Racism in the "Jungle Book"?

 After watching the famous “Jungle book” movie created in 1967, it is clear that racism has been widely used in many old animated films.  What is fascinating about this particular film is that is it so blatantly obvious that it speaks to the societal norms of the era which render racism as an acceptable part of pop culture.  While most of the characters in the movie speak with clear English or even British accents, King Louie and his band of monkeys are the only characters who speak a much less sophisticated tone.  This is meant to mock the intelligence of African Americans who are deemed to be very different than all of the other characters in the movie.  The result is meant to impart a sense of comedy in the film but at the cost of degrading African American culture and character.  This is of course not the only movie or cartoon that this occurs in, many older cartoons and even new ones can be synonymous with “negative stereotypes” associated with African Americans.  This is dangerous due to the fact that it subliminally suggests a lack of ability and character from a group of people.  Thus, future generations are more likely to consciously or unconsciously develop mythological perceptions of minorities.  Portraying African Americans as monkeys is also a very racist concept due to the fact it dehumanizes the individual.  This dehumanization can be found throughout African American history as a way to legitimize white control.  This as stated in many of my other posts demonstrates the difficult terrain that African American activists faced in response to systematic racism.  Some other racist cartoon characters to note, Killa from Dragon Ball Z, the crows from Dumbo, and the Indian Chief from “Peter Pan”.  While there is many more, the website below should give a good comprehensive list.

  Source: http://www.attn.com/stories/7797/most-racist-cartoon-characters