1. Let's talk a bit about the blackface & minstrelsy in old cartoon's like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw06K0dG1Zw …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
2. What we're talking about: Disney's Song of the South, black crows in Dumbo, Mickey Mouse performing Uncle Tom's Cabin.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. Aside from Disney blackface/minstrelsy pervasive in early cartoons like Bob Clampett's Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. And of course as Updike & others have pointed out, characters like Mickey Mouse profoundly rooted in minstrelsy:http://sanseverything.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/felix-the-cat-blackface/ …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. Simplest explanation for all this is cartoons rooted in vaudeville & popular theater, where blackface was pervasive.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6.But beyond vaudeville roots, important to realize position of animators like Disney as nostalgic techno-modernists to understand blackface
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. Disney was both on cutting edge of technology (animation!) and nostalgic for the warmth/security/familiarity of small town America.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. During rise of animation industry, particularly 1940s, Southern California experienced black migration from South.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. Blackface/minstrelsy then can be seen as Disney & Co.'s attempt to square the circle: to have something that is both nostalgic & modern.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
10. Role of nostalgia in racism is under-analyzed I think. Minstrelsy made racism seem homey, familiar comfortable, a tried-and-true gag
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11. By this analysis, the blackface/minstrelsy in these cartoons not just something they inherited by a response to new urban culture.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
12. By recasting familiar blackface in new sleek modern form of Mickey Mouse, Disney was responding to & containing new urban black culture
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Replying to @HeerJeet
13. Anthropomorphism (funny animals) perfect vehicle for Disney's recuperation of older racial tropes: cute & disarming.
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End of conversation
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