Last week I posted a link to an article about Walt Disney’s nephew Roy advocating the home video release of the controversial film Song of the South, a move that has been talked about for many years but has yet to officially happen. Speculation has recently popped up again as to whether it’ll happen or not.

The part-animation, part live-action children’s film is one of the all-time most beloved Disney films by virtue of its popular songs, its memorable characters, its blending of live action with animation, and its positive messages of friendship and tolerance. It has also drawn fire from the black community due to the widely-held belief that it heavily glosses over the slavery era and presents stereotypical, one-dimensional black characters.

After I posted the article last week, I got this response in the comments from reader Robert Monroe:

I’m not looking forward to seeing “Song of the South” released on DVD. In fact, I am in the process of writing to Disney to let them know that I will no longer buy any of their “classic” films on DVD because of the racist content. My children wanted “Dumbo” and “Peter Pan” after seeing the commercials. Not having seen all of the films myself I went ahead and picked them up. “Dumbo contains the “blacks as crows” scene and “Peter Pan” has a scene where Native Americans are depicted in a racist manner. I don’t want my children exposed to this type of garbage.

I understand that it is a business decision and a desire to put their product out their for collectors and a new generation but these images hurt and they are also used by those who wish to educate their children in the ways of racism. In the late 1990’s I worked as the manager of the foreign film department of a video store on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. One day, a regular customer called requesting Shirley Temple movies that also had Bill “Bojangles” Robinson in them to show her daughters. After checking what was in stock I informed her that the movies that she had not rented were out. She then asked me if I had any “darkie movies”. After asking her what a “darkie movie” was she told me that they were movies “Black people were treated like darkies”. This woman, whose husband was a movie producer, and I had a heated discussion and the next day her account with the store was cancelled. But, here was someone who was educating her children to be racists and these Hollywood created images were her teaching tools. How many others out there are using the images in “Dumbo” and “Peter Pan” the same way and are looking forward to the release of “Song of the South” for further instruction? Releasing these films out of context and without an extra feature discussing the history of these images and acknowledging the damage that these images have done and continue to do is irresponsible of Disney and something that should be corrected as soon as possible.

This is obviously an extremely difficult and sensitive issue, even moreso when it involves children. Robert, if you’re out there and reading this, I’m curious as to what “negative effect” you say the Wide World of Disney episode had on you and your brother, if it’s not too personal. People talk all the time about how television – indeed, media in general – can exert a negative influence on young, impressionable minds, but I’ve never actually seen concrete evidence of that. I believe kids can be tougher than we give them credit for, and that with the proper parenting, they rarely commit violent acts as a direct result of seeing violent images on TV. Regarding Song, however, my parents took me to see it, so they, at least, must have been okay with it – and I don’t feel damaged by having seen it.

Here are two arguments for and against the film. On the pro side, Christian Willis, webmaster for SongoftheSouth.net, which is perhaps the definitive source for news, info, and memorabilia on the film:

“Disney and his company must have understood that to portray the African-Americans as slaves would be extremely controversial and completely inappropriate. Likewise, to omit them completely would have destroyed the live-action side altogether. Since these stories belonged to the African-American’s heritage, their presence in the film was an integral part. To have omitted them would have been a slap in the face to both [creator] Joel Chandler Harris as well as the African-American community.”

On the con side, Hollis Henry of TheBlackCommentator.com, who writes a direct rebuttal to Willis’ defense:

“One commenter on an Internet movie forum wondered why ‘Song of the South’ is being censored while violent movies like ‘A Clockwork Orange’ are shown. But [director Stanley] Kubrick himself would have applauded the sinister absurdity of actor James Baskett in the role of Uncle Remus, a broad grin carved on his face as he strolls along with the animated fauna singing, ‘Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.’”

(I gotta admit that this is my favorite part of that article.)

Who’s right? Like I said, I haven’t seen the film in a long time, so it’s hard for me to say. I’ll tell you what this whole debate over it reminds me of, though.

On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, there’s a character named Vic who’s a self-aware hologram, like the Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager. He resides in a holosuite in Quark’s bar, within a program that recreates Las Vegas from about the late 1950’s-early 1960’s, so it’s very evocative of Frank Sinatra, the Rat Pack, Guys and Dolls, the original Ocean’s 11, that whole scene. Vic (played by James Darren) is a lounge singer, and his repertoire includes big-band songs of that era, like “Come Fly With Me,” “That Old Black Magic,” “Satin Doll,” music like that. And so, amidst this anachronistic, ersatz environment you see alien characters like Worf and Dax and Quark and Kira, along with 24th-century humans like Bashir and O’Brien, but because of the way the holosuite program is written, no one within it regards them as being any different. Vic is self-aware, so he knows he’s a computer program on an alien space station, but he regards the crew of DS9 as his friends and treats them accordingly.

Anyway, in one episode Captain Sisko’s girlfriend Kasidy is trying to get him to join her and the others in Vic’s, but Sisko refuses, citing the fact that the program recreates a period in Earth history when racial segregation was still a reality, and that if Vic’s really was 1950’s Vegas, neither he nor Kasidy (who is also black) would be welcome there as patrons. Kasidy points out that while Vic’s is a re-creation of that era, it’s not meant to be a perfect one. Its purpose has always been to immerse 24th-century visitors into that period without experiencing its negative aspects. Sisko eventually agrees, and not only does he like Vic’s but he winds up singing a song with Vic himself on stage.

I believe a similar argument could be made for Song. By all accounts I’ve read, I don’t believe it was ever meant to be a perfect re-creation of the antebellum South. Walt Disney’s purpose was to capture the spirit of the Joel Chandler Harris stories that clearly had an impact on him as a youth. And the many testimonials about the positive messages generations of young people got from the film, conveyed through both word and deed by James Baskett’s Uncle Remus character, cannot be easily ignored. I can understand the resistance many like Robert have towards what can easily be seen as an idealized vision of the slavery era. I have a similar attitude when it comes to reading the original Spirit and trying to look past Ebony. Perhaps looking at Song in this view will one day change my perspective on The Spirit. Maybe. I believe it may prove insightful to look at Song from this angle, though, of course, I’m open to a dissenting opinion.