Racism and Disney go hand in hand

Disney has long been known for controversial material being put into their classic musicals. From the Crows in Dumbo, Sunflower the Centaur in Fantastia who acts as a slave to the white Centaurs, Uncle Loui in The Jungle Book, the Merchant at the beginning of Alladin, and, of course, the Native Americans portrayed in Peter Pan. Not a super track record for Disney.

So, what made us think things were going to change that much when Disney expanded onto the Broadway stage?

Disney's Broadway musicals have been some of the most popular and long running shows in Broadway history. This Wikipedia list shows Disney's Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King to be numbers 7 and 8 of longest running shows in history. Beauty and the Beast is pretty clean of Racial themes, and focuses on looking at the beauty inside of a person instead of what's on the outside. The Lion King as well was a huge step forward for Disney's image-a cast of all African and African American actors, puppeteers, and singers, singing authentic (sounding) African music that incorporates authentic African dancing. Never mind that it was composed and lyrics were written by two wealthy middle aged white men....that's not the point, really. The point is it was a pretty good representation and something many people are very very proud of.

Disney recently has been getting into a little trouble with their Broadway musicals.

First there was Tarzan the musical. The outcry of the public after a few of the black actors in the company were cast as apes was ridiculous. There is no racism here, in my opinion. It's simply a mater of casting the best actor for the role he or she fits into. Needless to say, Tarzan was canceled early in it's run.

Then came The Little Mermaid. A classic story with some Caribbean music themes that only ran for a year on Broadway. Again, some backlash-Sebastian, the crab-servant to the royal family, is one of the only black actors in the company. Once again, I do not see this as an issue. The fact of the matter is, Tituss Burgess, the actor who played Sebastian, has an outstanding tenor voice and the vocal tonality necessary to sing Sebastian's island-influenced solos.

Finally, Dreamworks decides it is going to get on the film-to-stage action, with it's newest Broadway baby, Shrek the Musical. Here, we have a veiled racial theme...The ogre (whose skin is green, unlike the humans who rule the land)is stereotyped and it isn't until a princess herself turns into a green ogre that he is accepted or finds any happiness. This is a good message, like Beauty and the Beast's- Beauty doesn't depend on skin color.

But then, cries the audience, why did they have to make Donkey very obviously a jiv-talking black man? In a DONKEY costume? Scandal.

This where I say everyone needs to calm down. The Donkey is black because the actor chosen to play the Donkey happened to be black. His lines are "jiv"esque because that is how he was portrayed in the original film.