Green is the New Black

Green is the New Black

Stereotypes and Segregation have been big issues around the world for many years.  Segregation of African American people in the United States was a big event between 1955 and 1968, during the civil rights movement.  After the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, many thought that segregation was, for the most part, over, but new controversy about Disney’s first African America princess, Tiana, in The Princess and the Frog is starting to stir.  Many believe that Disney is being insensitive to the African American community.  There are parts in The Princess and the Frog that could be taken offensively if taken a certain way, but like most movies, problems and criticisms follow.  Let’s not forget that this is a children’s movie.  Disney is not being insensitive to African Americans because they are promoting interracial marriage, showing the culture of New Orleans, and almost every movie can be taken offensively by a group or culture.

Many people would argue about the message Disney is sending by making the prince a non black character.  Angela Bronner Helm was on a website dedicated to African American culture where pictures of the new prince and princess were posted.  She noticed the princes’ relatively light skin color and wrote “Disney obviously doesn’t think a black man is worthy of the title of prince.”  While many thought this was the message that Disney was attempting to send, others believe we should applaud Disney for promoting interracial marriage, adding diversity of ethnicities in this film, and helping teach children about racial tolerance.  There are many different cultures and ethnicities in this movie, so why is the princes’ race so important?  Let’s not forget the fact that both characters spend more than half the time in the movie as small green amphibians where their race isn’t even noticed.

The setting of New Orleans and the stereotypes about its people portrayed in The Princess and the Frog have led people to believe that Disney is being insensitive to the victims of hurricane Katrina.  Disney wasn’t trying to offend, but to promote New Orleans and show its interesting and rich lifestyle.  During the movie Disney shows New Orleans beautiful buildings and infrastructure, its bayou and waters, and it even shows their great celebration of Mardi gras.  The fact that mostly all the Caucasians in the movie were more rich than the ones who were black made people upset, but we have to remember that this movie was set in New Orleans during the 1920’s and the United States hadn’t even thought of the Civil Rights Act yet.

People are making such a fuss about The Princess and the Frog that we don’t even stop to think of the stereotypes of other heritages in movies made by Disney that don’t have as much controversy as this one, such as Dumbo, The Jungle Book, Aladdin and Pocahontas.  The reason this one means so much to people is because of the history of blacks in the United States.  Disney created their first black princess because of the criticism for not having one in the past, and by creating her they are trying to diminish the racial stereotypes that have gone on for years.

            Disney is trying to capture the culture of New Orleans and of the African American people.  They did not mean to offend anyone by making a non black prince, but instead wanted to add diversity to the film.  Anika Noni Rose, the voice of Tiana, defends Disney saying “There is no reason to get up in arms.  If there was something that I thought was disrespectful to me or to my heritage, I would certainly not be a part of it.”  She agrees that Disney is not insulting her heritage and realizes it’s a children’s movie and should not be taken personally.  Floyd Norman, an African American Disney animator, says “overly sensitive people see racial or ethnic slights in every image, and in their zeal to sanitize and pasteurize everything, they’ve taken all the fun out of cartoon making.”  That’s exactly it, everyone is so caught up with being sensitive and making everything perfect that they forget the fact that this is a children’s story.  It has been proven that children learn most of their behaviors and beliefs from their parents, so their actions truly depend on the family lessons and values they are taught as children not so much based on the movies they watch.  Disney has been making princess films for many years and every princess, black or white, captures the hearts of little girls everywhere.  It is time to put our judgments aside and remember that it is the inside that counts and Disney teaches us to dream big, and to love each other for who we are on the inside not by the color of our skin.