by Sarah Bunin Benor
Dear Disney executives, My daughters and I enjoy watching Disney’s animated movies, old and new. Because I am a professor of language and race, we usually follow each film with a discussion of the insensitive representations: Often various evil and comedic characters speak regional, race-based, or foreign dialects, while the protagonists speak general American English. But when I took my kids to see Coco, our conversation was different. We praised the respectful portrayal of Spanish-influenced English in this fanciful illumination of Mexican traditions. Pixar’s Coco – Golden Globe winner and now Oscar nominee – demonstrates that Disney is on a positive path. And it offers the perfect opportunity to acknowledge your company’s racially insensitive portrayals over the past 85 years and pledge to avoid them in the future. Yes, your company has been inculcating children and adults with harmful ideas about language for 85 years. You can see details in a scholarly book and informative video. I included a question on the final exam in my undergraduate class, “Language, Race, and Identity in the United States,” asking students to explain the problem and suggest solutions (see the best student responses here). It started with the Big Bad Wolf in The Three Little Pigs (1933), who at one point dressed as a Jewish peddler with a large nose, sidelocks, black hat, and Yiddish accent (changed after complaints). Then there were the black crows in Dumbo (1941), who spoke African American English (one was named Jim Crow – really). Peter Pan (1953) portrayed Native Americans (“Injuns” and “the red man”) using broken English and nonsense words like “hana mana ganda.” The Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp (1955) had slanted eyes and “Asian” accents. America came a long way in the 1960s and 1970s, and so did Disney. By the 1990s, overt racism was minimized (well, except in Aladdin), but insensitive, uneven linguistic portrayals persisted. Because The Lion King (1994) takes place in Africa, and some characters have Swahili names, we might expect all characters to have Swahili accents. In fact, only one character does – the wise baboon, Rafiki. Simba, his parents, and Nala speak general American English, the evil Scar sounds British, the shadowy hyenas speak African American and Latino English, and the comedic Timon and Pumbaa have New York accents. What’s wrong with representing Latino English, an Asian accent, or some nonsense words in animated films? Nothing, if they’re used evenly and respectfully, as in Coco. The problem is when the heroes of the film use general American English and the bad guys and funny guys speak differently. That perpetuates what scholars call “standard language ideology,” the idea that native-born, upper-middle-class Americans speak correctly and everyone who speaks differently is deficient. For generations, your films have contributed to a sense of superiority among privileged, white, American-born kids and an inferiority complex among people of color and immigrants. This can have material consequences, such as discrimination in employment and housing based on accent. Many have called on Disney to cast actors from the ethnic groups portrayed, and these calls have been effective. This is important, but it is not enough. Many of the actors in the Lion King were African American, but the writers and directors distributed their accents unevenly. I am not calling for the elimination of regional, immigrant, and race-based varieties of English in Disney films. In fact, that’s one feature that makes Coco so great. The main characters all use Spanish-influenced English in authentic, non-comedic ways. Like previous films, Coco taps into Americans' knowledge of ethnic language use – in this case Chicano English – to represent a cultural group outside of the United States (Mexicans, who in reality would speak Spanish, not Spanish-influenced English). But Coco does not limit this marked language to sidekicks, villains, or fanciful characters like alley cats, crabs, and dragons. Viewers will be more likely to come away from Coco with increased respect for Chicano English and new knowledge of some Spanish words, rather than a reminder of the subordinated status of certain communities. In 1981, a former head of Disney wrote, “We have no obligation to make a statement. To make money is our only objective.” I know your company has evolved since then. Now is the time to issue an acknowledgement of past wrongs and a pledge to avoid them in the future. As we can see from the positive reception of Coco, audiences in the US and around the world are hungry for respectful representations. Many would welcome such a statement. Once you make this pledge, other entertainment companies might follow. Based on the slew of new films, children may absorb more positive images of ethnic diversity, and marginalized language varieties may lose some of their stigma. When these changes are made, I will happily come up with a new question for my final exam. Sarah Bunin Benor is a Professor at Hebrew Union College and the University of Southern California. Her publications include Becoming Frum: How Newcomers Learn the Language and Culture of Orthodox Judaism and We the Resilient: Wisdom for America from Women Born Before Suffrage.
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