Film Critique: Aladdin

Racism in Disney’s Aladdin

Name of Film: Aladdin

Release Date: November 11, 1992

 While watching Aladdin as a child or any other Disney movie, you do not see or notice any racism towards anybody.  You see a cute, funny, and sometimes sad or happy movie.  While watching it again, and knowing what I know now from this class.  I had many different changes in how I saw Aladdin.  I saw how Jafar being an Arab, as well as Aladdin and Jazmine being Arabs, they had completely different facial features and sound of voice as well.   Below are pictures of Jafar, Aladdin, and Jazmine.  Jafar was a bad guy and had the pointy, hooked nose, thin lips, dark evil eyes, and a very thick accent.  Jafar’s eyes are big and feminine, like making fun of Arabs.  I noticed how it looks like he is wearing eye make up like a girl.  Trying to compare and say that Arabs are girlie I guess.  Also, how he is so tall and skinny like a woman.  Jafar always is dark too, he wears dark clothing and that dark eye shadow on his eyes, trying to make him look more evil.   Unlike Aladdin and Jasmine, they had more of a white person’s features with a tan.    Also, when showing Aladdin as a “street peasant/rat”, he had no shoes on.  Which is telling you that all poor Arab’s can’t afford shoes.   Below is also a picture of Aladdin with no shoes on. 

When I searched online I came across much of what I discussed.  It also brought up the opening song played during the beginning credits.  The song is called “Arabian Nights”.  It is said to be one of the most contentious messages found in the film and begins the movies “depiction of Arab culture with a decidedly racist tone” (Giroux).  An Arab merchant sings the song and the lyrics are: “Oh I come from a land/From a faraway place/Where the caravan camels roam. / Where they cut of your ears/If they don’t like your face. / It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home” The message that is given right from the beginning of the movie is that the Middle East is a desolate wasteland where the justice system can cut of your ears just because they don’t like your face.  

I truly felt shocked when I was reading online about all the racism they found and how it is racist.  However, I completely agreed with them and understood how is was showing racism.  It was pretty subtle with Jafar though, because it was only because of his accent and look of his face.  For someone like me who is not entirely sure what Arabs should look like and sound like, I didn’t catch onto it.  I had to see the reasoning behind it and what others were saying about it and then I agreed how it was racist.  My boyfriend actually braought up to me, how Jafar acts like Saddam Hussein.  I was completely shocked, but totally agreed with him.  Just by the fact that he was plotting to attack and take control of the town.  Much like Hussein did.  Jafar even kept people as slaves and imprisoned them, just like Huseein. 

With Aladdin I noticed things more easily because of the words he was using about himself and what people were calling him, like “street rat” and also how he was never wearing shoes.  It was clearer to me in that manner than Jafar.  Also, when reading about how he and Jazmine look like white people with a tan.  And not Arabs, I had to look back at the pictures of them to understand.  Again, because I don’t really know Arabs look like I couldn’t see how it was portraying them as white people.  But I do understand now what they meant.  Also, I noticed how the lighter their skin was in the movie, the more money they had.  Like the Sultan, Jazmines dad, he was rich and had even lighter skin than Jazmine and Aladdin did.  Showing more of the good, “white characters” to have more money than the bad, “Arab characters”. 

I found this to be so helpful and eye opening.  I will think about what I am reading to them and having my children watch.  Some of these things were so subtle that even as an adult I didn’t see it.  So imagine as a child, and how they retain so much information, how negative that can be for children for when they get older.  

The Skin I'm In: A First Look At Racism

Title:  The Skin I’m In: A First Look at Racism

Author:  Pat Thomas

Illustrator: Lesley Harker

Published

Summary: The book starts out by having children imagine a world where they were judged by their eye color and how unfair that would be. It really reminded me of the third grade teacher’s exercise.  So I was really interested in it from that point on.  It then goes into discussing race and asks the students to think about what race they are and how everyone is different.  And how some people will be mean to others because they have a different skin color than them.  They define the term racist/racism and talk about how bad it can be.  The book then goes on to tell you what to do if you see racist behavior and how to react if you are the one being made fun of. It asks students to think about if they have ever been the victim of racist behavior. And how it made them feel, and why would they ever want another person to feel that way they did, because it was pretty horrible.

This book really does include significant specific cultural information rather than following stereotypes.  It doesn’t compare the differences in any negative way.  It just shows how people can be different, but to look inside of them and yourselves, we are all similar.  I feel that whoever is reading this book has the power.  It gives many examples of difference races and I love this quote from the story.  It says, "Some believe that people from their race are worth more and should be treated better than people from other races. A person who thinks and acts this way is called a racist. Racists want to stop people of other races from living, working and learning together. Anybody of any skin color can be a racist."  It is so true.  Anybody who is anybody could be racist.  No matter your skin tone and no matter your background.  It’s the same thing as who has the wisdom.  The author has the wisdom and is sharing about it.  And is doing it in a way that people can understand and not be offended.  Language is used to create an image of people of particular groups by explaining that people can have different eye color, a white person can have brown, blue or green, but does that mean that they should have hatred towards them.  No!  So why does the color of their skin matter?  Pat has written this story.  And Lesley has illustrated it. They are outside the groups they are talking about because they are not all of the races.  I feel that in a way everybody claims to know about race and culture.  However, he seems to have done lots of research and so he knows how it is like to be a person of a different race.  Everyone’s voice is being heard and nobody is left out. It really includes all races and ethnicities and really clearly explains the differences as well as the similarities!  He does it in a very mature manner and I respectful about it as well.  However, it clearly is stated what each race should look like I would say.  It’s more so a stereotype than anything.  But that wasn’t my first thought until now.  Where he shows the dark skinned family with curly black hair, the Jewish family with yarmulkes and menorahs and things like that.  Not every black person has black curly, and some would say “nappy” hair, but I feel that’s what he was showing us.  I would absolutely recommend this book though.  It truly is an eye opening and a learning book.  It was used in a lot of classrooms and teacher’s feel it does a great job showing people all around the world in a respectful manner.