People say aladdin disney is racist !

[Fans of Reilly]

I have heard many people say on the Internet, aladdin disney is racist but I watched this film a lot of times I can not count the number of times and I did not notice anything racist about it

 

[Teelie]

I'm not going to weigh in directly on if there are racist elements in the movie but I will point out that on the internet, everything is racist to someone, even if there is no justification for it.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Pretty much every Disney film has racial and ethnic stereotypes that can be seen as racist.

 

[Schlosser85]

You could say the hero and heroine Aladdin and Jasmine are rather "white" looking while the villain Jafar and some comedic supporting characters are more stereotypical.

 

[Teelie]

Pretty much every Disney film has racial and ethnic stereotypes that can be seen as racist.

That is most definitely true in their earlier works, some of which they have themselves banned from release. These days there is at least an effort not to offend.

 

[Figs]

As far as I'm concerned it's more super sensitive PC crying. People that scream at everything they find to be offensive in some ridiculous manner just want attention most of the time, because in a lot of cases, like this one, it's not really racist.

I get what you're saying Schlosser85, about them looking kind of sort of white when it comes to their facial features, but people should be crying racism towards Anime as well then. Talk about white looking characters that are supposedly supposed to be asian. I'm really joking about calling the creators racists of course...since they are asian themselves. I just never got why they didn't draw their characters to look a bit different.

 

[childeroland]

I've always wondered about that myself.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

The racial stereotypes are out of control in this movie. Because ALL blue people grant wishes, right? Disgusting

 

[Pink Ranger]

I'm not really wading into this debate, but there is a marked difference in the way Arab culture is treated in Aladdin and Chinese culture is treated in Mulan, for instance. The latter seems more respectful.

 

[X Knight]

The racial stereotypes are out of control in this movie. Because ALL blue people grant wishes, right? Disgusting

I know....right?

 

[Thundercrack85]

To be fair, the whole thing is rather silly. Aladdin isn't Arabic. It's not even Middle Eastern. The story was originally set in East China (modern day Turkestan), and Aladdin was Chinese (though not ethnically Han Chinese per se).

Most of the imagery in the movie seemed to be borrowed from Persia and the Mughal Empire, which while Muslim, is certainly not Arabic. Part of the original story was set in North Africa, but that's about it.

To top it all off, the whole story (i.e. the story the Disney movie was based on) was probably made up by a Frenchman in the 18th century.

 

[Teelie]

Meaning we can blame it on the French, right?

 

[DarkSovereignty]

So plan A, huh?

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

So what's racist about it?

Cause I'm not seeing it.

 

[Teelie]

In addition to the "white-washing" of the main characters and Jafar's skin being darkened already mentioned, Genie is meant to somehow be a Jewish slur because of his nose. And much of Agrabah is stereotypically Arabic. There's also a claim a line in a song was offensive to Arabs ("Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face," in the original release to "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense.") and if I dug deeper into the pit of "everything Disney is racist" I'd probably find an entire thesis' worth of claims to post.

 

[Pond]

That line was cut from most cds and the movie itself. Its was from the first song, Arabian Nights. I have one from a box-set about Ashman-Menken that contains it though.

A Disney animated crazy love-comedy-adventure musical full of anachronisms and the genie transforming himself in, for example, Jack Nicholson, isnt the place you go looking either for racism nor historical or cultural acuracy.

Mulan, while still funny, had far more of a serious tone to it; Aladdin seems like a gag per second gun-machine and if anything, it was heavily inspired by the Korda produced Thief of Baghdad in my view, even more than the thief and the cobbler.

But then again, Jasmine doesnt look white in a long shot to me.

To me a stereotipe is only offensive if it wants to be. There has to be meannes behind it. I dont care about ofended people; people can feel ofended by anything, right or wrong. Ofensive needs to be meant.

As a movie, crap aside, still a masterpiece though.

 

[Teelie]

Like I said though, internet, someone always offended. People will take absolutely anything, even the smallest shred of offense and turn it into a major racist complaint.

 

[Lord]

Some complaints about offense make sence though, expecially feminism, since around 50% of the internet can be quite sexist, and when a feminist comes to point out certain troupes in fiction, many seem to take it personally and start saying that the certain "feminist" is sexist and doesn't like men.

This was expecially true when that vídeo about troupes vs women in vídeo games was released, some people simply seem to miss the point.

 

[Teelie]

And some people got the point and explicitly went after it to troll. The other, even more negative side to this.

 

[Victarion]

You can apply that claim to a lot of older stuff that's generally well loved, like Tolkien, Lovecraft, Robert Howard etc.

What likely happened - if the OP went to the site I think he/she did - is someone threw out the claim as trollbait to attract the clinically insane elements of the social justice warrior crowd.

 

[sueb1863]

Hey, there's a Disney Princess Christmas-themed coloring book out there where you can color drawings of Jasmine and Aladdin hanging Christmas decorations. Complete with a Christmas tree and Christmas presents.

Though I'm, um, pretty sure they wouldn't actually celebrate Christmas...

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

If I had to choose, I'd prefer a society that was too racially sensitive than a society that is too racially insensitive.

Yes a perfect balance would be ideal but without droves of PC warriors society is always dangerously close to slipping into a place where racism is widely acceptable.

So yeah, I don't find an overly PC society too problematic. The alternatives can be far more dystopic.

 

[CGHulk]

http://articles.latimes.com/1993-07-10/entertainment/ca-11747_1_altered-lyric

The opening song change, "They'll cut off your ear if they don't like your face, its barbaric but hey it's home!" To, "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense, it's barbaric, but hey, it's home!"

My best friend at the time who is Israeli, Iraqi and Iranian (he jokingly used to say he was at war with himself) we saw Aladdin in theaters together and he laughed his ass off at the original lyrics.

Here the original version.
[YT]VvaMgi04oBQ[/YT]

 

[Pink Ranger]

My best friend at the time who is Israeli, Iraqi and Iranian (he jokingly used to say he was at war with himself) we saw Aladdin in theaters together and he laughed his ass off at the original lyrics.

Damn, his parents (and grandparents) must have had freaky hot sex.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

This "Disney Aladdin is racist" stuff is just stupid.