Posted on 03/25/2007 7:43:17 AM PDT by Ellesu
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
As described in detail in Thomas Sowell's book 'Black Rednecks and White Liberals'.
Hey...click on post 112.
Actually, a brief preface about how this was not intended to be racist (and was not perceived as such when the film was released), but uses terms and phrases that would now be considered offensive, would be a good idea. Most schools do precisely that before reading Huck Finn, because the lessons learned from the book ("Oh, I'll go to hell!" is one of the greatest scenes in American literature) outweigh the offensiveness of the use of the term "n-----r."
Didn't you notice "Ms. Jemima" got a makeover several years ago. Don't know about "Homey Ben."
Gay Days are only organized by independent gay and lesbian groups that infiltrate many different theme parks across the USA every year. You can read more about it here.
Disney does not organize, endorse, or promote Gay Day in any way. Don't expect a Disney representative to take the initiative to tell potential park goers when the gays are coming. It's not their event. They don't manage it. Unless their is something illegal about it, there is absolutely nothing Disney, or any other theme park, can do to stop it.
Before I visit the park I take two seconds to visit the Gay Day site to see what days not to visit.
Ernest Hemingway said, "all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.... All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
More to the point it is a disservice to Mankind to refer to "Nigger Jim" as anything other than "Nigger Jim". To call him simply "Jim" is to lose the irony of the slur (as it is perceived today) being used on one of the finest examples of humanity ever in fiction.
I'm a huge Jolson fan, by the way. He truly was "America's greatest entertainer".
That is precisely right. You cannot sanitize Huck Finn without eviscerating the point that the n-----r is the only real friend Huck Finn had. (This was revolutionary for its time!) At the same time, our culture is unavoidably racially charged. You couldn't teach Huck Finn in high school without explaining that society had different standards then, and that n-----r is now one of the most offensive words in the English language.
The solution isn't to sanitize Huck Finn, or to stop teaching it. Instead, the solution is to learn from it and give mature high school kids a preface regarding the use of the word n----er. ("It's a period use. It's okay for the book to use it, but don't you dare use it otherwise.")
Likewise, Song of the South shouldn't be suppressed - but at the same time, it probably shouldn't be given to young, impressionable children. Some parental guidence is needed - and I'd argue a Disney intro saying "times were different when this was made" would go a long way towards helping learn from the past.
Hopefully soon my friend.
My sister has been after this movie for years.
Closest way to experience the movie now is to ride Splash Mountain at the Mouse House.
Aunt Jemima looks like Phyllicia Rashad-Jemima now. Uncle Ben is still the same dignified-looking gentleman, however.
And Rastus the Cream of Wheat chef hasn't changed a bit.
THAT, we will NEVER see on Saturday morning cartoons.
Like the one where Porky Pig says "Son of a B---"
Interesting. The most popular Spanish-language comic book character, Condorito, has a dog named Washington. Coincidence? (Televisa, the Mexican media conglomerate that owns Condorito nowadays, has renamed the dog as "Byte" in the official English-language version of the strip.)
Incidentally, Condorito is a helluva funny comic strip. You can read it daily for free online.
As a kid, I loved Uncle Remus, and I always will.
Wow. I thought he was gonna say it.
Look what they have done to "Uncle Tom." The character in the book is a young, virle man who is a model Christian. The stage play, howeverm turned him into an old and white-haired man, I guess because the producers could not imagine a young black man in the role.
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