Posted by One-Shot Scot on 03/13/06 00:52

"unclejr" <watsona@kenyon.edu> wrote in message
news:1142131460.320161.211550@j52g2000cwj.googlegroups.com...
> Joshua Zyber wrote:
> > Keep dreaming.
>
> Okay, Josh. I know that you've seen the film on Japanese LD. In your
> opinion, what EXACTLY is keeping Disney from releasing this film on
> DVD? Certainly, Disney has released much more racially-insensitive
> material (in the form of their cartoon shorts) on their Treasures
> series with Leonard Maltin warning us about the racial content.
>
> -Junior


Disney's _Song of the South_ is readily available on DVD -- as an eBay
bootleg. If you want to see it badly enough, you can find it. I have watched
the film and can find nothing that is offensive enough to warrant its being
banned in the US. There are the black "Uncle" and "Aunt" characters, which
are a throwback to the days of slavery. And of course, the Tar Baby is
black. But that's about it.

The censorship of _Song of the South_ has to be some kind of Disney studio
thing, because other studios aren't as conservative to when it comes to
releasing racially-sensitive material on DVD:

While Disney is busy rewriting history by pretending that it never made
the completely harmless _Song of the South_ (1946), Universal/Paramount
has no problem releasing _Holiday Inn_(1942) on DVD.

_Holiday Inn_ has Bing Crosby appearing in one of the most embarrassing
blackface sketches ever put on film. Crosby has turned his Connecticut
ranch house into an inn which is open only on holidays. His housekeeper,
Mammy, (played by Louise Beavers) knows her place -- which is in the
kitchen -- and she is also a credit to her race. You can be sure that she
had no problem with buying a first class ticket and then taking a seat in
the back of the bus as she road over to the inn. Her two little children are
cute as can be, but where is her husband? Nobody seems to know. Maybe he's
off serving in one of the segregated branches of the military.

In the "Abraham" musical number, the entire band and cast appears in
insulting slave-like costumes and one of the female singers has an
exaggerated pickaninny hairdo. Bing Crosby is dressed in an Uncle Tom
suit as he sings a tribute to Abraham Lincoln for freeing the slaves.

As the song progresses, Mammy is in the kitchen, where she gets to sing
the following lyrics to her children:

When black folks lived in slavery,
Who was it set the darky free?
Abraham!
That's right, child.
Abraham!

There isn't anything that comes close to being this racist in _Song of the
South_. So how is it that Universal has no problem releasing _Holiday Inn_,
in all of its racist glory, while Disney fears a backlash from releasing its
inoffensive _Song of the South_?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00001TZ6P/qid%3D1077505559/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/002-6942162-8518435

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