Jaxvillain's Jacksonville Journey

Is Disney Still Racist?

I can't possibly believe that I am the only one to notice this, so does anyone else see the Disney Pixar film Cars as racist? My brother-in-law thought I was being ridiculous. We were enjoying Christmas with the entire family at my parents' home when the subject came up and almost ruined Christmas. Not because he and I were getting heated, but it was one of those situations when everyone else thinks you are getting heated so they try to distract you from your conversation, which ultimately makes you mad at them.
I understand his hesitance to agree with me, I remember when everyone was talking about Lion King as though it was racist because the bad guys were voiced by Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin, but that argument was ridiculously inconsistent since James Earl Jones was the patriarch of the hero family and the British Jeremy Irons was the main villain. Obviously Disney does not gain anything by being racist any more than they gain something by sneaking phallic symbols into the poster art of Little Mermaid, but there is something unsettling about the new Disney films. I'm sure that my claims are equally as preposterous as those to most people, but I have made some observations that I believe to be case in point.
It strikes me as occurring only since any actual Disney family has left the company, and most likely it is not intentional, but when you are telling fables through talking animals and machines, you are recounting an ancient tradition of storytelling. You are bringing a truth of some kind to life for the listener of the story by getting away from all of the preconceptions we have about humans (sex, sexual preference, race, etc..) by telling a story through characters that you understand are not real. The important thing to remember when telling a symbolic story is that everything in your story is then assigned a subtext.
In the Disney animated film Tarzan, we are given the understanding that monkeys are the good guys. Oh, and elephants. Umm, okay, monkey's, elephants, and SOMETIMES humans. But Cheetah's are definitely bad. Why is that? No one can really answer that, but we can refer back to other Disney films to see how they handled it in the past. I remember in The Jungle Book that the panther was good, but the tiger was bad. And the snake was bad, but the bear was good. So it isn't about carnivores vs. herbivores that good and evil is decided, but rather based on the character of the individual, regardless of their genus or species.
However in Tarzan we are not provided a character assignment for the Cheetah. He doesn't talk or sing or anything. It's like he's an animal! But isn't everyone in the story animals? We are not given a reason for the Cheetahs' lack of personification, but we do understand that if and when the Cheetah dies, he deserves it. He was mean. He was a killer. But what is the subtext in that? It is acceptable for someone we fear to die? Death is a just reward for those we deem evil? Not only is that an arbitrary morality, but it is a death sentence? Isn't the message there that it is up to you, the individual, to decide if someone is good or bad? If that is the case, then I guess the killers at Columbine were justified. Those popular kids were mean to them, so, like the Cheetah, they had to die.
I realize I'm being ridiculous by saying that Tarzan is responsible for Columbine, but my point is that subtext is important in fables. The message must be consistent. Obviously there is plenty of racism in old Disney cartoons (see Song of the South) and I'm not suggesting that the good-old-days of Disney were morally superior, but certainly the consistency of their message remained aware of how to tell the story. The subtext must be handled deliberately and carefully.
So what is my big problem with Cars? Children age three to seven are not old enough to understand stereotypes, but an animated film targeted at their age sure can educate them about it. Especially a film targeted at "NASCAR dads" and people with a more rural mentality has the ability to get right in there and endorse a terrible ideology. My seven year old daughter didn't know that Mexicans like low-riders. She didn't know black girls have big asses. She didn't know white people with southern accents live in trailer parks. She didn't know that minorities belong together or that white people are always the heroes, but I think she might be getting the idea after seeing Cars.
Again, I'm painting with some broad strokes, I'm not suggesting that there be a government agency governing the use of stereotypes, or even that Disney be more aware of the political correctness fascism, I just want to see more parents outraged. Are the smart parents not watching this film with their children? I watched it at the San Marco Theatre and was sitting directly behind a young, well-dressed black couple with their children. They sat that entire movie, as tedious as the plot line was, and didn't even cringe. I was behind them with my head in my hands. On one hand, I know that this gives me a great opportunity to talk to my kids about stereotyping and racism, but on the other hand, I thought I would have more support in my argument. Especially from my sister and brother-in-law who are the only other "liberals" in my family.
To me, casting Cheech Marin as the low-rider that is dating Jennifer Lewis, the black girl with huge tailfins, is already horribly stereotypical. Adding Larry the Cable Guy to anything is just furthering its racist undertones, and then amidst all of these stereotyped characters that are race-identifiable even before you learn who does the actual voicing, there is Owen Wilson, the whitest of white men, and Bonnie Hunt, the ultimate natural blonde from Cheaper by the Dozen, as the romantic leads and the heroes of the story, makes it a study in why Disney must think that white society is the best and everyone else should remain in their boxes.
The only film I can remember feeling as strongly about the racial implications is A Time to Kill with Samuel Jackson. Don't even get me started about Grisham's need to send a white hero in to save a dim-witted but honest black man. My brother-in-law chalks it up to my white guilt, and I won't say he's completely wrong about that, but apparently there isn't enough white guilt going around to stop young children from learning how to stereotype. And if you discuss stereotyping with someone and they pull the old "stereotypes are rooted in truth" bit; remind them that that is exactly why they are so wrong. There is a big difference between mocking a stereotype to disarm it and reinforcing a stereotype so that it lives on.
Regardless of all of these semantics, Cars was just a plain old-fashioned bad movie. If you are in the mood for a good Pixar Disney flick, see The Incredibles again.