-> And I agree, I do not see how people can find the movie racist.  I
-> have heard it said it is because of the stereotypical "poor black
-> guy" image portrayed by the lead in the movie.  However, it must be
-> remembered that generally, blacks in the south *were* poor and
-> uneducated, not because they chose to be, but because dominent white
-> culture denied any opportunities to these people.  It's an
-> unpleseant recollection for many people who do not want to be
-> reminded of the blatent racism of the past - these people  to
-> ironically label anything that doesn't portray African Ame rich,
-> successful, and educated, as racist.  Anyhow, the fact  the South
-> was never racist, it only used a projection of black l was actually,
-> sadly, accurate at one time.
Disney has in the past and continuies to be a punching bag for many
people and groups that find some distasteful something in each movie.
When SOTS came out there were protests and angry people making hateful
comments and Disney boycotts and all that. Some of the animated shorts
(like 20% of them) have been edited to remove things from their original
versions because people complained (rains of bullets, smoking a water
pipe, cigars, etc.). You can read about Disney censorship in Persistence
of Vision Issue #8 (the current one). Even the LD releases of Disney
animated shorts that claim to have the original, unedited films
sometimes really have the edited version. This is in response to
Disney's critics - people that simply cannot have a good time even when
watching Disney movies.
It's the same today. mention Disney and people complain about how
"Pocahontas" isn't real history and "The Little Mermaid" classical story
was changed by Disney. How awful. Imagine the shame. Disney spending
millions of dollars to make a movie and actually telling the story THEY
want to tell!
BOYCOTT! BOYCOTT!
Seriously, I have people in my church that are boycotting the Disney
Company and all its products. The reason changes from week-to-week.
These people ignore family movies that are good and clean (Disney
movies) and take their kids out to see blood and violence movie instead.
I don't get it. I thought the movies were about entertaining the entire
family. SOTS is not racist as far as I can tell. In fact, the main
character of the film is a black man that people around are quite fond
of and look up to him. I grew quite fond of him when I saw this film as
a kid. A film like SOTS really knows no race barriers. The fact that it
sold in many countries around the world proves that.
It is a crime that many millions of Americans are deprived of seeing
this movie simply because of the stirring voices of a few protestors and
the lack of a laser disc player. The censorship of this movie is the
real racial slur.
--- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 
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