I never noticed the subtle racial commentary

I saw this movie so many times when I was a kid in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, I noticed the racial commentary only upon viewing this movie as an adult last night:

All of the kids at Sky, the private school, are white (except Johnny). Conversely, the kids at Maple are diverse, as demonstrated most noticeably by the young African-American who befriends Johnny. The nickname "urchin" also connotes crime and low-income individuals, which relates to the stereotype of African-Americans.

That I noticed this detail only now says much about the difference between adulthood and childhood.