The document discusses the representation of race in children's movies, particularly Disney movies. It analyzes two movies, The Princess and the Frog and other unnamed children's movies, identifying implicit and explicit racist discourse and negative stereotypes of African Americans. This includes portrayals of social inequality between the lives of black and white characters. The document discusses how this influences children, who begin developing awareness of race between ages 2 to 5, and how they learn stereotypes from media. It concludes that racism is a prominent feature in many children's movies, especially through the language used, and influences the views children develop.

1. The Representation of Race in Children’s Movies 172.237 Language, Discourse & Power Assignment 3 By Lauren Wootton

2. Text One Rationale & Significant Features Old & New Racism Text Two Rationale Significant Features Conclusion : The Representation of Race in Children’s Movies Reference List

3. Racism “A social system of domination, that is, of a specific kind of power of one group over other groups, in our case of Europeans (‘whites’) over non-European peoples” (van Dijk, 2005 pp.1-2). “We all learn to be racist (or antiracist) through children’s literature, movies [etc]… discourse plays a fundamental role in the formation of racist beliefs and in the discriminatory practices based on such beliefs”(van Dijk, 2005 pp.9-10).

4. Text one: Excerpt from “The Princess and the Frog” (2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4dQA_61EJI

6. Old style racism “a negro is different from other people in that he’s an unfortunate branch of the human family who hasn’t been able to make out of himself everything he is capable of. He is not capable of being rushed because of the background of the jungle… we look upon him for his lack of culture, as being less reliable, in business and unsafe socially. His passions are aroused easily” (Bonilla-Silva, 2006, p.29)

7. New racism Is democratic, respectable; denies that is racism – real racism is only existent in right wing extremists. Minorities are different, not inferior – they have a different culture, and “there are ‘deficiencies’, such as single-parent families…lacking achievement values, ‘pathologies’ that need to be corrected…” (van Dijk, 2000, pp. 33-34)

8. Text Two Stereotypes & Racism in Children’s Movies (Brunette, Mallory & Wood, n.d.) http://nhaeyc.org/newsletters/articles/Racism_in_Childrens_Movies.pdf

9. Rationale Discussion o f movies with racist discourse, with explanation of why this discourse is deemed racist Portrayal of negative stereotypes How this effects children; the impact of this representation in everyday life

10. Significant features Discussion of types of racism in children’s movies with an emphasis on those by Disney “a kind of street, inner city African American dialect” (Brunette et al. n.d, p.1.) Effect on the children “children between 2 and 5 years of age start to become aware of race, ethnicity, gender and disabilities. They can accurately identify “Black” and “White” when labeling pictures, dolls and people.” (Ramsay, as cited in Brunette et al., n.d., p.1) They “learn stereotypes and attitudes about race from their parents, caretakers and the world around them”(Linn & Poussain, as cited in Brunette et al., n.d., p.1) Suggestion of how to combat these portrayals of racism

11. Conclusions Racism a conspicuous feature in many forms in children’s movies – particularly Disney movies The influence this racism has on the children watching it How this racism is portrayed through the language, discourse and representations of power

12. Reference list Brunette, L., Mallory, C., & Wood, S. (n.d.) Stereotypes and racism in children’s movies. Retrieved October 3, 2011, from http://nhaeyc.org/newsletters/articles/Racism_in_Childrens_Movies.pdf Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in the United States (2nd ed.). Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. Pilhofer, F. (2002). Disney anitmatedfeatures. Retrieved October 3, 2011 from http://www.fpx.de/fp/Disney/Features.html van Dijk, T.A. (2005). Racism and discourse in Spain and Latin America. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Walt Disney Animation Studios (Producer) & Musker, J. & Clements, R. (Directors) (December 11, 2009). The princess and the frog [Motion Picture].