How are the crows racist?

It's not just because of the "lingo" and accent. Last I remember, (if I'm not mistaken) one of them was called "Jim Crow" and since the crows are like,
African-American....Jim Crow laws.

All the world will be your enemy, Prince With a Thousand Enemies. And whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, full of tricks, and your people shall never be destroyed.

So what you're saying is that it's not racist because we still have racist stereotyping in movies today????? That doesn't make sense. It's possible for old stereotypes AND modern stereotypes to be racist ; )

Fascinating assertion. Roger and the Nanny in 101 Dalmatians are nice white people and are neither opressive nor cruel, but they are hapless (though not childlike) when compared to Pongo and Perdita. Lady's owners, too, are not cruel but they are hapless when compared to Tramp. John (Johnny’s dad) and the Grandmother in Song of the South aren't hapless, but they aren’t as competent as Uncle Remus in nuturing Johnny, and Remus is clearly celebrated as the hero (along with Brer Rabbit, his alter ego). I wouldn't have labeled Disney as subversive but you bring up some good points.

The thing with the black crows is pretty innocuous in my opinion. It doesn't cast them in a discriminatory or hateful light; they are actually heroes, giving dumbo the confidence to fly. They have a wonderful vaudeville sensibility which was very popular at the time.

Those of you who think people on this board are over-the-top in seeing racism here...after reading this:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/127832/racism_misogyny_and_an imal_abuse_in.html?cat=40

they will seem pretty innocuous.

http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/

We perceive it as racism today,because that is usually the reason behind such portrayals.We don't bother to put ourselves into the mentality of that era-Dumbo WAS made in the early 40's- or consider the possibility of art imitating life and not stereotypes.I actually found the crows' song lyrics to be rather clever,like the wordplays on horsefly and rubber band and whatnot.The crow's accents,as well as their dialect was probably pretty accurate,what with segregation still in effect in many places.The only black people that white people interacted with were probably from a rural setting,since the cities were still segregated.The way they portray the black "stereotype" in this movie most likely had no negative connotations attached;that was just how people were.If you listen,and think about it a bit more,instead of just glancing at it and shouting racism,you might see that there is no negative stereotype there.The "stupid way" of talking,as we see it to be,is actually how they spoke,and it wasn't considered to be stupid then,just different.The crows' personalities,how they seemed slightly sarcastic,but willing to humor Timothy and Dumbo,is how people acted and still act.They're wary of far-fetched concepts,but willing to keep an open mind,even as they don't believe it(the sarcasm and disbelief in 'When I see an Elephant Fly'.)If you really look at the movie,you'll see that there's no racist stereotypes in the crows.The sad part is that people today inherently look for something that widely offensive or condemned,or they assume the worst case scenario,so we assume that the writers and animators were racist and wanted to sneak something into a children's movie.Pretty pessimistic attitude,actually.

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As some others have said here, it wasn't so much racist as it was a blatant stereotype. Also, as others have said, it wasn't uncommon to the 40's and wasn't created with any kind of malicious intent. If anything, the film decries the prejudice or discrimination of others because they're different.

The crows, although befitting the jive-talking Sambo, minstrel show caricatures of blacks, were supposed to be seen as something positive. They were accepting of Dumbo when others weren't and they encouraged him. Obviously, their portrayals wouldn't be acceptable today since we're aware of the suggestions of those stereotypes, and how they helped negatively shape perceptions of blacks. Back then, however, they were seen as a positive.

I doubt watching this movie today would alter a kid's perception of any group of people--primarily because they're animals, but also because this is not the only representation that they see as would probably have been the case in the 40's. I'm not even sure if I thought of the crows as being black when I was a kid. Regardless, you can't hold these movies to the same moral standards of today. There's no way to accurately represent an entire group of people but obviously today we're more aware of how certain portrayals, even if true in some cases, may not be done in the best tastes or interests of everybody.