Friday nights were dedicated to one thing and one thing only; Disney Channel movies.

From 7pm- to 9pm no one in my household was allowed to speak or interrupt my movie time, as
long as I had all my homework done. As a young kid I looked up to these Disney channel
movies, they served as my inspirations, my role models and my teachers. However, recently
during our discussion on wearing certain Halloween character costumes, such as Pocahontas, that
depicted racial characteristics in negative and stereotypical ways that can be perceived as racist, I
began to wonder if Disney Channel had contributed to our societys stereotypes and painted
stereotypical images of minorities and gender roles in our childrens heads. Disney Channel was
created in 1987 and is primarily aimed for children between the ages of 2 to 14. Through the
years, Disney Channel had made a strong effort to appeal to a wide variety of minority groups,
depicting an array of relatable characters that can appeal to many different children around the
world. These characters ranged from images of strong independent females, such as Merida from
Brace, Tiana in The Princess and the Frog, and Mulan to the shy and quiet Belle and Snow
White. However, although many commended Disney for displaying a wide range of
diversity in popular media, evidence of racial stereotypes and gender roles within their
movies has begun to appear, which reinforce negative stereotypes within society. We can
see this in the way Disney subtly promotes racial oppression, depicts negative stereotypes of
minority groups, and enforces ideas of white privilege.
One strikingly obvious and incredibly racist example of outright racism in a Disney
movie is the character Jim Crow from the movie Dumbo. One needs only look at his name to see
how this character is inherently offensive. On top of his name, Jim Crow is depicted in a
stereotypically black manner, acting loud, lazy, rambunctious and uneducated. To top it all off,
Dumbo was released in the height of the Jim Crow era, premiering in the year 1941. These

negative depictions did nothing but harm the civil rights movement, reinforcing in Americans
minds these harmful racial stereotypes. These stereotypes are also presented in another Disney
classic, Pocahontas.
Throughout the movie, Pocahontas is depicted as a good Indian by the European
settlers, stereotypically categorizing other Native Americans as savages. This negative depiction
furthers the idea that white is normal and everything else is irregular. When we look at how
Whites are portrayed in Disney Channel, we can see a contrasting view. More often than not,
they are the princesses, princes, heroes and knights in shining armor, usually holding positions of
high power and living luxurious lives. These ideas of white superiority and the inferiority of
Native Americans reinforce the idea that many Americans hold that race is a natural thing, and
that divides and disparities are merely natural forces at work. Another example of this depiction
of racial stereotypes is in the movie The Princess and the Frog. Tiana is depicted as a poor black
woman working a low end job, scraping to make ends meet and try to accomplish her dreams. In
Lecture 6 on September 24th, we discussed how people in media are reduced to racial stereotypes
and can only be fit into specific roles. We can see these ideas employed even in Disneys
animated film, perpetuating the idea that certain roles are meant to be filled by certain races and
genders.
Amongst these many racial stereotypes, Disney also classified gender roles within their
movies that negatively categorize females and males into certain stereotypes. Snow white is an
example of stereotypes that have continued throughout society and have had many detrimental
effects for both males and females in society. Snow White is depicted as a beautiful, obedient and
naive princess who spends a majority of her free time cleaning and cooking, portraying the
stereotype that women are only capable of household duties. The Dwarfs, however, are

illustrated as the hard-working male bread earners, who bring in money but depend on Snow
White, the stereotypical female figure, to take care of the chores. These stereotypes have
continued to been seen in society today and play a role in what roles society thinks people of a
certain gender are allowed to fill.
There is no question that Disney Channel has contributed to our societies stereotypes and
has further kept them alive by humorously and nonchalantly introducing these stereotypes in
their movies. Children are very impressionable, and presenting these stereotypes to them at a
young age will ingrain in their still-developing minds that racial differences are definite and
natural. These ingrained stereotypes help to explain why my classmates, including myself, had a
hard time realizing the effect dressing up as Pochantas might have on the people who are
negatively stereotyped by her portrayal. Disney reinforces these stereotypes with their depictions
of different groups, ranging from women to minority groups, and these reinforcements
negatively impact the perceptions of our society. I will always love Disney Channel, but after
analyzing the subtle racist undertones in their films, I will definitely be watching with a more
critical eye.