chins, and exaggerated facial expressions.
Like many singing-redface songs, racial slurs are used to racially reference the characters in the story. I am not suggesting that the songwriters or performers viewed terms like 'Indian giver,' 'Injun,' and 'squaw' as slurs, but it is important to understand that language changes meaning and that many of these pejoratives have been protested against for generations."
Many modern productions address these issues. For example, regarding Peter Stone's 1999 Broadway revival (which won two Tonys, including Best Revival of a Musical), John Larr notes in Show and Tell: New Yorker Profiles that “I’m an Indian Too has been cut from the new version, and where the Native Americans were once the butt of the show’s jokes, they’re now the agents of them.” And Michael Phillips writes in the LA Times:
Among other tasks, Stone and his collaborators felt they really had to do something about all those “scalping” gags. They were typical of the free-floating, jokey patronization found in the Annie Oakley tuner. So were the Berlin lyrics referring to “very notable, cut-your-throatable Indians” or, in “I’m an Indian Too,” the line about “Hatchet-Face” and “Eagle Nose.”
The 1491s, a Native American sketch comedy group, lambast I’m and Indian Too in their satirical video in which they are garbed in exaggerated, stereotypical "Indian" costumes, complete with feather headdresses, face paint, and fringed clothing.
Additional References:
Annie Get Your Sensitivity Training
What to Say About … Annie Get Your Gun
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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Reevaluation: Nov 3, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
Reevaluation: Nov 3, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
Reevaluation: Nov 3, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible because its lyrics and message are not problematic. The movie from which this song originates, the 1934 musical Anything Goes, has been criticized for its titular song containing racist language and its depictions of the two Chinese characters (Ching & Ling) have been characterized as racist. The song, "Anything Goes", contains "c**n" in the original lyrics: When ladies fair who seek affection / Prefer c**ns of dark complexion / Anything goes!" These lyrics were changed early in the performing history of the song. [1] Please see Blackface Minstrelsy & C**n Songs to learn about the harms of the term and the c**n song tradition.
One reviewer made this observation in his published review of the musical:
Anything Goes, the latest production in the Iowa City Community Theatre’s (ICCT’s) 61st season is a fairly entertaining show until it is marred at the end by racism in the script.
I would rather not be talking about this. I would rather be talking about the spectacular performances of several in the cast. And I will. But the racism needs to be addressed and called out.
Here’s the set-up. The play features two young male Chinese characters. Unfortunately, they were played by two white performers. That was bad enough. But the reason the characters are in the script at all is so their clothing can be taken and wore by two white characters, who then appear on stage in Chinese costume, shuffling their feet and speaking broken English.
This isn’t a difficult call. This isn’t a gray area. No one would hesitate for a moment to call two white performers playing two African characters racist, nor would they hesitate to call white characters coming out in the garb of some African tribe racist. Doing that with Asians is the exact same thing as doing it with blacks. It’s racist and it’s unacceptable. [2]
Although subsequent revivals and films attempt to address some of the issues to varying degrees, the racist depiction of the two Chinese characters as well as other negative stereotypes, continues, even in some modern day performances.
Yellowface is more prevalent than many think, and even honored, in a way; there are more white actresses who have won Oscars playing Asian characters (Best Actress Awards for Luise Raines, The Good Earth and Linda Hunt, The Year of Living Dangerously) than there are Asian actresses who’ve won playing Asian characters (Best Supporting Actress for Miyoshi Umeki, Sayonara). Additional details and references may be found in reference [3].
Another song from Anything Goes, “You Bring Out the Gypsy in Me” is still present in many productions. See the Reviewers’ Note for Love Portion #9 to understand the issues with the use of the term “Gypsy.”
Although a 2024 production of Anything Goes by Porchlight Theater Productions, updated the characters to remove the racially stereotyped portrayal of Chinese gamblers, they left the scene where a character repeatedly refers to his Romani lineage by repeating the phrase there’s a “gypsy in me.” as well as the song “You Bring Out the Gypsy in Me”.
Porchlight did make changes to the script to modernize the more problematic aspects of “Anything Goes.” The two orphan characters, played by Hickey and Soli, are traditionally very racially stereotyped Chinese gamblers. One of the ending jokes of the show is Billy and Moonface Martin dressing up in the clothing of the Chinese men and pretending to be Chinese to escape the jail cell on the ship.
In Porchlight’s version, Billy and Moonface Martin are instead dressing up in the clothes of young boys that are visually too small for them. The latter is even walking on his knees for some scenes to pass as a short child. For them to be conscious of changing this racist aspect of the script, but not to do anything to address “The Gypsy in Me” is a disappointing aspect of the production.” [4]
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author.
[1] Excerpt from A Cole Porter Companion
[3] Yellowface: What it is, why it’s bad, and action steps to fight it
[4] Theater Review: Porchlight’s ‘Anything Goes’ is Easy to Love
SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
[for phrases from It's De-Lovely and You're the Top]
Reevaluation: Sept 3, 2025: change from YES to YES: Note
Come Follow the Band is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The show Barnum from which it originates is problematic in that it whitewashes and does not address the serious issues with its protagonist.
As Jackie Mansky notes in Smithsonian Magazine:
P.T. Barnum’s path to fame and notoriety began by exploiting an enslaved woman, in life and in death, as entertainment for the masses. ... [He also featured] an African-American man billed as “a creature, found in the wilds of Africa...supposed to be a mixture of the wild native African and the orangutan, a kind of man-monkey.” [Such displays preyed on ideas of African inferiority and racial othering.] Similar racial othering permeated the rest of Barnum’s “living curiosities,” from the “Aztec” children who were actually from El Salvador, to the real, but exoticized, “Siamese Twins,” Chang and Eng.
If you’re looking clear eyed at Barnum, an undeniable fact of his biography is his role marketing racism to the masses. “He had these new ways of making racism seem fun and for people to engage in activities that degraded a racially subjected person in ways that were intimate and funny and surprising and novel,” says Benjamin Reiss. “That’s part of his legacy, that’s part of what he left us, just as he also left us some really great jokes and circus acts and this kind of charming, wise-cracking ‘America’s uncle’ reputation. This is equally a part of his legacy,” [as well as exploiting people with disabilities and animals].
Additional References
'The Greatest Showman': Cruel, Racist History Goes Unmentioned in Flick
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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March 7, 2024: This song has been REEVALUATED from YES to YES: Note
The song is admissible, having no problematic lyrics or history. It is the theme song of the popular children’s show, Bluey, which has faced notable criticism regarding race and ethnicity, primarily centered on its use of language with problematic racial connotations.
In 2020, Two episodes (Teasing and Flat Pack) were removed from streaming by ABC Broadcasting Company due to the use of the term “ooga booga”. The two episodes have been edited to remove the term. A viewer complained the episode included "a term with racial connotations and a problematic history for Indigenous Australians" and broader Western contexts.
About the use of “ooga booga,” one viewer , wrote:
"I know to many, you just see this word as ‘caveman speak’, or in the harmless way the writers clearly did too. But … I’m in my 40s, and I well remember a time growing up in Western Sydney where the phrase ‘ooga boogas’ was used conversationally to describe a dark-skinned person. It was used in social circles, in movies or TV depicting black indigenous people as ‘uncivilised fools’."
Additional mentions: 'Derogatory': Children's show Bluey tweaks episodes after complaint
In another episode, Granny Mobile, Grouchy Granny used the term “cattle dog” to Chilli, a term that has been interpreted by some as a subtle reference to prejudice between groups, albeit unintentional. There was no action taken by the network.
There has also been some general discussions centering around the idea that the show does not reflect Australia's multicultural society, even allegorically, There was no action taken by network.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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This song is admissible because there are no issues with its lyrics and message. The movie for which the song was written, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, contains problematic elements. The Encyclopedia of Racism in American Film points out that the movie includes racist depictions of Bolivia and its inhabitants. Bolivia is seen as "backward," or as Sundance states upon arrival there, "primitive." Butch and Sundance, portrayed as happy-go-lucky outlaws "[seen for instance in Butch's inability to learn the necessary Spanish phrases to conduct bank robberies in Bolivia], are contrasted to the rather stereotypical representations of the Bolivian bandits that attack the men and kill [a mine owner] from ambush." (In contrast, Butch and Sundance kill only if it is unavoidable.) The treatment of Hispanic men as ignorant subordinates is a popular stereotype in Westerns. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid "and countless spaghetti westerns, could [not] have been made without the prop of complacent, weak, and illiterate peons whom the heroes could variously rescue, defend, organize, or slaughter -- depending on the plot."
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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This song is admissible; its lyrics and message are not problematic. The 1981 musical Cats, for which it was written is problematic in that it includes a song with anti-Asian themes, Growltiger's Last Stand. It tells the tale of how the cat Growltiger meets his demise at the paw of Siamese cats who storm his barge and make him walk the plank. Its lyrics use T. S. Eliot’s poem nearly verbatim. Both contain a racial epithet: "with a frightful burst of fireworks, the ch**ks they swarmed aboard." And non-Asian actors used stereotyped Asian accents in portraying the Siamese cats. The lyrics were later altered to “the Siamese they swarmed aboard” and then finally the song was removed from the show altogether.
Broadway's Cats drops 'racist' song for Leona Lewis production | The Independent
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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This song is admissible because its lyrics, history, and message are not racist or demeaning. It was written for the 1950 Walt Disney film Cinderella, which has been criticized for its color symbolism, as exemplified in this excerpt from Seeing White: Children of Color and the Disney Fairy Princess.
[This symbolism] operates in both explicit and implicit or subtle ways. The "good" Cinderella is blonde and blue-eyed. Her "bad" stepsisters and mother are visibly darker in complexion than Cinderella who is visibly White. The prince lives in a white castle that has white birds at the window. Her father has white hair, which signals not only age, but a child-like innocence and goodness as well. Cinderella's fairy godmother also has white hair. The godmother turns brown, low-status mice into white human beings and animals: white horses, white coachman, and white doorman. Moreover, she transforms a pumpkin into a white coach. The prince, although black-haired, which is a marker of virility, is clad in a white jacket. His father dreams of grandchildren, represented specifically as a blonde-haired boy and girl even though his son is black-haired.
The coding of black and dark hues is subtle in this film. The wicked stepmother's cherished pet is a black cat named "Lucifer." Interestingly, although Cinderella acts as a benevolent mistress to all the other creatures in the film, she can find no good characteristics in Lucifer, and even complains: "There must be something good about him." The brown mice, in their behavior and demeanor, are reminiscent of the "good plantation slaves" featured in some of Hollywood's most racist films. They are taken care of by the good Cinderella (presumably they cannot take care of themselves), and grateful to be of service, and are willingly being transformed into something other than themselves for her benefit.
NOTE:
The above scratches the surface of the voluminous literature about Disney princess films and princess culture. Significant gender, abusive relationship, and class issues beyond the scope of the SAT are also present (and briefly addressed in the Additional Questions section of research docs). Disney has attempted to address a number of issues (with varying success) in recent live-action remakes of some of the films, as exemplified by diverse casting.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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Reevaluation: Nov 13, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
The Ride of the Valkyries is admissible because this orchestral piece does not carry a racist message. Its composer Richard Wagner was a notorious antisemite and while he lived decades before Nazism, his music was a favorite of Adolph Hitler. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Wagner “was a powerful symbol in the Nazi era, and his music held a singular importance in the Nazi psyche. Thus, for Jewish survivors of the Nazi horrors, Wagner's music represents a vivid reminder of that regime.” A 2014 BBC piece notes “Today, any attempt by a composer to perform Wagner in Israel invites outrage.” Yet Jewish historical scholar Jacob Katz argues that "Wagner’s music is untainted by his anti-Semitism, that there is, in fact, very little in Wagner’s art that, without forced speculation, can be related to his racist views."
Two of Wagner’s pieces pervade popular culture and are instantly recognizable though most may not know the composer—Bridal Chorus and The Ride of the Valkyries. Ride has been used in an incredibly wide range of films (from Bugs Bunny to Apocalypse Now) but the use that is noteworthy here is as part of the score of Hollywood’s first blockbuster, the 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation. Characterized by NPR as “three hours of racist propaganda,” it was denounced as "the most reprehensibly racist film in Hollywood history" for perpetuating negative Black stereotypes and for glorifying the Ku Klux Klan. NPR notes that “Immediately after the film's release, the Ku Klux Klan experienced a surge in membership, and it continued to use the film as a recruiting tool for decades after that.”
Writing for The New Yorker, Alex Ross notes:
In the movie’s climactic scene, Klan members ride forth on horses to save a Southern town from what the film characterizes as oppressive African American rule. The score for this sequence is dominated by Richard Wagner including a modified version of The Ride of the Valkyries. At the moment of triumph—“Disarming the blacks”—the title card reads "Wagner gives way to 'Dixie,'” the unofficial anthem of the South. Another card spells out what kind of nation Griffith wants to see born: “The former enemies of North and South are united again in common defense of their Aryan birthright.”
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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[Song] is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The song is associated with these animated movies which feature official Disney princesses, many of which contain problematic elements.
Aladdin (Jasmine, 1992) plays on stereotypes of Arabs and Muslims as barbaric, uncivilized "others" (see Friend Like Me research).
Mulan (1998) dishonors the beloved Chinese folktale and presents a distorted Westernization of Chinese culture, though it features the first Asian Disney princess (see Reflection research).
Pocahontas (1995) distorts the story of an actual historical figure and whitewashes the egregious treatment of the indigenous populations of North America (see Colors of the Wind research).
Color symbolism in Disney's Snow White (1937) implicitly signals that "white" is good and "black" is evil or dangerous. Snow White's skin is white as snow, the mirror declares her the "fairest of them all," she is surrounded by white birds and asleep on a brier of white flowers while holding white flowers, and rescued by a prince on a white horse who takes her to his white castle. In contrast, the wicked queen is dressed in black, lives in a black castle that has black rats, a dangerous black forest containing black bats, and black owls.
Cinderella (1950) contains similar color symbolism as, to varying degrees, do Sleeping Beauty (Aurora,1959), Beauty and the Beast (Belle, 1991), The Little Mermaid (Ariel, 1989), and Aladdin.
Moreover, some non-White animated Disney princesses have been characterized and costumed more exotically and sexually than their White counterparts, resulting in a dichotomy where “early characters (read White), Ariel and Belle, are weaker, more pristine, and largely incapable of action, whereas the later heroines, all women of color, are depicted in such a way as to emphasize their bodies and physicality. The reader is encouraged, through this privileging of the body and the physical in the rendering of the physique and costuming, to look at Jasmine, Pocahontas, and Esmeralda in different and more voyeuristic manner than the White heroines. They embody the exoticized Other woman—one whose sexualized presence is privileged above all else.”
References:
Seeing White: Children of Color and the Disney Fairy Tale Princess
The Orientalization of Disney Cartoon Heroines
NOTE:
The above scratches the surface of the voluminous literature about Disney princess films and princess culture. Significant gender, abusive relationship, and class issues beyond the scope of the SAT are also present (and briefly addressed in the Additional Questions section of research docs). Disney has attempted to address a number of issues (with varying success) in recent live-action remakes of some of the films, as exemplified by diverse casting.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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This song is admissible; there are no issues with its lyrics and message. [It was written for the 2000 musical Seussical, based on Dr. Seuss children’s stories. (How Lucky You Are)] [With respect specifically to the 1957 book and 1966 cartoon musical How the Grinch Stole Christmas for which this song (You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch) was written, while not explicitly anti-Jewish, some critics and scholars have identified potential anti-Semitic undertones in the story. Others point to Dr. Seuss (who is not Jewish) having noted that he himself was the inspiration for the Grinch character and interpret the story as a critique of commercialism rather than having any religious subtext.]
Constance Grady writes on vox.com that “For decades, the works of Dr. Seuss have been considered both iconic childhood classics and bastions of liberalism. They are lauded for their celebration of all that makes us different, and Seuss books like Horton Hears a Who and The Sneetches appear frequently in anti-racism curricula for children.”
But a PBS piece notes that “As adored as Dr. Seuss is by millions around the world for the positive values in many of his works, including environmentalism and tolerance, there has been increasing criticism in recent years over the way Blacks, Asians and others are drawn in some of his most beloved children’s books, as well as in his earlier advertising and propaganda illustrations.”
Teach for the Change adds:
Before his career as a children’s author where he was known as Dr. Seuss, Theodore Geisel’s early works were laden with racist language and illustrations. He targeted racial and ethnic minority groups in his cartoons and advertisements, depicting Jewish people, Muslims, Arabs, Japanese, Indigenous people, and Black people using racist stereotypes and in exoticized ways. For example, Black people were often portrayed as monkeys in his work, accompanied by captions using the n-word. These racist attitudes were carried through to his children’s books.
From an NBC news piece:
A 2019 survey of Seuss’ works found that just 2 percent of human characters were people of color — 98 percent were white. Portrayal of and references to Black characters relied heavily on anti-Blackness and images of white superiority, the study found.
In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, a white man is shown holding a whip above a man of color and the elephant he's riding on. In “If I Ran the Zoo,” a white boy holds a large gun while standing on the heads of three Asian men. “If I Ran the Zoo” also features two men from Africa who are shirtless, shoeless, and wearing grass skirts while holding an exotic animal.
An NPR piece points out:
Research shows that even at the age of 3, children begin to form racial biases, and by the age of 7, those biases become fixed. … "One of the reasons for that is the images and experiences that they're exposed to regarding marginalized groups and people of color," Stephens says. "And so [Seuss' books] being mainstream, and being spread out all over the world, has large implications."
If kids open books and "the images they see [of themselves] are distorted, negative [or] laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society in which they are a part," Rudine Sims Bishop, a scholar of children's literature, wrote in a 1990 article. But when they see themselves represented in a positive way, it can have a similarly powerful effect.
With respect specifically to the 1957 book and 1966 cartoon musical How the Grinch Stole Christmas for which this song [You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch] was written, while not explicitly anti-Jewish, some critics and scholars have identified potential anti-Semitic undertones in the story. Others point to Dr. Seuss having noted that he himself was the inspiration for the Grinch character and interpret the story as a critique of commercialism rather than having any religious subtext.
Additional References:
How Dr. Seuss Responded to Critics Who Called Out His Racism
Why Dr. Seuss got away with anti-Asian racism for so long
Before Dr Seuss Was Famous He Drew These Sad, Racist Ads
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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(When I See an Elephant Fly, another song from the movie, is rated No.)
This song is admissible because there are no issues with its lyrics or message. The movie from which it originates, Disney’s Dumbo, has been criticized for its racist portrayal of Black people. (Some have also objected to depictions of animal cruelty.)
Please review the information and references on the racist depictions in Dumbo found in the ADDITIONAL DETAILS section at the bottom of this document.
Thoughtful emcee content might be considered to introduce the song with regard to its positive message in contrast to the issues with the movie, Dumbo.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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Reevaluation: Oct 10, 2021: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible because its lyrics and message are not problematic. The musical from which it originates Finian’s Rainbow has been controversial for its racism theme. Patrick Healy writes, “One character, a racist white senator, is magically turned black so he can experience bigotry firsthand, just one of the musical’s satirical subplots about racial reconciliation” (scene from 1968 movie). Some early productions used blackface to do this. Now, Black and White actors portray the role.
Mark Robinson notes that “Finian's Rainbow, which opened on Broadway in 1947, may have been one of the nerviest of all Broadway productions. It subversively confronted race issues by addressing bigotry, head-on, and by taking steps within its production to demonstrate active change [e.g., ensuring a racially integrated chorus line—possibly the first ever]."
Yet the musical’s use of blackface in early productions is problematic, despite it not being minstrel blackface and despite its good intentions. Any use of skin-darkening makeup hearkens to the odious minstrel blackface caricature and may engender a visceral reaction. Please review the Blackface Minstrelsy document for details on this noxious genre, its influence on the perception of Black people, and its presence today.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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Medley with this song
Rainbow Medley
(Vuelie, another song from the movie, is rated Yes: Caution.)
Let It Go is admissible. Its lyrics are not problematic. The movie from which the song originates, Disney’s Frozen, has been criticized for its inclusion of elements of the Sámi culture (the Indigenous people of the Scandinavian regions) with no context or acknowledgement, sparking conversations about cultural appropriation and erasure on social media. See When Does Appreciation Become Appropriation (video). Happily, Disney cooperated with Saami representatives for Frozen 2, representing the culture in an appropriate way, even creating a version of the movie in their mother tongue.
Disney signed a contract with Indigenous leaders to portray culture respectfully in Frozen II
Behind the Scenes of Frozen 2: How Saami Representatives Cooperated With Disney
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song remains admissible, having no problematic lyrics or messaging. It originated in the 1922 George White's Scandals Broadway revue, which included blackface performances (though not of this song).
Blackface minstrelsy portrayed racist, demeaning caricatures of Black people, shown as naive buffoons or uncontrollable children who danced their way through and expressed a fondness for the system of slavery (video montage of blackface caricature).
Please review the Blackface Minstrelsy document for details on this noxious genre, its influence on the perception of Black people, and its presence today.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: 02/21/25: change from YES to YES: NOTE
This song is admissible and the original cast of the 1967 rock musical from which it originates (Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical) was racially integrated (1/3 of the cast was African American). In fact, the musical “criticizes and satirizes racism, discrimination, war, violence, pollution, sexual repression, and other societal evils" (Scott Miller).
The musical and its anti-Vietnam war and anti-racism sentiments, along with its themes of sexuality and drug use, were highly controversial in 1968. Yet some of the choices made when viewed through the lens of modern listeners cause some of the songs to be problematic, especially when taken out of context (as noted below).
The embedded links above and the resources below may prove useful in learning about the song and the musical:
The show was written to be controversial - and includes a song cataloging racial slurs and a song sexualizing Black and White men
These two references discuss how the show has aged and how it might be reframed today:
Performing Hair in the 21st Century: Honoring the Work and Acknowledging Change
Hair At 50: Going Gray, But Its Youthful Optimism Remains Bouncy and Full-Bodied
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Jul 28, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In
This song is admissible and contains no problematic lyrics or messaging. The song is from the 2002 musical Hairspray, which has been commended for addressing racial segregation and integration in 1960s America through an entertaining and accessible format. It brought attention to important civil rights issues and promoted a message of acceptance and equality, while giving prominent roles to Black characters which was relatively uncommon at the time.
However, the musical has also faced criticism. Regarding the diverse casting, Daniel Greenfield comments that the roles for Black cast members:
… call for the actors to act in extremely stereotypical manners. These stereotypes include language, dress, and even the ways they physically carry themselves on the stage. … When a person goes to see Hairspray, [their] brain is flooded with stereotypical information about the black community.
In The Atlantic, Matthew Delmon notes:
Hairspray’s history of race in America suggests that racism is an issue of attitudes rather than of policies…. The story also locates racial prejudice in a single character, Velma Von Tussle, which enables the other white characters to remain largely innocent bystanders to the discrimination faced by the program’s black teenagers. … without acknowledging, confronting, or seeking to overturn the actual structures of discrimination. … But Hairspray also resonates…: It shows how seemingly innocent moments in popular culture were also sites of struggle over who was worthy of being counted as a somebody in America.
Rachel Charniak writes in Onstageblog.com:
While it may be well-intentioned, Hairspray's representation of racism and the Civil Rights Movement lacks depth, understanding, and actual representation from any people of color in its creative team. … Tracy, a White girl, is the hero. This plays into the White Savior trope…. The musical ignores the sacrifices and contributions to the movement by numerous people of color and makes Tracy the center of the movement. The audience is shown how hard segregation was for White people when Tracy goes to jail, and we are meant to sympathize with her and keep rooting for her, instead of the actual Black characters. While being an ally to the Black community is certainly important, it’s not about you, Tracy.
Tracy is completely unaware of her appropriation of Black culture. This is most evident when she uses Seaweed’s dance he taught her in detention to get noticed by Corny Collins. This dance is ultimately what gets her on the show, and she never mentions Seaweed at all or where the dance came from.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
(also rated Yes: Caution)
Reevaluation: Nov 18, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
This song has no racist content or message and is admissible. It is from the 2015 musical Hamilton. While it is fairly indisputable that--as a musical and theatrical production--Hamilton is a marvel, and well-deserving of its accolades,* it has received criticism due to the way the story is told: According to historian Lyra D. Monteiro, “It’s still white history. And no amount of casting people of color disguises the fact that they’re erasing people of color from the actual narrative.”[1] The issues may be summarized as follows:
Inflating Hamilton's abolitionist sentiments, implying that he held his nose as he worked on a slave ship as a youth (lyrics: "he struggled and kept his guard up"-- bizarrely emphasizing Hamilton's hardships, just after lyrics noting the enslaved were being "slaughtered and carted away") and touting that he never enslaved people himself. (This impression of Hamilton as a consummate abolitionist comes directly from the biography by Ron Chernow that inspired Miranda’s musical.)
However, there's no indication Hamilton was critical of slavery as a youth. And rather than a moral achievement, the fact that he didn't own the enslaved prior to the Revolution may have simply been a matter of economics, since he had no money. True enough, he became a member of the abolitionist organization (the New York Manumission Society) and did not purchase the enslaved after the Revolution, but he did assist in sales of the enslaved as well as "rented" them from their owners, and he married into a family that were major slaveowners. Historian, Eric Foner, notes that “Alexander Hamilton ‘did not like slavery, there is no question about that.’ But he added that antislavery ‘was low down on Hamilton’s list of priorities compared to other things,’ including ‘uniting this nation, which required compromise on slavery.’”[2]
Founders Chic -- sympathetic, sanitized portrayal of Founders, glossing over issues of slavery and racism and overly emphasizing abolitionist sentiments of historical figures who owned and bartered the enslaved and celebrating and lauding their struggles to gain freedoms, without noting these freedoms were to be enjoyed exclusively by white men.
Erasure of people of color -- "Race blind" casting was actually "race conscious" casting. "The musical styles of the singing are not white styles. The dance is not white. It would be so appalling to audiences and the show would have been a disaster if they had cast white people to play all of these roles. So to suggest that it’s race-blind casting is really disingenuous."[3]
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY... this casting obscures the fact that there are NO actual African-American characters--as if they played no role in the founding of the United States. E.g., the character, Hercules Mulligan, sings of his accomplishments spying on the British—omitting any mention of his enslaved servant, Cato, who bravely assisted his efforts. Similarly, Native Americans are entirely absent from the musical.
Bootstrap ideology -- “It is concerning that the play adopts the old bootstrap ideology of the ‘American Dream,’ with the second line in the play (and this song) hailing how Hamilton, despite his humble origins, ‘got a lot farther by working a lot harder, / by being a lot smarter, / by being a self-starter.’ Such a narrative is particularly problematic … and historically inappropriate, given that the play is set in a world in which, no matter how much harder they worked, the direct ancestors of the black and brown actors who populate the stage and sing these lines would never have been able to get as far as a white man like Alexander Hamilton could.”[3]
Ensembles might consider the above in the way they present and introduce this song.
*Hamilton won 11 Tony Awards, including best musical, and had 16 Tony nominations (the most nominations in Broadway history). It also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama and a Grammy Award for best musical theater album. Other awards include the Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History and the George Washington Book Prize. Lin-Manuel Miranda received a “genius grant” from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. [4]
REFERENCES:
[1] A Hamilton Skeptic on Why the Show Isn't So Revolutionary
[2] Did Hamilton Get the Story Wrong?
[3] Race-Conscious Casting and the Erasure of the Black Past in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton
Hamilton: The Renewed Backlash Against the Hit Musical, Explained
‘Hamilton’ and History: Are They in Sync? - The New York Times
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Apr 9, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible, having no problematic lyrics or messaging. It is from the 1997 Disney animated film Hercules, which is problematic in that Disney took great liberties with actual Greek mythological figures and stories, going beyond “family-friendly” tweaks to gross mischaracterization. Instead of simplifying the story and understandably smoothing over the more disturbing aspects, Disney created an entirely new story that--however entertaining and musically wonderful it is--butchers the Greek originals, disrespecting and insulting Greek culture, and leaving child (and adult) viewers with a distorted and inaccurate understanding of Greek mythology.
In fact, Disney intended for the film to have an open-air premiere at Pnyx hill in Athens, but the Greek government declined after the Greek media and public panned the film: "This is another case of foreigners distorting our history and culture just to suit their commercial interests," wrote a detractor for Athens' Adsmevtos Typos.
While the nature of classical myths is such that they are changeable and adaptable, depending upon the Greek state and the time period, Jean Menzies notes in ‘Myth’ doesn’t mean made up “that doesn’t mean there weren’t consistencies or roots to these stories, or that we can reasonably imagine any version of a myth we like …. … While the actual historical accuracy of individual stories is and was up for debate, even among the ancients themselves, the fact is, the deities and heroes they followed were of huge cultural significance both in how the Greeks understood themselves and the world around them.
And as noted in a piece from The Centre of Excellence:
The truth is, Greek myths are not only rooted in reality but have helped shape modern thinking in many important ways. Their mythical nature does not take away from the fact they contain important morals and teachings that are as relevant now as they were thousands of years ago.
Knowledge of Greek mythology has long-influenced society in subtle ways. It has shaped culture and tradition, directed political systems and encouraged problem-solving. It would be fair to say that the whole basic concept of modern thinking can be traced back to Greek stories and the valuable lessons they taught.
Some of the inaccuracies are understandable, given that this is a children’s movie. Rather than being the illegitimate son of a cheating Zeus, the movie’s Hercules is a full-blood god who is mortal due to having been poisoned—yet it doesn’t seem to have been necessary to completely turn the story on its head in order to smooth this over. And Hercules and Megara do not get a happily ever after as in the movie. Instead he is driven insane by Hera (who is not his mother, as in the movie) and kills Meg and their children. Again, not fodder for a children’s movie, so it is understandable this would not be included.
However, Andrew Sarran a content creator known as “The Mythology Guy” notes that there are enough accuracies to indicate that Disney did research the figures and stories, but then in many instances completely disregards the actual details (discussed by Sarran in a 26-minute video). From relatively minor inaccuracies: there are 9 Muses, not 5 as in the movie; to the understandable yet bothersome: the setting is Greece and Greek names are used for all the characters in the movie except for the title character whose Greek name is Heracles, not Hercules, though “Hercules” is the more recognizable name to the general public; to the downright made-up and inexcusably wrong, of which these are just a few:
Hades is not evil, does not have fire for hair, does not have fire power, and did not try to kill Heracles—Hera did (his loving mother in the movie). In the movie, Hades is missing his bident and helm (cap of invisibility).
Heracles would not be a god just because Zeus is his father. Zeus has many children who are not gods.
Greek gods do have the power to turn humans into gods if they want to and have done so in many stories, including turning Heracles into a god.
There is no Greek story where a character becomes a true hero and therefore becomes a god and that’s not why Heracles did good deeds (he did them as recompense for accidentally killing his family after Hera drove him insane). He also did not get paid for any of his deeds.
Heracles never rejected his god-hood, as he does at the end of the movie.
Titans look like humans and are not giants.
Heracles never rode or even encountered Pegasus, who was not created by Zeus from clouds (but sprung from his mother the Gorgon Medusa’s neck when she was decapitated by Perseus).
Pain and Panic weren’t minions to Hades and are not Greek figures -- unless they’re supposed to be Deimos (god of terror) and Phobos (god of panic), neither of which would be associated with Hades.
The Fates didn't share an eyeball, the Graeae sisters did.
The Hydra does not start with one head and grow more when it’s chopped off. It starts with 9 heads and regrows any that are chopped off.
Philoctetes is not the trainer of heroes, Chiron (a centaur) is. This movie character has Philoctetes’ name, Chiron’s role, but looks and acts like the god Pan.
Understandably then, as Julia Selenger notes:
When Hercules hit Greece, it was swiftly blasted by Greek audiences, scholars, and critics. "This film is not for Greece," said Yiannis Tzedakis, the director of antiquities for the country's Culture Ministry, who also added, "It is a distorted portrayal of the Hereclean myth. And we Greeks, you know, have a thing about myths. We take them very seriously."
Vangelis Migdalis didn't mince words either. "Modern Greece never had much, it never had wealth or colonies. What it had always was history and legends and they have just been hideously ridiculed by Hollywood."
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Sep 21, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Climb, The / Go the Distance Medley
Reevaluation: Sep 21, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The movie in which it was featured, 1942’s Holiday Inn, has significant issues.
The only Black actors in the movie are the stereotypical maid, aptly named “Mamie,” with her patois and two fatherless children. But most problematic is the “Abraham Lincoln” segment in which all the servants and the musicians are white performers in blackface, along with Bing Crosby in full blackface and Marjorie Reynolds as a pickaninny.
Blackface Minstrelsy portrayed racist, demeaning caricatures of Black people, shown as naive buffoons or uncontrollable children who danced their way through and expressed a fondness for the system of slavery (video montage of blackface caricature).
Please review the Blackface Minstrelsy document for details on this noxious genre, its influence on the perception of Black people, and its presence today.
NOTE: Paramount capitalized on the enduring popularity of White Christmas (after the tune was featured in Holiday Inn) in creating the 1954 film White Christmas which builds upon its predecessor Holiday Inn—not in terms of direct plotline, but in theme, composer (Berlin), its biggest star (Bing Crosby; Fred Astaire declined to participate), refurbished sets, and shooting locales. But while the film White Christmas does not contain a blackface number, it provides an homage to minstrelsy without the actual burnt cork. See the Snow research document for details.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Aug 22, 2023: change from Yes to YES: Note
Reevaluation: Aug 22, 2023: change from Yes to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Happy Holiday / The Holiday Season
Reevaluation: Apr 24, 2022: change from Yes to YES: Note
This song is admissible; there are no issues with its lyrics and message. With respect specifically to the 1957 book and 1966 cartoon musical How the Grinch Stole Christmas for which this song was written, while not explicitly anti-Jewish, some critics and scholars have identified potential anti-Semitic undertones in the story. Others point to Dr. Seuss (who is not Jewish) having noted that he himself was the inspiration for the Grinch character and interpret the story as a critique of commercialism rather than having any religious subtext.
Dr. Seuss has also received both praise and criticism for his general body of work. Constance Grady writes on vox.com that “For decades, the works of Dr. Seuss have been considered both iconic childhood classics and bastions of liberalism. They are lauded for their celebration of all that makes us different, and Seuss books like Horton Hears a Who and The Sneetches appear frequently in anti-racism curricula for children.”
But a PBS piece notes that “As adored as Dr. Seuss is by millions around the world for the positive values in many of his works, including environmentalism and tolerance, there has been increasing criticism in recent years over the way Blacks, Asians and others are drawn in some of his most beloved children’s books, as well as in his earlier advertising and propaganda illustrations.”
Teach for the Change adds:
Before his career as a children’s author where he was known as Dr. Seuss, Theodore Geisel’s early works were laden with racist language and illustrations. He targeted racial and ethnic minority groups in his cartoons and advertisements, depicting Jewish people, Muslims, Arabs, Japanese, Indigenous people, and Black people using racist stereotypes and in exoticized ways. For example, Black people were often portrayed as monkeys in his work, accompanied by captions using the n-word. These racist attitudes were carried through to his children’s books.
From an NBC news piece:
A 2019 survey of Seuss’ works found that just 2 percent of human characters were people of color — 98 percent were white. Portrayal of and references to Black characters relied heavily on anti-Blackness and images of white superiority, the study found.
In And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, a white man is shown holding a whip above a man of color and the elephant he's riding on. In “If I Ran the Zoo,” a white boy holds a large gun while standing on the heads of three Asian men. “If I Ran the Zoo” also features two men from Africa who are shirtless, shoeless, and wearing grass skirts while holding an exotic animal.
An NPR piece points out:
Research shows that even at the age of 3, children begin to form racial biases, and by the age of 7, those biases become fixed. … "One of the reasons for that is the images and experiences that they're exposed to regarding marginalized groups and people of color," Stephens says. "And so [Seuss' books] being mainstream, and being spread out all over the world, has large implications."
If kids open books and "the images they see [of themselves] are distorted, negative [or] laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society in which they are a part," Rudine Sims Bishop, a scholar of children's literature, wrote in a 1990 article. But when they see themselves represented in a positive way, it can have a similarly powerful effect.
Additional References:
How Dr. Seuss Responded to Critics Who Called Out His Racism
Why Dr. Seuss got away with anti-Asian racism for so long
Before Dr Seuss Was Famous He Drew These Sad, Racist Ads
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Bare Necessities is admissible because there are no issues with its lyrics and message. The movie from which it originates—Disney’s The Jungle Book—has been criticized for its racialized depiction of the monkey characters, who are insulted for their flat noses, clearly voiced as Black, with conspicuously poorer linguistic skills than the other talking animals, and portrayed as foolish, dirty, and casually violent.
Reversal of Roles: Subversion and Reaffirmation of Racial Stereotypes in Dumbo and The Jungle Book
I Wanna be Like You: Racial Coding in Disney's The Jungle Book
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song is admissible because it does not contain racially problematic messages or lyrics. It first appeared in the 1934 American musical film Kid Millions. In the film Eddie Cantor performs in blackface during a during a sequence meant to recreate a minstrel show.
Love Me or Leave Me was not performed in blackface.
Blackface minstrelsy portrayed racist, demeaning caricatures of Black people, shown as naive buffoons or uncontrollable children who danced their way through and expressed a fondness for the system of slavery (video montage of blackface caricature).
Please review the Blackface Minstrelsy document for details on this noxious genre, its influence on the perception of Black people, and its presence today.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: 2/16/2025 change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible; there are no issues with its lyrics and message. It was written for the 1883 tragic opera Lakmé, which has been criticized for its colonial romanticism, orientalism, and cultural stereotypes. In his review, Callum John Blackmore writes:
An opera about the colonization of India, written in the wake of two devastating famines in the British colony (the Bihar Famine of 1873-4 and the Great Famine of 1876-8—both exacerbated by continued expropriation of crops back to the metropole), Lakmé rendered real colonial violence as trashy operatic spectacle. It was a lurid and shameless cash-in on these painful colonial events, designed to commercialize them, exoticize them, and sell them to the Parisian public.
. . .
The ultimate message of Lakmé is that the colonization of India is ultimately justified: that a colonizer’s duty to the colonial goals of his homeland must trump any feelings he has towards the colonized, and that any cultural miscegenation between colonizer and subaltern [colonized population] is inevitably doomed.
My Opera Player notes:
Reducing oriental cultures to simplistic exotic decoration –or «fictional essences », in post -colonial terminology– is one of the characteristic traits of 19th century exoticism. Lakmé – as with L’africaine beforehand or Madama Butterfly afterwards … developed a tremendously delicate archetype of a romantic relationship, generally with a tragic finale, between a Western colonizer and a beautiful and sacrificial Easterner.
And Chandrica Barua, in a piece on MapAcademy adds:
Lakmé is a prime example of the colonial anxiety and fascination with nativity and the Orient. It stages many of the orientalist themes popular in the 1880s: an exotic location, mysterious religious rituals and fanatical priests, the beautiful flora and fauna of the Orient, the white saviour contrasted to the “savage” father-figure, and the novelty of being a Western colonial living in a foreign land. … The actors playing Lakmé through the ages have the oriental archetypes: the ornamental headdress, postures conveying sensuality, excess of jewelry, and objects such as the cylindrical pot that is more reminiscent of Arabic cultures, thereby conflating multiple oriental images into one.
Additional References:
Lakme – Brown Pundits | Lakmé After 100-Year Wait | History_of_British_Raj
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song is admissible and has no problematic lyrics or messaging. It originates from Li'l Abner – a comic strip with subsequent radio, movie, and TV shows that appeared across multiple newspapers in the United States, Canada, and Europe for 43 years (1934-1977). Li'l Abner featured a fictional clan of hillbillies in the impoverished mountain village of Dogpatch, USA and was the first strip based in the South and the first to inject politics and social commentary into its satirical content.
However, the comic strip has problematic elements as in this 1951 strip with Li'l Abner in blackface to avoid Daisy Mae’s affections. Another character is "Lonesome Polecat" - a Native American using all the stereotypes and tropes. In the 1940 movie, he was played in "red-face" by Buster Keaton. There is also a character who is a Confederate General, and the entire ethos is mocking poor "hillbillies."
http://fallenrocket.blogspot.com/2017/11/lil-abner-1940.html
https://sanceau.com/tag/lil-abner/
https://travsd.wordpress.com/2020/09/28/descent-into-dogpatch-on-al-capp-and-lil-abner/
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song is admissible; there are no issues with its lyrics and message. It was written for the 1982 Off Broadway rock musical Little Shop of Horrors later adapted into the 1986 Hollywood musical film. The musical has been criticized for its portrayal of race and ethnicity.
In Tuscon Weekly James Earl writes:
The overall musical style is early '60s white rock 'n' roll.... But when the mutant Venus flytrap starts demanding to be fed as it plots to propagate itself across America and devour white suburbia, the plant breaks away from societal norms by adopting an R&B style. It does everything but ask, "Hey, where the white women at?" Message: Black music [people] will destroy our fine WASP nation.
Regarding the film, Marc Jensen writes:
While the surface of the action is grounded unproblematically in the issue of class struggle in what has been described as "a very simple urban fairytale," this surface is problematically grounded in an unspoken portrayal of American race relations in the 1960s. … [T]he racial markers identifying Audrey II [the monster plant] as African American (musical style, physical caricature, speech patterns, etc.) [see “Feed Me” scene] are so consistent, and stand in such stark contrast to the whiteness of Seymour and the other lead characters, that the surface story of Seymour's struggle with poverty is really driven by this allegory of American race relations. … A carefully manipulated palette of musical styles and characterizations articulates associations between blackness, the alien "other," and the threat of an imminent social collapse accompanying integration.
On filminquiry.com Danny Anderson notes:
Mushnick (the shop owner), whose Jewishness is outrageously stereotyped in the film, exercises almost complete control over Seymour. … At all times, his greed and power help keep Seymour dangling on a string like a puppet. The shop owner’s portrayal is uncomfortably consistent with the anti-Semitic depictions of Jewish business owners of much far-right and fascist conspiratorial propaganda.
And on musicmoviesandhoops.com Jessye Herrel points out:
There are a lot of less-than-responsible racial stereotypes in this movie. For instance, the proprietor of Chang’s Exotic Plants who sells Audrey II to Seymour [see “The Story of Audrey II” scene], wears a Fu Manchu mustache, a western-created cultural phenomenon associated with criminality. … While the poor population of Skid Row [see “Skid Row” clip] is depicted as a variety of races, it is very noticeable that there aren’t any middle or upper-class characters of color in the story, and the characters of color are highly stereotyped and underdeveloped, particularly the omnipresent chorus (who Mr. Mushnick refers to as “urchins”) and whose sole purpose is to move forward the storylines of the white characters.
Additional References:
jewishindependent.ca/little-shop-of-horrors/
Little Shop of Horrors and the Consequence of Choice
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song is admissible because its message and lyrics are benign. The musical from which the song originates has been criticized for containing scenes reminiscent of blackface. It is important to note that this is not an indictment of Mary Poppins’ being “racist,” but rather it is a demonstration of how problematic racial history can run through otherwise innocent forms of entertainment. In this case, Mary Poppins’ source material – P.L. Travers’ series of Mary Poppins novels – unmistakably associates the chimney sweeps' blackened faces with racial caricature, as noted in the New York Times by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a professor of English and gender studies professor at Oregon’s Linfield College.
“Don’t touch me, you black heathen,” a housemaid screams in “Mary Poppins Opens the Door” (1943), as a sweep reaches out his darkened hand. When he tries to approach the cook, she threatens to quit: “If that Hottentot goes into the chimney, I shall go out the door,” she says, using an archaic slur for black South Africans that recurs on page and screen.
The 1964 film replays this racial panic in a farcical key. When the dark figures of the chimney sweeps step in time on a roof, a naval buffoon, Admiral Boom, shouts, “We’re being attacked by Hottentots!” and orders his cannon to be fired at the “cheeky devils.” We’re in on the joke, such as it is:
These aren’t really black Africans; they’re grinning white dancers in blackface. It’s a parody of black menace; it’s even posted on a white nationalist website as evidence of the film’s racial hierarchy. And it’s not only fools like the Admiral who invoke this language. In the 1952 novel “Mary Poppins in the Park,” the nanny herself tells an upset young Michael, “I understand that you’re behaving like a Hottentot.”
Who are the hottentots? | Hottentot Venus | Blackface Minstrelsy
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Medley with this song
Nowhere to go But Up (medley)
Nowhere to go But Up / Let's Go Fly a Kite
Medley with this song
Rhythm 'n Words Medley
Trip a Little Light Fantastic / Step in Time
Medley with this song
Rhythm 'n Words Medley
This song is admissible because its message and lyrics are benign. The musical from which the song originates --Mary Poppins Returns (2018)-- has been criticized for echoing two racist elements from the original source material. While the call-backs are subtle--and not nearly as problematic as the blackface elements in the original 1964 Mary Poppins musical--it is worth noting.
In a New York Times article Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a professor of English and gender studies professor at Oregon’s Linfield College, notes that P.L. Travers' first Mary Poppins novel, published in 1934, contains problematic racialized characters, one of which is a "scantily clad 'negro lady,' dandling 'a tiny black pickaninny with nothing on at all.'" (A pickaninny is an offensive racial caricature of Black children.) This "negro lady" speaks in a minstrel dialect and offers everyone watermelon. The offensive characters caused controversy in the early eighties and Travers begrudgingly rewrote them, substituting exotic animals. A hyacinth macaw with genteel English diction replaced the "negro lady." A reference to this hyacinth macaw makes an appearance in a musical number in Mary Poppins Returns (A Cover is Not the Book) that recounts various stories from the original novels, one of which deals with a wealthy widow, inexplicably called "Hyacinth Macaw."
The other problematic Mary Poppins Returns character harkens back to an "early Mickey Mouse short, a 1933 parody of the antislavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin called Mickey’s Mellerdrammer, Mickey blacks his face with dynamite to play Topsy, a crazy-haired, raggedy-dressed, comically unruly black child from the book whose name had become synonymous with the pickaninny stereotype. In “Mary Poppins Returns,” the name of the crazy-haired, raggedy-dressed, comically unruly character (played by Meryl Streep) is also Topsy. She’s a variation on a Mr. Turvy in the novel Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935), whose workshop flips upside-down."
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
(Song is also rated Yes: Lyrics)
Medley with this Song
Nowhere to go But Up / Let's Go Fly a Kite
Reevaluation: 3/24/2023 change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Trip a Little Light Fantastic / Step in Time
This song is admissible, presenting no issues in its lyrics or message. It was introduced in the 2016 Disney animated film Moana, which has been criticized for its misrepresentation of Polynesian culture. The film received praise for featuring Polynesian voice actors and consultants along with a powerful girl-power message with no romantic subplot and a female lead with a more realistic body shape than traditional Disney princesses. In fact, much of the drawing is authentic (boats and ropes, tattoo marks and patterns). It was greeted with excitement by the Pacific Islander community as it provides long-overdue representation and Disney later produced versions dubbed in Tahitian, Māori, and Hawaiian.
Yet Anne Keala Kelly, Native Hawaiian filmmaker and journalist comments:
Through this project, Disney reached into the entire Pacific region and cherry picked here and there to create this fantasy of Polynesia. Polynesia isn’t a race and so that already is very problematic. There are millions of people in the Pacific, hundreds of languages.
In fact, trouble began even before the film’s release with Disney’s marketing of a Maui Halloween costume consisting of a brown-skin, tattooed bodysuit complete with curly black wig. Arieta Tegeilolo Talanoa Tora Rika points out that, besides the inherently problematic use of brown-skin:
Tattoos are deeply meaningful to Pacific people. Like a fingerprint, a tattoo is unique to each person. … It is considered taboo and extremely disrespectful in many Pacific cultures to wear the markings of a people or place that you are not spiritually or physically connected to. After the release of Moana, Maui may be a Disney character to some, but to many Pacific people, he is very real - a hero, ancestor, demi-God and a spiritual guide.
Even for Pacific people who don't believe in Maui, replicating a Polynesian tattoo and offering it to children for a price is belittling and trivializing an intimate aspect of Pacific people and culture.
Regarding Maui, Smithsonian scholar Doug Herman writes:
Maui the demigod, who helps Moana on her journey, is a heroic figure found throughout much of Polynesia credited with performing a range of feats for the good of humankind. Traditionally, Maui has been depicted as a lithe teenager on the verge of manhood. But the Maui character of this film is illustrated as a huge buffoon. Critics have noted that this depiction of Maui also "perpetuates offensive images of Polynesians as overweight."
New York Time reporter Robert Ito adds that Maui “also has a great head of thick, wild hair (in most versions, Maui’s hair is tied back in a neat topknot).”
Tongan cultural anthropologist Tēvita O. Kaʻili notes:
Disneyfication of Polynesian tales produces shallow versions of deeply complex indigenous stories…[this is the case with] extracting the god Māui and discarding his complementary deity, the goddess Hina.… In Polynesian lores, the association of a powerful goddess with a mighty god creates symmetry.… It was Hina who enabled Māui to do many of the feats he uncharacteristically brags about in the film’s song “You’re Welcome!”
And Kauai Calls notes that “The depiction of the legendary Kakamora people in the movie is also incorrect. They are shown as wild, dirty pirates wandering the ocean. In real Polynesian lore, they do not act or look like the movie depiction.” While Parker “Park” Hawley adds:
Another issue regarding the Kakamora and the movie in general is the use of coconuts. The Kakamora wear coconuts as armor, which is in no way similar to Polynesian lore. The use of coconuts throughout the movie is defined by Herman as the “happy natives with coconuts trope” and “tiresome and cliché.” Herman continues to say that coconuts “are part of the shtick of caricatures about Pacific peoples.” The coconut armor of the Kakamora is also an issue because, as Herman writes, “‘Coconut’ is used as a racial slur against Pacific Islanders as well as other brown-skinned peoples. So depicting [Kakamora] as ‘coconut people’ is not only cultural appropriation for the sake of mainstream humor but just plain bad taste”
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reflection is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The movie from which it originates, Mulan, has been criticized for dishonoring the beloved Chinese folktale and presenting a distorted Westernization of Chinese culture and gender. Yet the 1998 animated movie was groundbreaking in portraying the first Asian Disney “princess” and tackling gender roles.
Please carefully review the ADDITIONAL DETAILS section at the end of this document for further information. If you do select this song, please consider thoughtful emcee content to introduce the song with regard to its positive message in contrast to the issues with the movie, Mulan.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song is admissible because there are no issues with its lyrics and message. The 1993 animated movie for which the song was written, The Nightmare Before Christmas, has been criticized by one of its screenwriters for including a racist character, Oogie Boogie. On the podcast Script Apart, Caroline Thompson explained her perspective:
The Oogie Boogie character looks like a Klansman. Oogie Boogie is a derogatory term for African Americans in the American south. I begged the powers that be to change something about that character, because of that. I said: this is so ugly and dangerous and antithetical to everything inside me. I did not win that fight... It was a troubling part of the film for me, to be frank. Plus, his song is sung by a black man. So it's like a trifecta of wrongness. And as I said, I really did beg Tim to reconsider. Particularly the name... it's a really evil derogatory term. That's not a fight I won. I think it's a fun segment of the story as it was executed but it's a troubling one.
However, in a piece on slashfilm.com Ethan Anderton makes a case for the racially problematic aspects being coincidental, pointing out that "this issue hasn't been continually pushed forth by any activist groups":
I can understand possibly seeing Oogie Boogie resembling a Klansman.... And Thompson is correct that the term "boogie" (without Oogie) is a racial slur for Black people. But it doesn't make sense to have a character resemble a racist Klansman but then give him the name of a racial slur used to disparage the very people they hate. ... From my perspective, the name Oogie Boogie is merely a reference to the boogeyman. He's made to look like a creepy ghost made out of an old sack.
The movie also receives praise in another race-conscious aspect. In a 2014 piece, Katie Schenkel notes that the story illustrates the harms of cultural appropriation:
The entirety of the “Making Christmas” montage highlights how one culture can cheapen another’s through careless imitation. They’re doing the standard making of the presents, wrapping the gifts, and getting the sleigh ready, but they’re “improving” it all by making it scary and gory. The similarities to fashion companies faking traditional tribal designs (but twisting them to be trendy) are apt. There’s a sense of entitlement here; entitlement and arrogance.
Two other interesting takes on the movie include one on its treatment of disability and another on its treatment of gender.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Medley with this song
Halloween Medley
The music from Nutcracker is not problematic and so is admissible. Critics have noted that traditional and some modern productions of the ballet “traffic in blatant and offensive stereotypes,” with many of the dances being “borderline caricatures if not downright demeaning.” Asians are portrayed with “painted slanted eyes, heads bobbing up and down, index fingers protruding, chopsticks in their black wigs,” “along with Fu Manchu mustaches, waggling heads, and comically springy jumps, all adding up for some people to a gentle mocking of the fools of the far east.” Women portraying “Arabian coffee” are “slinky and exotic, in belly-baring costumes.” Thankfully, these problematic depictions can and have been modified in some (though not all) modern productions.
Blackface and Fu Manchu moustaches: does ballet have a race problem?
As 'Nutcracker' Returns, Companies Rethink Depictions of Asians
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Medley with this song
Nutcracker Jingles
Reevaluation: 3/06/2022 change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Nutcracker Jingles
Medley with this song
Nutcracker Jingles
Medley with this song
Nutcracker Jingles
This song is admissible because its message and lyrics are benign. The 1943 musical from which the song originates - Oklahoma! - has been criticized for its "whiteness." As Soraya Nadia McDonald notes: “Even though Oklahoma was the end point of the genocidal forced migration known as the Trail of Tears, Oklahoma! doesn’t feature a single Native American character.” That Rodgers, Hammerstein, and others dressed in Native American regalia for the celebration of the 4th anniversary of Oklahoma! on Broadway further adds to this irony.
At the outset of the musical, Oklahoma is a territory on the verge of receiving statehood. White settlers like Curly were able to obtain land in Indian Territory because Congress abolished tribal land ownership in 1887. Warren Hoffman points out in The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical, that the name Oklahoma is based on the Native American (Choctaw) words "okla humma" which translates as "red people":
The white chorus may believe that they belong to the land, but their chanting of the word Oklahoma, which means “Red People,” is an unconscious nod to the land’s original but now forcibly displaced inhabitants. Were we to substitute “Red People” for “Oklahoma” into the show’s refrain, the chorus would end up ironically singing, “Red People! Red People! Red People! Red People! We know we belong to the land, / And the land we belong is grand.”
As the lyric stands, the white chorus/community unintentionally acknowledges the former Indian presence while claiming that they are the true landowners….
William Everett’s article on the race and intersectional oppression in Hammerstein musicals discusses Oklahoma!:
What the stage show – and the film it inspired – does not offer is any visual sense of racial diversity, especially concerning Native Americans, who after all had been moved to Indian Territory before it joined with the Oklahoma Territory to become the state of Oklahoma. This erasure, according to Donatella Galella, promotes a troubling appearance of effortless racial egalitarianism. Indeed, the musical ignores the disturbing historical realities that resulted in Oklahoma’s statehood in 1907, namely the land runs and a failed attempt to turn Indian Territory into its own state. In the musical, white folk are the sole inhabitants of the new state so unforgettably celebrated in the title song.
But for its time (World War II for the original stage musical, the Cold War for the [1955] film adaptation), Oklahoma! reflected a desire for homogeneity and suggests that history, even when fictionalized, should look – and sound – like its contemporary white, middle-class audience.
The article goes on to explain how multiracial casting can also raise questions, summarizing several revivals. For example, in a 2012 production in Seattle the Jud Fry character was portrayed by an African American actor in an otherwise White cast, unintentionally stereotyping African American men as violent and abusive. Despite this, Everett describes other revivals that “take on a different look. And when markers of intersectional oppression are mapped onto the narrative as a result of this approach, the musical can offer new ways to explore systemic concerns.”
Oklahoma! & Whiteness — Broadway Refocused
Racism V. Nostalgia in OklahomaI
Frank Rich: Oklahoma! Was Never Really O.K.
The unbearable whiteness of Oklahoma!
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song is admissible because there are no issues with its lyrics or message. The movie from which it originates, Disney’s Pocahontas, has been criticized for its disregard research / comments and the ADDITIONAL DETAILS section at the end of this document for further information.
Thoughtful emcee content might be considered to introduce the song with regard to its positive message in contrast to the issues with the movie, Pocahontas.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Oct 10, 2021: change from NO to YES: Note
This song is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The 1942 movie from which it originates, Road to Morocco, has significant issues.
It is set in Morocco, but no actual Arab actors are in the film, so there is significant use of brownface. The film plays up stereotypes of Arabs -- devious, barbaric, and filthy. Ironically, the only positive stereotypical example of Arabs comes when there is mockery of disability, and the Arabs are portrayed as being generous toward those less fortunate. Turner Classic Movies ran a series on problematic Arabic stereotypes in films and included this one under the category of "Arabs as the Subjects of Ridicule." The Moroccans are portrayed as boorish, overly preoccupied with fighting and killing for minor transgressions, and hypersexualized (for women).
The original sheet music cover depicts cultural appropriation - showing the white protagonists in traditional Moroccan clothing, which is part of the comedy effect of the movie.
turbandecay | stolaf.edu/ | muslimvoices | silverscreenoasis.com | nielsen.com/insights | bottomshelfmovies.com/road-to-morocco-1942/
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song is admissible; it does not have problematic lyrics or message. Eye of the Tiger was written for the 1982 film Rocky III, which has been noted to contain racist archetypes.
On vox.com Matthew Iglesias writes:
While the first two Rockies both feature Sylvester Stallone as a white hero facing off against a black antagonist, Apollo Creed is never a villain. By contrast, the third film’s James “Clubber” Lang cuts a much more sinister figure. And perhaps as a consequence, it’s drenched in a much more toxic implicit racial politics. The scene where Lang taunts Rocky at his retirement press conference [inviting Rocky's wife to his apartment for an experience with a "real man"], for example, is a very worthy successor to Birth of a Nation and other racist archetypes in American film.
It is true that Creed’s reappearance in the film, this time as Rocky’s ally and trainer, superficially dulls the racial tension. But the crude parable through which Creed takes Rocky out of his white working-class Philadelphia setting in order to teach him speed and rhythm in his old gym in an African American neighborhood in Los Angeles is, in its way, worse. As David Denby put it in his original review, Creed “literally trains him to fight like a black man” — the only way to even the odds while preserving ultimate victory for America’s Great White Hope.
Regarding Creed, Joaquín Saravia argues that:
The narrative devices used are, first, the subtle division between "good" and "bad" Blacks. The former are those who, accepting white superiority and leadership (Apollo Creed), cooperate in the repression of the latter: the stereotyped Black rebels who defy the status quo by trying to usurp the privileged position (Clubber Lang), which means a threat to the nation.
And commonsensemedia.org warns parents about the racism displayed in the movie:
While Rocky trains with Apollo Creed in a predominantly African American boxing gym, Paulie mutters assorted racist comments: He complains about the "jungle" music, laments that Rocky is being taught how to box like a "colored fighter," and says, "I don't like these people." While Paulie later compliments Creed on how well he trained Rocky, there isn't a sense that he's no longer someone who would make comments like those.
See also Black Authenticity in the Rocky Series
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
(Can't Help Lovin' That Man O' Mine, another song from this musical/movie, s rated Yes: Caution and Yes: Lyrics)
This song is admissible and does not have problematic lyrics or message. The 1927 musical -- Show Boat -- in which it was first performed on stage has received both praise and criticism for its handling of race.
Show Boat is the first time Black and White performers shared a stage with Black actors having major performing roles alongside White castmates. It is also the first musical to focus on serious subjects: racial injustice, miscegenation, alcoholism, and abandonment. One of the show’s themes (highlighted in the opening scene and in Ol’ Man River) concerns the hard life of Black people in the post-Civil War era and how they labored in support of the lifestyles of the White leisure class. In its interracial marriage storyline, its sympathies clearly lie with the biracial Julie and against anti-miscegenation laws.
Yet the show also portrays the stereotypical shiftless, lazy Black man and some are critical of its Black vernacular. Critics view the show as an outdated and stereotypical commentary on race relations that portrays Black people in a negative or inferior position. Douglass K. Daniel of Kansas State University has commented that it is a "racially flawed story," and the African-Canadian writer, M. NourbeSe Philip claims:
The affront at the heart of Show Boat is still very alive today. It begins with the book and its negative and one-dimensional images of Black people and continues on through the colossal and deliberate omission of the Black experience, including the pain of a people traumatized by four centuries of attempted genocide and exploitation. Not to mention the appropriation of Black music for the profit of the very people who oppressed Blacks and Africans. All this continues to offend deeply. The ol' man river of racism continues to run through the history of these productions and is very much part of this (Toronto) production. It is part of the overwhelming need of White Americans and White Canadians to convince themselves of our inferiority – that our demands don't represent a challenge to them, their privilege and their superiority.
REFERENCES:
This Wikipedia article does a good job of summarizing the issues.
See GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song is admissible. It is from the 1952 musical romantic comedy film Singin’ in the Rain, which has problematic elements:
A main plot point is the launch of the 1927 musical drama film The Jazz Singer (starring Al Jolson in blackface) as the first talkie. It is mentioned repeatedly as the state of the art in movie making.
“Mammy” (a racial caricature) is mentioned repeatedly, including the suggestion that the main characters' new musical be called "The Dueling Mammy."
The character Cosmo goes down on one knee to sing the word “Mammy” in the style of Al Jolson.
The Cosmo and Don characters have a scene walking past silent movie sets and the first is a group of "tribesmen" dancing around a pot (i.e. cannibals) and they are clearly white men dressed in black bodystockings. One of these characters is in frame during their discussion wearing blackface makeup.
In Dancin’ in the Rain, Carol J. Clover notes that the storyline of Singin’ in the Rain moralizes about giving credit where credit is due regarding vocal dubbing yet doesn’t do so itself for the singer used to dub Debbie Reynolds’ singing. Moreover, like most musicals of the time, it does not give credit to the Black dancers “whose moves have been put to such brilliant and lucrative use in the ‘white dancer’s field’ of the film musical.” In fact, the film references Black people only fleetingly and then via callbacks to the blackface and “mammy” of Al Jolson and The Jazz Singer and via dancing “cannibals” in the blackface scene. Clover suggests that “Singin’ in the Rain’s concern with miscredit has a racial underside—that its real subject is not White women’s singing voices, but Black men’s dancing bodies.”
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Sep 18, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Reevaluation: Sep 18, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
With regard to Broadway Rhythm (Gotta Dance) specifically, it contains a line that may be confusing to modern audiences: Out on the gay white way in each merry café
Gay White Way was a 1907 musical and 1928 production and is a variation on the nickname for Broadway that was coined in the 1890’s: the “Great White Way.” This term may be unfamiliar to some today and “gay” had nonsexual connotations and was used to refer to the "Gay Nineties" (1890s). ”Gay” has evolved to mean “homosexual” in a way that was not the case during the time period in which the film is set (1920’s) and even the time in which it was released (1950’s).
Moreover, some may think there is a racial connotation to “White” in both “gay white way” and “Great White Way,” yet the “white” refers to the novelty of electric lights with Broadway being among the first streets to be fully lit with marquees and billboards that – especially in black and white film – gave a bright white appearance. Anna Keizer notes in backstage.com that:
While most theater fans will know what you mean if you say “the Great White Way,” the moniker's historical context has largely faded with time—the same way we still say movies are “on the silver screen” despite it being nearly a century since cinemas projected film onto silver lenticular screens.
The nickname has also gone through a reassessment due to its unintended racial implications. Works like Warren Hoffman’s 2019 book The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical have spotlighted how Broadway is historically very white in terms of who is creating shows, making decisions, and sitting in the audience.
In 2020, Whoopi Goldberg—an EGOT winner with a 2002 Tony as producer of Thoroughly Modern Millie—suggested an alternate nickname. “Maybe we can stop calling it ‘the Great White Way’ and replace it with ‘the Great Bright Way,’” she said. “It’s not the words; it’s the way we think about it.”
Although the phrase "gay white way" is not racist or pejorative to gay people, it may confuse some audiences or singers. Ensembles might discuss the phrase with members and decide if alternative lyrics would be appropriate.
Medley with this Song
Dance Medley
Reevaluation: Sep 18, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Make 'Em Laugh Medley
Reevaluation: Sep 18, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Singin' in the Rain/Isn't This a Lovely Day medley
Reevaluation: Sep 18, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
I Never Knew/You Were Meant For Me Medley
This song is admissible and presents no issues with its lyrics or messaging. The musical from which the song originates—Six—has received both praise and criticism with regard to racial issues and its casting.
Six opened in Edinburgh in 2017 and has since toured through the UK, USA, and Australia. It is a modern retelling of the lives of the six wives of King Henry VIII presented as a pop musical. Each Queen tells her story to see who suffered the most due to Henry and should, therefore, become the group's lead singer. Six has received praise for its colorblind casting, asking the audience to “reconsider the existing definitions of Englishness which equate it with whiteness by providing a visual display of the racial diversity of England (and the other countries in which the show has been staged).” reference
As of 2020 though, the diverse casting had been uneven, with the most diverse casting occurring in higher-profile venues in the US and London’s West End whereas many smaller productions had been largely White. Further, this is an example of how good intentions to increase diverse casting must be done carefully and thoughtfully, taking into account the nuances of social constructs of race so as to avoid perhaps unintentionally playing into stereotypes. In an October 2020 blog, Theatrically Thespian notes:
The casting trends may have started out as an innocuous way to pay homage to each queenspiration, the female pop icons who inspired each queen’s song and style, and as an attempt to be equitable and cast more women of color, but these trends are hugely problematic within the context of the show itself, as they create unbalanced racial dynamics and enforce stereotypes that the text most likely did not intend to create.
For example, White beauty standards are reinforced via the casting of Cleves, who is noted historically and within the musical to be less attractive. She is often played by the cast member with the deepest skin tone, with two exceptions (as of 2020) – a trans actor and a plus-sized actor. Theatrically Thespian notes that “Here, ugliness is Black, trans, or fat.”
In contrast, Seymour—who is seen as the epitome of purity and femininity—until late 2020, had never been played by a non-White actress. And Aragon and Cleves, both played by darker-hued actors are portrayed as angry, sassy, masculine, and gold-digging.
The show continues to actively tour (as of 2023) and research has not uncovered current criticism; perhaps companies have worked to address some or all of the above issues.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
[Song] is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The show from which it originates, South Pacific, contains stereotypical and one-dimensional portrayals of Island characters. At the same time, the show also confronts interracial marriage and racism in a way that was very controversial in post-WWII America. Especially controversial was the song, You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught, about acquiring racist attitudes. However, the musical also portrays islanders in a stereotypical and one-dimensional manner and does not touch on the mixed-race babies left behind and never acknowledged by their GI fathers and who were treated as outcasts within their Asian communities. (reference 1; reference 2)
Please carefully review the references above. If you select this song--consider including thoughtful emcee content to introduce the song, with regard to its positive message in contrast to the issues with the movie, South Pacific.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Dec 24, 2021: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible because it does not have problematic lyrics or messaging. It was written for and introduced in the movie, Swing Time (1936). The movie features an extended dance number, Bojangles of Harlem--meant as a tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson--in which Fred Astaire performs in blackface. "The opening image is a coarse Robinson caricature: gigantic shoe soles are upended to show a thick-lipped black face, topped by a derby and above a dotted bow tie. Then the women of a chorus tug the shoes apart to reveal giant trousered legs, at the end of which sits Astaire. Astaire bursts forth, dancing." While Astaire's makeup is not exaggerated (as say, Al Jolson in the Jazz Singer), and some claim he is "subverting racist caricature to celebrate the black tradition of tap dance," it cannot be extricated from the insidious blackface tradition of its time.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
This song is admissible, pesenting no issues with its lyric or message. It carries two NOTES:
(1) Please see Origins & Significance of Scat Singing to understand the origins and significance of this form of vocal jazz improvisation utilizing wordless, nonsense syllables and thus using the voice as an instrument. Like jazz, it originated with African Americans who comprise most of the best in this art form.
(2) This song was written for the 1999 Disney animated film Tarzan, based on the 1912 story Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs about an English human infant raised by a band of great apes and in which Tarzan introduces himself to Jane with “This is the house of Tarzan, the killer of beasts and many black men.” Tarzan means “white skin” in “ape speak” and he is faster, stronger and more intelligent than the native Africans. Blogger, Tony Warner notes that:
Burroughs portrays all the Africans as savages and racially inferior. Black people are routinely described in a derogatory manner. The original books are full of the 'N word' and other racist stereotypes informed by the rampant colonialism of the period.”
The novel climaxes with Tarzan saving Jane (who in the original novel is not British, but a southern White woman from Maryland) from a black ape rapist. And Tarzan hangs his Black victims from trees with vine ropes around their necks—especially disturbing given the prevalence of the lynching of Black people in the United States and the fact that Burroughs lived in a “sundown town” (Oak Park, IL) in which Black people were subject to violence if they lingered there after dark.
Rebecca Keegan writes in LAtimes.com, that there have been over 200 Tarzan films across the decades since 1918 and many radio and television shows, stage plays, and video games:
For generations of predominantly white audiences, Tarzan represented adventure and athleticism, but most adaptations were steeped in the paternalistic idea that it takes a white man to save Africa. (A rare counter-example is the 1997 George of the Jungle live action film based on the 1967 animated TV series, which spoofed the yodeling pale guy in a loincloth).
Faced with the racism in the Tarzan books ("the baiting of blacks was Tarzan's chief divertissement," Burroughs declares in one story), editors of recent reprints have softened their language -- without altering Tarzan's domination over "ignorant tribes of savage cannibals."
Disney sidesteps this thorny issue by including no African people whatsoever in the film, thereby simply ignoring an entire continent’s Black population. In his journal article, Oyinkansola Fafowora posits that “In this way, Disney’s Tarzan misdirects and calls into question the personhood of the African.”
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
[Song] is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The show from which it originates, The Greatest Showman, whitewashes and does not address the serious issues with its protagonist.
P.T. Barnum’s path to fame and notoriety began by exploiting an enslaved woman, in life and in death, as entertainment for the masses. He also featured an African-American man billed as “a creature, found in the wilds of Africa...supposed to be a mixture of the wild native African and the orangutan, a kind of man-monkey.” Such displays preyed on ideas of African inferiority and racial othering. Similar racial othering permeated the rest of Barnum’s “living curiosities,” from the “Aztec” children who were actually from El Salvador, to the real, but exoticized, “Siamese Twins,” Chang and Eng.
If you’re looking clear eyed at Barnum, an undeniable fact of his biography is his role marketing racism to the masses. “He had these new ways of making racism seem fun and for people to engage in activities that degraded a racially subjected person in ways that were intimate and funny and surprising and novel,” says Benjamin Reiss. “That’s part of his legacy, that’s part of what he left us, just as he also left us some really great jokes and circus acts and this kind of charming, wise-cracking ‘America’s uncle’ reputation. This is equally a part of his legacy” … as well as exploiting people with disabilities and animals.
PT Barnum Isn't the Hero the 'Greatest Showman' Wants You to Think
'The Greatest Showman': Cruel, Racist History Goes Unmentioned in Flick
Please carefully review the info and references above. Consider including thoughtful emcee content to introduce the song, with regard to the unsavory aspects of P. T. Barnum that the movie leaves out.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Medley with this song
From Now On / Come Alive medley
Medley with this song
From Now On / Come Alive medley
Reevaluation: Feb 9, 2022: change from YES to YES: Note
Reevaluation: Feb 9, 2022: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Never Enough / A Million Dreams Medley
Medley with this song
Never Enough / A Million Dreams Medley
Reevaluation: Feb 9, 2022: change from YES to YES: Note
[Song] is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The musical from which it originates, The King and I, has been noted as “one of the most problematic musicals of the 20th Century American canon,” with its history of yellowface casting, racialized othering of the Siamese people, and endorsement of “the idea of the civilizing influence of the West on the barbaric East.”
Please carefully review the ADDITIONAL DETAILS section here. If you do select this song, consider including thoughtful emcee content to introduce the song, with regard to its positive message in contrast to the issues with the musical, The King and I.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Dec 26, 2021: change from YES to YES: Note
The 1965 musical from which Feeling Good originates – The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd – has jarring elements, including a character called “the Negro” that has no name and is presented as a caricature in tattered clothes.
The show was progressive and satirized social class, race, and sexuality using what are now outmoded sensibilities, sexual politics, and stereotypes. Given the civil rights turmoil that was occurring in the US at the time, the message would have especially resonated with audiences. But over sixty years later, what resonated in the 1960’s may be challenging for modern audiences. While not frequently performed, more modern productions have changed "the negro" to "the stranger" or "the foreigner."
Please also note the significance of this song with respect to the American Civil Rights movement. Please see Song History in this document.
References:
The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd – The Guardian
Coming of Age: Teaching and Learning Popular Music in Academia (scroll down to “Roar” section)
The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd – 1965 - The Official Masterworks Broadway Site
Theatre review: The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Aug 16, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
(Song is also rated Yes: Lyrics)
Medley with this song
Wonderful Day Like Today, A / Nothing Can Stop Me Now
Reevaluation: Aug 16, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medleys with this song
It's a Good Day / Wonderful Day Like Today, A
Wonderful Day Like Today, A / Nothing Can Stop Me Now
This song is admissible, with no problematic lyrics or message. It was written for The Wizard of Oz (1939) movie, which was derived from L. Frank Baum's Oz books. As the owner of the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer in 1890, Baum authored two problematic editorials about Indigenous peoples, referring to them as a "pack of whining curs," claiming that "the Whites....are the masters of the American continent,...the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians," and urging the government to “wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.” The Wounded Knee massacre occurred within days of the editorials. In 2006 his great-great grandson, whose master thesis was devoted to the impact of Baum's writings, apologized to the surviving descendants of the massacre for Baum's calls for genocide and their role in the massacre. See reference 1 and reference 2.
The Encyclopedia of Racism in American Film (2018, ed. Salvador Jimenez Murguia), points out that "race has always been a central issue in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the historical and metaphysical points of view." The Oz story contains parallels to the colonialism implicit in Baum's editorials, one in which unworthy populations must assimilate into the dominant culture or be "marginalized or destroyed." Oz can be viewed as an uncivilized land, with Dorothy and the wizard as foreigners and conquerors sharing their "superior" American virtues. This "opposition of the American self and others" is demonstrated in the movie through visual differences, e.g., in contrasting the human-like characters with the Munchkins or the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West.
At the same time, as noted in this PBS piece, The Wizard of Oz is multifaceted and open to many interpretations -- from "a populist take on the plight of Western farmers in the late 19th century [to] a pro-capitalist parable of industrialization and consumerism [to, as Salman Rushdie notes, a humanist] world in which 'nothing is deemed more important than the loves, cares and needs of human [and other] beings.' But perhaps Rushdie’s most perceptive observation is his point about the MGM The Wizard of Oz’s unusual focus on a triangle of powerful female characters—Dorothy, Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West. The Wizard’s influence, which seems so huge at the beginning of the story, eventually melts away. In an oft-quoted line, Rushdie observes that in the film, 'The power of men is illusory...The power of women is real.'"
In fact, "latter-day artistic adaptations of the Oz story, of which there are many, have gone in such different directions—from the 1939 MGM musical’s fun and joy, to The Wiz’s 1970s Afrofuturist vision of New York City, to the Wicked books’ dark story of authoritarianism and resistance, and the Wicked musical’s exploration of female friendship. The fantasy of Oz has served as a frame [giving] viewers and theater-goers a wealth of alternate worlds helpful for thinking through their own. Though Baum may not have intended to provoke any of these latter-day meditations on power, friendship and humanity, he created a story that gave them ample room to grow."
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: May 8, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Wizard of Oz Medley
Reevaluation: May 8, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
(Song is also rated Yes: Lyrics)
Reevaluation: May 8, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Wizard of Oz Medley
Reevaluation: May 8, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Reevaluation: May 8, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Rainbow Medley
Reevaluation: May 8, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Wizard of Oz Medley
This song is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. It was written for the 2002 Broadway stage musical, Thoroughly Modern Millie, adapted from the 1967 musical romantic-comedy film of the same name. Thoroughly Modern Millie has been criticized as featuring a racist plotline demeaning to Asians. Please carefully review the information and references in the Song History section below follow the Additional Details link at the end of that section.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Nessun Dorma is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The opera from which it originates, Turandot, contains many Orientalist and sexist stereotypes.
Turandot is an ice queen who kills potential suitors because she hates men. This plays into the racist trope of the Asian “dragon lady.” Later, she physically resists her suitor, who forces himself on her anyway – and then she immediately falls in love with him, reinforcing the misogynistic trope that women should be conquered and endorsing rape-like behavior, while also portraying Turandot as the stereotypical submissive Asian woman. The three comic-relief-type characters are written to be Italian-like jesters but are given racist Asian names and presented in caricature. Finally, productions of the opera, to this day, continue to feature “yellowface” – mostly white actors in pancake makeup making choppy and exaggerated movements in attempting to depict the stereotyped characters.
China banned the performance of the opera until the late 1990s. It is almost universally agreed that the opera itself is extremely problematic for its racist and sexist stereotypes. Some critics say the problematic parts can be negated by changing the interpretation of the characters and the music itself is separate from the problematic parts; other critics think the music and entire opera are inextricably intertwined with the Orientalist and misogynistic stereotypes.
Turandot: Time to call it quits on Orientalist Opera? | SFOpera - The Turandot Puzzle
Turandot isn't just problematic—it's complicated
Adjusting the pitch: Canadian Opera Company grapples with Turandot for today
Please carefully review the references above and if you select this song, consider including thoughtful emcee content with regard to problematic issues with Turandot.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Medley with this song
Evolution of Pearls I medley
[Song] is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The musical/movie from which it originates, West Side Story, has been criticized for its portrayal of Puerto Rican (and Latinx, generally) stereotypes of gangs and violence. The 1961 movie was also criticized for “brown face” in its casting of White actors with inauthentic accents for Puerto Rican roles and using makeup to darken skin. (reference)
Please carefully review the above reference and the references provided in the Research Links section here for details. If you do select this song, please consider thoughtful emcee content to introduce the song with regard to its positive message in contrast to the issues with the musical/movie, West Side Story.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: Mar 21, 2022: change from YES to YES: Note
Reevaluation: Mar 21, 2022: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Showtime Medley
Snow is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. The 1954 musical film from which it originates, White Christmas, contains a disturbing homage to blackface minstrelsy—a genre which portrayed racist, demeaning caricatures of Black people, shown as naive buffoons or uncontrollable children who danced their way through and expressed a fondness for the system of slavery (videos: montage of blackface caricature & Hollywood Minstrelsy Pt. 1-White Christmas).
Please review the Blackface Minstrelsy document for details on this noxious genre, its influence on the perception of Black people, and its presence today.
The film’s big musical number Minstrel Show (whose lyrics begin, I’d rather see a minstrel show than any other show I know) expresses nostalgia for the egregiously racist “art” form that dominated American entertainment for decades, and adopts its format. Rosemary Clooney plays the role of interlocutor while Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye play the stock minstrel characters Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones. They cheerfully sing “in the minstrel shows we miss when Georgie Primrose used to sing and dance to a song like this.” George Primrose was a popular blackface minstrel performer and the “song like this” they introduce is Mandy, a Berlin tune written for the 1918 musical revue Yip Yip Yaphank in which it was performed in blackface. Over the ensuing 65 years this blackface favorite appeared in various productions, the latest (until White Christmas) being the 1943 World War II film, This is the Army. By then, blackface had begun to fall out of favor, but was countenanced if cloaked in a patriotic message and indeed the film got rave reviews.
By 1954, White Christmas did not directly include blackface in its performance of Mandy but puts on its own minstrel show and clearly conveys in the lyrics how much these are missed. The odd choice to include a face on the red tambourines (with white eyes and teeth) is a callback to blackface. In a 2022 essay on this number in the film White Christmas, Brynn Shiovitz writes:
The long-entrenched pairing of Mandy with minstrelsy had laid the groundwork for perceiving racial caricature even in the absence of grotesque costume and speech. Race performance, and specifically blackface minstrelsy, need not be visible to be effective. And even as the civil rights movement began to pick up steam, these references to the minstrel show still had the ability to remind white theatergoers of a time when a good laugh and putting down “the other” shaped collective identity without fear of consequence.
Disturbingly, this musical number remains in airings of White Christmas today, which endures as a beloved Christmas classic. As Shiovitz notes:
The jarring musical number demonstrates how blackface minstrelsy embedded itself in popular culture long after the practice itself became taboo, and how, by cloaking its message in nostalgia, incarnations of the same hateful genre have continued to perpetuate sentimentality for a racist past to this day.
Thankfully, the stage musical Irving Berlin's White Christmas that ran from 2004 - 2019 (USA, UK, and Australia) did not include the minstrel show.
NOTE: The song White Christmas shot to lasting popularity after it was featured in the 1942 film Holiday Inn. Paramount capitalized on this in creating the film White Christmas which builds upon its predecessor—not in terms of direct plotline, but in theme, composer (Berlin), its biggest star (Bing Crosby; Fred Astaire declined to participate), refurbished sets, and shooting locales. But whereas Holiday Inn infamously contains a full-on blackface number, Abraham (see details in the White Christmas song research document), the film White Christmas provides an homage to minstrelsy without the actual burnt cork.
Additional Reference: What’s White Christmas without Minstrelsy?
See GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Blue Skies is admissible because its lyrics and message are not racist or demeaning. It is not clear if Al Jolson or others performed this song in blackface, but it is featured in The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson about a jazz singer who performs in blackface. Jolson is known as the “king of blackface performers” and this song was popularized during a period when blackface performances were very common.*
The song is also performed by Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye in the 1954 musical film White Christmas, which contains a disturbing homage to blackface minstrelsy—a genre which portrayed racist, demeaning caricatures of Black people, shown as naive buffoons or uncontrollable children who danced their way through and expressed a fondness for the system of slavery (video montage of blackface caricature).
Reevaluation: Sep 2, 2023: change from Yes to YES: Note
Reevaluation: Aug 22, 2023: change from Yes to YES: Note
Makin' Whoopee is admissible because it does not contain racially problematic messages or lyrics. It first appeared in the 1928 musical Whoopee!, in which Eddie Cantor, the film and musical’s star, wears stereotypical Native American headdresses and interacts with Native American characters in a manner that perpetuates racial stereotypes. Additionally, the plot includes a Native American character, Wanenis, whose racial identity is central to the story's resolution, concerning a romance between a rancher's daughter and Wanenis. Objections to their marriage are resolved when it is revealed that that he is actually White. The 1930 movie Whoopee! closely follows the musical's storyline and contains blackface performances by Eddie Cantor (see video).
Makin’ Whoopee was not performed in blackface in the musical or movie, although Eddie Cantor did perform other songs in blackface in both productions. And considering that the song was first recorded and popularized by Cantor (known for blackface performances) during a period when blackface performances were very common, this song may also have been performed in blackface at some point.
RE: Songs, such as this one, for which the earliest performances were done in blackface
Blackface minstrelsy portrayed racist, demeaning caricatures of Black people, shown as naive buffoons or uncontrollable children who danced their way through and expressed a fondness for the system of slavery (video montage of blackface caricature).
Please review the Blackface Minstrelsy document for details on this noxious genre, its influence on the perception of Black people, and its presence today.
Given the pervasiveness and popularity of blackface for over 100 years, many songs of that period had their beginnings in blackface performances. In evaluating these songs, we consider:
Are the lyrics and message of the song in any way demeaning? NO
Did the song gain popularity through subsequent non-blackface performances? YES
Therefore, this song is rated ADMISSIBLE.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: February 16, 2025: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible because it contains no racist references or message. It was included in the 1979 revival of the musical Whoopee!. The original version and subsequent movie of this musical contained blackface and many racist references to Indigenous People of the United States. However, the revival did not.
Blackface Minstrelsy portrayed racist, demeaning caricatures of Black people, shown as naive buffoons or uncontrollable children who danced their way through and expressed a fondness for the system of slavery (video montage of blackface caricature).
Please see this Blackface Minstrelsy document for details on this noxious genre, its influence on the perception of Black people, and its presence today.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Medleys with this Song
Ain't She Sweet / Yes Sir That's My Baby medley
Everybody Loves My Baby Medley
Four Leaf Clover / Yes Sir Medley
Let's Talk About My Sweetie / Yes Sir That's My Baby medley
Yes Sir, That's My Baby / Get Me to the Church on Time
This song is admissible because its lyrics/message are not problematic. There are issues with the source material of the musical from which the song originates. The 2003 musical Wicked is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, which is in turn based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film adaptation. As the owner of the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer in 1890, Baum authored two problematic editorials about Indigenous peoples, referring to them as a "pack of whining curs," claiming that "the Whites....are the masters of the American continent,...the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians," and urging the government to “wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.” The Wounded Knee massacre occurred within days of the editorials. In 2006 his great-great grandson, whose master thesis was devoted to the impact of Baum's writings, apologized to the surviving descendants of the massacre for Baum's calls for genocide and their role in the massacre. See reference 1 and reference 2.
The Encyclopedia of Racism in American Film (2018, ed. Salvador Jimenez Murguia), points out that "race has always been a central issue in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the historical and metaphysical points of view." The Oz story contains parallels to the colonialism implicit in Baum's editorials, one in which unworthy populations must assimilate into the dominant culture or be "marginalized or destroyed." Oz can be viewed as an uncivilized land, with Dorothy and the wizard as foreigners and conquerors sharing their "superior" American virtues. This "opposition of the American self and others" is demonstrated in the movie through visual differences, e.g., in contrasting the human-like characters with the Munchkins or the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West.
At the same time, as noted in this PBS piece, The Wizard of Oz is multifaceted and open to many interpretations -- from "a populist take on the plight of Western farmers in the late 19th century [to] a pro-capitalist parable of industrialization and consumerism [to, as Salman Rushdie notes, a humanist] world in which 'nothing is deemed more important than the loves, cares and needs of human [and other] beings.' But perhaps Rushdie’s most perceptive observation is his point about the MGM The Wizard of Oz’s unusual focus on a triangle of powerful female characters—Dorothy, Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West. The Wizard’s influence, which seems so huge at the beginning of the story, eventually melts away. In an oft-quoted line, Rushdie observes that in the film, 'The power of men is illusory...The power of women is real.'"
In fact, "latter-day artistic adaptations of the Oz story, of which there are many, have gone in such different directions—from the 1939 MGM musical’s fun and joy, to The Wiz’s 1970s Afrofuturist vision of New York City, to the Wicked books’ dark story of authoritarianism and resistance, and the Wicked musical’s exploration of female friendship. The fantasy of Oz has served as a frame [giving] viewers and theater-goers a wealth of alternate worlds helpful for thinking through their own. Though Baum may not have intended to provoke any of these latter-day meditations on power, friendship and humanity, he created a story that gave them ample room to grow."
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: May 8, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Reevaluation: May 8, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
Reevaluation: May 8, 2023: change from YES to YES: Note
This song is admissible because there are no issues with its lyrics and message. It was written for the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which is one of the film adaptions of Roald Dahl's 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This book presents racially problematic issues.
Below are "Key Takeways" listed at the top of Willy Wonka: The Controversial Truth Behind the Oompa Loompas (cbr.com), followed by a quote from the piece:
The Oompa Loompas in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory had origins rooted in racism, colonialism, and white supremacy.
While all three movies based on Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory attempted to address the issues with the Oompa Loompas, Wonka (2023) does so most effectively.
Still, it is important for audiences to look beyond Wonka's "world of pure imagination" and be aware of the implications of the original text.
Traces of slavery, white supremacy, and capitalistic exploitation existed in every corner — hidden in the plain sight of a lighthearted, magical factory. The issue stems from Dahl's book, and all three movie adaptations have taken steps to address those dynamics, with varying degrees of success.
In the first edition of Dahl's novel, Oompa Loompas were Black pygmies Willy Wonka imported from "the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle," according to Jeremy Treglown's Roald Dahl: A Biography. In 1970, the NAACP issued a statement expressing concerns about the racist portrayal of the Oompa Loompas in light of the then-upcoming film. Dahl himself showed sympathy for their stance and re-imagined them in the 1973 edition as having "golden-brown hair" and "rosy-white" skin." The article goes on to discuss how the Oompa Loompas have been characterized in the movie adaptions of the book.
See also How Wonka Handles the Controversial History of Roald Dahl's Oompa-Loompas
Roald Dahl is also considered controversial because of his openly antisemitic views. See Roald Dahl Museum says author’s racism was ‘undeniable’ | CNN and Anti-racism statement - Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: September 19, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
Reevaluation: September 19, 2024: change from YES to YES: Note
Medley with this song
Pure Imagination/Wonderful World
The lyrics stipulation remains (see below), and this song remains admissible, having no problematic lyrics or messaging. While Eddie Cantor was famous for his blackface performances, this song does not appear to have ever been performed in blackface. The song was introduced in the Zeigfeld Follies of 1919 in which Cantor and others did perform in blackface. The show included a minstrel segment called "The Follies Minstrel," which featured blackface performances alongside 45 chorus dancers referred to as "The Follies Pickaninnies."
Blackface minstrelsy portrayed racist, demeaning caricatures of Black people, shown as naive buffoons or uncontrollable children who danced their way through and expressed a fondness for the system of slavery (video montage of blackface caricature).
Please review the Blackface Minstrelsy document for details on this noxious genre, its influence on the perception of Black people, and its presence today.
ADMISSIBLE ONLY WITH THE OMISSION of "Eskimo" from the lryics: cold as an Eskimo. "Cold as an icicle" or other appropriate lyric must be substituted, or the line omitted.
People in many parts of the Arctic consider Eskimo a derogatory term because it was widely used by racist, non-native colonizers. Many people also thought it meant eater of raw meat, which connoted barbarism and violence. Although the word's exact etymology is unclear, mid-century anthropologists suggested that the word came from the Latin word excommunicati, meaning the excommunicated ones, because the native people of the Canadian Arctic were not Christian. Additional details available here.
GENERAL NOTE RE: Innocuous Songs from Problematic Movies/Musicals or Source Material/Author
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SONGS WITH THIS NOTE:
Reevaluation: 02/21/25 to add YES: Note rating. (song is also rated Yes: Lyrics)