The Most Racist Disney Film Ever

As a child, I vaguely remember seeing Disney's Song of the South, and I definitely remember my mother reading to me from a book about the adventures of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby. I even remember asking her about the tar baby, because I didn't understand why Br'er rabbit was getting so angry at it, which led my mother to stumble all over herself trying to explain it. But that's the kind of entertainment you grow up with living in a small Southern town with a black population of almost zero.

I recently did an article on upcoming films and was astonished to find that Disney has just now come around to having its first black princess in an animated film, after having an Asian (Mulan), Native American (Pocahontas), Arabian (Jasmine), and of course a slew of white princess of varying hair colors. The same directors that got some flack for rampant racism in the Aladdin film are doing this one, entitled The Princess and the Frog, so it'll be interesting to see how that one turns out.

It will in no way be as racist as Song of the South, however. It's no surprise that Walt Disney did this film, considering the fact that he was an extreme racist, a fact that is often overlooked today. Although it is to be noted he actually became good friends with James Baskett, who played Uncle Remus and voiced many of the characters in the film, and even campaigned for him to receive an honorary Oscar. Still, it's amazing that the film wasn't even more racist than it ended up being.