Disney, racist? No. no, whatever gave you that idea?
Comment on Well damn. Glad he's dead.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Also wasn’t walt disney like even shittier?
samus12345@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Comment on Well damn. Glad he's dead.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Also wasn’t walt disney like even shittier?
Holytimes@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
No not really actually. The general idea of walt being a racist and anti Jewish is generally over blown.
Don’t get me wrong he was in fact racist. But he was culturally racist. He was a man of his time. Politically and publicly he was honestly what ever.
He was far too focused on his business. And a lot of the more overt racist things that he gets accused of tends to just be from those who he worked around and because of his business would have been supporting. But it was more a byproduct of just running a successful business of the time. Not so much him going out of his way to be racist.
Like you have to really judge things by the culture of the era. What was honestly a very mild 5 out of 10 all things considered. Sure, he could have been better but be sure the f*** wasn’t overly problematic. Lot of his contemporaries business partners were far worse and used their influence as well as Walt himself to exert a number of problem. Things which of course won’t being more focused on his business and not really caring one way or the other just let happen so you can lay some blame in his feet.
But on the flip side you also have to consider things like song of the South. Where it’s a very problematic film and clearly comes from an error of extreme racism and slavery. The focus was on Walt trying to share stories that he heard growing up and sharing the positive side of those stories. Yeah they’re from slaves and you can’t divorce that. So it’s well-meaning just aged poorly.
Cuz by today’s standards it’s horribly whitewashed and incredibly racist. But back then all things considered when you put it in the context of the era and the man who LED it, it’s a honest attempt to do better and share positivity out of something that was horrifically toxic.
Really every time I’ve ever done a deep dive into Walt’s life or his history the same few things come up over and over and over again. Pretty much every major racist, anti-jewish or other problematic thing that people lay at the feet of Walt just comes down to the simple fact. He just didn’t care.
He had a business to run. His partners were far worse than him and he just let them do whatever he never stood up and said this is too far because that would have been a bad business move in the era.
Malt is a fantastic example of the cruelty of indifference and capitalism. The business world does not care for morals. It does not care for people. It only cares for money and progress.
Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Oh he cared alright, about fingering anyone who tried to unionize as communists, ruining their lives and blacklisting them. He ruined people who were not even communist because they cost him money. He was absolutely a garbage human being.
Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 days ago
So you’re saying mickey would be indifferent?
qarbone@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Mickey would be more put-off by the cursing than the racism. “Hohoh call him a Chinaman, sure, but there’s no need to use the F-word!”