This film is NOT racist! Shame on the NAACP for what they are doing!!

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Joel Chandler Harris a native of Eatonton, Georgia and an American Journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist authored in 1881 during the post-Civil War and during the Post-Reconstruction period in Atlanta, Georgia a collection of Folk tales based on African-American oral traditions and Cherokee folk tales. The compilation of these stories was titled "Uncle Remus". Some chide Harris other praise Harris for his observation of what I have come to view as the plight of slaves under the boot of slave owners in the pre-civil war period. Folk tales have always been a way to pass on knowledge and a way to deal with and overcome difficult situations and these stories are parables in the most traditional sense. I have never heard anyone consider that Walt Disney may have produced “Song of The South” as a protest against Segregation. Social change was in the wind and rapidly coming and the Release by Walt Disney and Howard Hughes and RKO Pictures on November 12th 1946 of “Song of The South” cannot be coincidental as only a year and a half would pass before President Harry S. Truman on July 31, 1948 desegregated the military. I remember seeing “Song of the South” as a child and found it to be a wonderfully delightful animated feature film. As an adult and with what I can remember about the movie I am now inclined to believe that Walt Disney was advocating social change and in reality actually poking fun at racism but especially southern racist, he himself having grown up in the segregated southern racist city of Kansas City Missouri, living in what is considered today part of the Black Community and in Mr. Disney’s day what may have been considered part of a mixed race area of Kansas City and/or at the very least the Black Community. Walt Disney grew up at 3028 Bellefontaine about six blocks East and nine blocks South or about a mile and one- half from the home field of the World Famous Kansas City Monarch’s baseball team from 1923-1950 and the pride of the Baseball Negro League the stadium being located at 20th and Prospect Ave the heart of the Black Community. Given the place that Mr. Disney grew up he must have had a lot of exposure to the black community and he must have been socially conscious and keenly aware of the social injustice associated with Kansas City and its segregationist policies and the inequality of equal rights between blacks and whites.
It make me sad to think that the film vaults remain closed to probably one of the first socially conscious anti-segregation films made at a time that preceded President Truman’s Desegregation Policy change directed at the Military and Jackie Robinson’s career in Baseball . It preceded “Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education”, it preceded “Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus, it preceded the sit-ins at the crown room at Emery Bird Thayer yet it somehow has been viewed as a film that is politically incorrect. I disagree. The Film is a protest against racism, if you can get past the film setting and get to the stories within the story.
Correct me if I am wrong but did not Uncle Remus tell stories that were based on the black experience and weren’t they parables much as Aesop’s fables are parables, don’t they have a moral lesson, don’t they have an African tradition and origin. If in fact they were stories told by a black man then it follows that the stories are also told from the black man’s perspective and if they are truly coming out of the black experience, tradition, and history then surely they must have been told in the frame of mind that the hero or protagonist was black and if the hero was black than the antagonist must have been white because white was the only antagonist the slave knew. With that in mind if we examine the characters of the stories then our Protagonist Br’er Rabbit is our hero and I believe Uncle Remus’s alter-ego, while Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear were the antagonist of the stories. I remember Uncle Remus as a wise old sage and his stories captivating using humor, wit, and irony weaved into his stories to make a point and maybe even poking fun at whitey and with whitey being to self-absorbed, egocentric, myopic, and the one stupid enough to never get the joke.

There are some things you can do to get it relaesed by Disney.

1) Add your name to the Song of the South Petition.

http://www.petitiononline.com/sots1946/petition.html

2) Send a request to Disney's Movie Finder. Let them know that you want Song of the South to be released on VHS and DVD.
http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/moviefinder/request/requestvideo.html?itemid=Song Of The South&itemname=Song_Of_The_South_-_Theatrical_Release

You also have the option of being notified when it becomes available on VHS and/or DVD. (Please note: this web form is old and may not be working much longer.) I would also encourage you to call Buena Vista Home Entertainment at (800) 723-4763.

3) Nominate Song of the South to be added to the National Film Registry. Send an email to [email protected] nominating Song of the South. Be sure to include why you feel that the film is significant culturally, historically, or aesthetically. Alternately, you can send your nomination by mail.

4) Spread the word. This is one of the most important steps you can take. Tell family and friends about our efforts to get Disney to release this film to the American public! You may be surprised at how many people don't know about this historic movie. And I think that's exactly what Disney wants...

Until then, watch it on youtube.com I just got finished doing that like an hour ago- it is not as good, but I am a crazy fan I guess.

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You said you had PAL what ever European version and I could care less.

Oh and in case you didn't know Song Of The South is NOT LEGALLY sold anywhere in the world. The website below has quite a few frequently asked Q/As and one of them is addressed saying that the movie was withdrawn worldwide in 2001. You may have bought some old copy or something, but if it says it is produced after 2001, then it is illegal.

http://www.songofthesouth.net/faq/index.html

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It's the truth. This movie isn't even a little bit racist.