Why is Uncle Remus/Song of the south considered racist?

[Chimplord1997]

I dont get it. Theres nothing negative about uncle remus that seems like theyre mocking him or people like him. Hes a kindly old man who likes singing songs and telling stories to kids. Hes ostensibly a freedman in antebellum georgia, which means he is likely to be a pretty intelligent and motivated man who bought himself out of slavery. Is it the accent? Because if you go to the rural south today, thats how black people there talk. I just dont get it. The guy who played uncle remus, James Baskett, is the first black oscar winner in history, walt disney worked tooth and nail to push the academy to let him get that oscar, hes probably one of the first great black actors, and he died of a heart attack at a young age. From everything i can see nothing about song of the south appears to be racially derogatory and he seems like a lovable childrens character like Mr. Rogers. And instead the guy died in obscurity as a pariah because he acted in what was at the time the cutting edge of animation

just fuckin sad to think about

 

[Retink]

Aunt Jemima's name came from a minstrel show performance titled "old aunt Jemima." While it was popular among black face performers the song and character were both orginally created and preformed by Billy Kersands, a black man.

That's great and all, but Aunt Jemima also paved way for the first black female corporate mascots/actresses and has evolved significantly since then. If anything, that history should be all the more reason to keep it as it's something that started off with a racist conception and evolved into something far more positive and beneficial to the people it was supposed to mock. You know, the whole "from the bad can come the good" type of story, as opposed to the one drop rule or sins of the father that if it ever had any relation to something negative it can never be redeemed.

 

[Shidoen]

I always thought Uncle Remus was a nice old man and didn't think the tar baby was supposed to be black. It was also a kid's movie and slavery wasn't really discussed. I have the whole movie on VHS tape along with Dukes of Hazzards.

 

[The Lawgiver]

I always thought Uncle Remus was a nice old man and didn't think the tar baby was supposed to be black. It was also a kid's movie and slavery wasn't really discussed. I have the whole movie on VHS tape along with Dukes of Hazzards.

The tar baby isn't even "black" it's a literal fucking glob of tar vaugely shaped into a person set up to trick the rabbit into getting pissed off at it for ignoring him.

 

[JethroTullamore]

I remember Ralph Bakshi’s version of these old fairy tales, Coonskin I think it was called.

Anyone who thinks “Song of the south” is racist would have a stroke if they saw that….

Either that or they’d love it, because the “black” characters technically “win” and kill some white folks, either way, that movie made me feel dirty and uncomfortable. (I highly recommend it).

 

[Cup Noodle]

as a freedman in antebellum uncle remus would have been of the "talented tenth"
Idk this is gonna sound calloused but everywhere else you already hear boohoo it was so bad boohoo, do you really need racial grievance propaganda in everything? It's a cartoon about an old black gentleman singing songs with cartoon rabbits. being a southerner at all postbellum was really shit if you weren't one of the 2% of people who had previously owned slaves and had a cushion of assets to fall back on.

being a farmer in general was dog shit awful back then. there's some evidence to show via height records that they were better fed as slaves (a slave is expensive and you want them running at optimal performance so as to not squander the investment) in the antebellum south than the average free farmer was, so other than not being obligated to work and gaining voting rights, they probably experienced a sharp dip in living standards in the time immediately after all the slaves were freed. I think it should also be said that most slaves on plantations were paid. Not a lot, as they were given room and board already, and because they were, well, slaves, but they were paid some amount of money. There were many very intelligent black people who saved their pay and bought themselves out of slavery, and either moved north, or sometimes became slave owners themselves.

Not saying slavery was good or whatever but I have a hard time feeling guilt over it when at the peak of slavery only about 2% of Americans owned slaves and they were the equivalent of billionaires at the time, the descendants of those people brought over are now on avg. some of the wealthiest people on the planet, whereas if they were kept in Africa (where they were slaves already before being bought) they would have had to deal with starvation, castration, and having their limbs chopped off by other Africans.it just seems like rentseeking.

It was the 40s. Do you think the segment of the public that actually wanted to keep da black man down would respond as well if song of the south had been a racial grievance story and not a happy film that just happened to prominently feature a black man in a way that was groundbreaking at the time? Idk. I think the racial grievance people care more about rentseeking and holding on to racial grievance more than they actually care about equality under the law.

Someone who actually has thinking thoughts. What a relief.

I literally think stereotypes, even somewhat negative ones, are a sort of memetic interface that lets people of different cultures interact when jammed in close proximity. Stereotypes are so prevalent in America because you had so many different ethnicities jammed into small spaces like a city or a neighborhood. You have this mental template of what an Irish person in 1920s new York city is like, and you use that as a heuristic in your interactions with them.

Why do niggers love fried chicken and watermelon? Because everyone loves fried chicken and watermelon. I live in the deep south. Where I live the population is 38% black. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Race relations here are great compared to most of the country. We all have to live together and get along. We don't necessarily like each other all the time, but we have this thing called tolerance that seems to have been abandoned in the 21'st century. The Karens in their gated communities preaching acceptance don't know shit about real race relations. I carry every day but I'm more likely to have to use my weapon against a white meth head than a black guy. Everybody stays in their lane and we somehow make it work. That's not to say that we segregate ourselves from each other or anything. There is just kind of an unwritten rule not to fuck around and find out with other races. Black guy doesn't want a mob of guys in sheets rolling up on his place and white guy doesn't want a convoy of donks drivebying his place. There was this one white chick that got murdered by a black guy, but she burned the coal and payed the toll and there was another time that a dudes wife got killed in a drive by on his house when he wasn't home, but he was involved in drug dealing with the blacks. We're not going to start a race war over that shit. They stepped out of their lane and got what they deserved.

Edit: something I just thought of randomly. Everyone knows the ten little monkeys jumping on the bed song right? Here is the original version.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/105097.Ten_Little_Niggers

 

[Chimplord1997]

Someone who actually has thinking thoughts. What a relief.

Why do niggers love fried chicken and watermelon? Because everyone loves fried chicken and watermelon. I live in the deep south. Where I live the population is 38% black. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Race relations here are great compared to most of the country. We all have to live together and get along. We don't necessarily like each other all the time, but we have this thing called tolerance that seems to have been abandoned in the 21'st century. The Karens in their gated communities preaching acceptance don't know shit about real race relations. I carry every day but I'm more likely to have to use my weapon against a white meth head than a black guy. Everybody stays in their lane and we somehow make it work. That's not to say that we segregate ourselves from each other or anything. There is just kind of an unwritten rule not to fuck around and find out with other races. Black guy doesn't want a mob of guys in sheets rolling up on his place and white guy doesn't want a convoy of donks drivebying his place. There was this one white chick that got murdered by a black guy, but she burned the coal and payed the toll and there was another time that a dudes wife got killed in a drive by on his house when he wasn't home, but he was involved in drug dealing with the blacks. We're not going to start a race war over that shit. They stepped out of their lane and got what they deserved.

Edit: something I just thought of randomly. Everyone knows the ten little monkeys jumping on the bed song right? Here is the original version.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/105097.Ten_Little_Niggers

I've noticed the same from the south. People are seen as more "prejudiced", but it's really "postjudice", because compared to someone living in lake forest illinois or a wealthy suburb of seattle, you're seeing a very thin slice of the black population. People in the south are living with a more representative sample. You see the average, you generate a heuristic, and you use the heuristic, not necessarily judging the individual. The general attitude I see from southerners is "I don't mind living next to blacks or working with them or being friends with them as long as they're hardworking godfearing people and they don't give me shit about my confederate bumper sticker"
whereas in the north when whitey befriends a black it's usually some waspy lightskin working in HR, it's just a fashion statement more than it is genuine friendship

 

[Cup Noodle]

whereas in the north when whitey befriends a black it's usually some waspy lightskin working in HR, it's just a fashion statement more than it is genuine friendship

Yes. They have a pet black to prove their superiority by not being a racism.

The general attitude I see from southerners is "I don't mind living next to blacks or working with them or being friends with them as long as they're hardworking godfearing people and they don't give me shit about my confederate bumper sticker"

The shop I work at has a Confederate flag hung on the wall. Black people are a disproportionate percentage of our clientele. I can wear my Skynyrd shirts in public without worrying about being harassed by some white Karen. It's pretty cool. Fuck, there are even black dudes with jacked up trucks and Skoal rings on their Levi pockets. We get along pretty well down here. I imagine most of the actual racism in the US is from suburbanite white women.

 

[Chimplord1997]

the actual racism in the US is from suburbanite white women.

It is, the AWFL's and soymen go full wignat mode the second a nigga opposes their political views

 

[Mr. Bung]

Uncle Remus is a happy negro who loves all and uses wisdom and common sense. That's a BIG no no to the Dems.

All negros need to be stupid, xenophobic, and miserable so they can be good little tools for the grotesquely wealthy lizard people.

 

[Lucky Jim]

Because even though your mom will happily have sex with numerous black men, Uncle Remus refuses to touch even one white woman