For a family studio, Disney certainly made a somewhat racist display of the Asian pirates. They at least could have done away with the *beep* pidgin English. I have seen other similar racial undertones in other Disney movies and I have heard some academic bodies accuse Disney films of sublimal messaging regarding racial stereotyping. But I suppose people will say it was only the 60's but I still don't think it makes it right.
shareThe things you say today will make people consider you a racist fifty years from now because the standards will have changed again. Shame on you, too!
And what about people who speak pidgin English in real life? Are they racist because they perpetuate a stereotype?
No kidding. I knew quite a few exchange students back in high school (mostly Korean) and they initially struggled with English like a bloody cliche before they got comfortable with it. Let's face it, when you're new to a language as stupid and random as contemporary English, sometimes it's easier to just drop the pronouns. Besides, native Japanese speakers tend not to use pronouns when it's obvious who the subject is, or so my Prof, who is from Japan, tells us. Also, I know whenever I'm trying to speak Japanese to native speakers, all I can think is that I sound like the Anglo version of the dudes in this movie.
shareMy favorites are the Polynesian natives in In Search of the Castaways, just before the prisoners escape. Now I'm not Polynesian at all, but I always concluded the depiction was unfair, but a newscast a year or so ago, showed Samoans relocating to Texas and their kids playing on local football teams and they have brought the chanting antics into their pep rallies and such and basically, they look exactly the same to my white eyes as the portrayals in In Search of the Castaways.
Completely UNTRUE. They were generic East Asian pirates from some place unknown. If it was racist, then the actors in the thing wouldn't have participated in it. They were playing CRIMINALS AT SEA who were clowns, not dignified scholars from the forbidden city.
Get your perspective right, and read some history.
So you want them to be attacked by a a 'linguistically sensitive' hoard of Malay pirates? Get a life...but please not on my planet.
sharePlease link to these esteemed "academic bodies",so that I can see their interpretation of subliminal messaging.
Because if corporate America has never figured that out,I want to see what eggheads you can provide who claim that Disney pulled that off,undetected,50 years ago.
So, pirates can only be Caucasian, and speak in a refined, educated manner? Actually, although many of the pirates were Asian, if you look close there were also several white guys.
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