2. For at least 150 years (and arguably much longer) anthropomorphic stories have been a way of doing allegories about racism.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. I think animals as metaphors for different ethnicities is ancient (it's hardly an accident that Aesop was a slave).
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. But for our purposes, tradition begins with stories of Br'er Rabbit (codified by J.C. Harris, but based on African-American lore)
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. In late 19th century and early 20th century popular culture, "cute" cartoony animals became ways register racial & ethnic difference.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse in particular clearly owed much to minstrel show representations of blacks.pic.twitter.com/2gE70P7G3v
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. John Updike in his essay collection More Matter had some good thoughts on the blackness of Mickey Mouse.pic.twitter.com/j6loYQV83i
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. Disney was much influenced by George Herriman, a light-skinned African American who passed for white & did racial allegories in Krazy Kat
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. The most recent (and somewhat shaky) example of this tradition is Zootopia, which is allegory for contemporary racism & police violence.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
10. The business of the frogs is interesting because there is a kind of tradition in American popular culture of seeing frogs as black.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
11. "When Froggie Goes A-Courtin'" is an ancient ballad but seems to often been performed in minstrel show voices.
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12. I think Jim Henson was aware of tradition, since Kermit's signature song ("it's Not Easy Being Green") is about race-consciousness.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
Jeet Heer Retweeted
13. Yep, the great Warner Bros. short "One Froggy Evening" is about black musicians escaping exploitation by whites. https://twitter.com/voxkev/status/782812114775740416 …
Jeet Heer added,
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Replying to @HeerJeet
14. And of course the recent Disney movie The Princess and the Frog is a riff on this tradition as well.
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