Tag Archives: cancel culture

Song of the South

Who is more racist, Song of the South or Disney?

Blogs,

Disneyland and Disneyworld are dismantling Splash Mountain starting in 2023. Even though renovations continuously take place in the kingdoms with new themes and new technology, the demise of Splash Mountain carries an additional verdict – Splash Mountain is racist. Such verdict is good reminder of psychologist Abraham Maslow’s famous quote, “If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail.”

Maslow used the hammer and nail example to explain the theory of reductionism as it applies to psychology. Complex situations can be overwhelming, so we reduce all the variables into one attribute, then we use an instrument we happen to have at hand to deal with that one attribute. If all we have is a hammer, the complex variables become a nail. If all we have is the word “racism” to describe the African American experience, a lot of things will become “racist.”

Thus, Splash Mountain’s complex history becomes racist

The story behind Splash Mountain is Walt Disney’s Song of the South, a 1946 musical film that combined live action and animation to present an idyllic Reconstruction Period American South and showcase the stories of Uncle Remus.

True, the post-Civil War Reconstruction Period was certainly not idyllic. Freed slaves had little or no education easily conducive to independent living, many plantation owners suddenly found themselves without labor, former slaves that stayed in plantations as sharecroppers were trapped in a new form of servitude.

So, do we succumb to reductionism, label Song of the South racist, and hammer it into oblivion? Or do we endeavor to understand the complexities of life during Reconstruction? Do we accept the film as a work of art that broke some racial ground in its day?

There is a litany of reasons why Song of the South should be remembered

Classic Walt Disney movies like Snow White, Pinocchio, and Sleeping Beauty are well remembered. So should Song of the South. Here are some interesting things about the film.

* Back in 1946, by releasing Song of the South, Walt Disney helped preserve 23 of the 185 Uncle Remus folktales recorded by historian and journalist Joel Chandler Harris.

As a young white newspaper apprentice, Harris lived in a Georgia plantation during the Civil War years of 1862 through 1866. There he heard many folk tales from slaves. Later he created the fictional character Uncle Remus as a vehicle for telling the stories, and in 1880 Harris published his first book, Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings, The Folklore of the Old Plantation. The book was a creative and financial success. Songs and Sayings was followed by many other Uncle Remus and Southern story books.

* Today, a 2019 Mcallister Editions The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus, a compilation from eight Harris Chandler books, is available of Amazon (1,768 ratings and 4-1/2 stars) for $12.96. An Appleton and Company 1881 edition of Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings can be purchased at Abe Books for $7,500 – $15,000, depending on condition of the book.

Given the availability and popularity of the books upon which Song of the South is based, the discomfort with the movie is difficult to understand. Perhaps it is best assumed that people who purchased and rated these books accepted them as good written art, at the same time understanding the stories’ time and place.

* In 1948 James Baskett was the first African American male actor to win an Oscar of any kind and the first to win for a leading role (Hattie McDaniel won in 1939 for her supporting role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind).

Although Baskett’s Oscar for his role as Uncle Remus in Song of the South was a “Special Award,” an Oscar presented for outstanding work that in the eyes of the Academy does not fit under any of the standard Oscar categories, it was still a significant “first.”

James Baskett’s pioneer work in Song of the South is at the level of other African American film pioneers, like Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier (first Best Actor Oscar, Lilies of the Field, 1963), and Halle Berry (first Best Actress Oscar, Monster’s Ball, 2002).

* Unlike James Baskett, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, Song of the South’s theme song, did win a “real” Oscar in 1948 for Best Original Song. It’s a happy, beautiful tune worthy of remembrance.

* Replacing or updating theme rides – or any other product – is different from censoring.

The Disney Company has made numerous animated and live-action films since the 1940s, so of course the old needs to make room for the new. Song of the South has not been re-released since 1986 because supposedly it is “racist.” But, let’s look at the last time some other Disney classics were released in U.S. theaters: Snow White 1993, Bambi 1988, Dumbo 1976, and Cinderella 1987.

The American past, good and bad, is part of who we are today. Some of us focus on the good legacies of our human and therefore flawed past. Others focus on the flaws alone, thereby losing all sense of perspective or balance – in essence, seeing what is not there. Here are a coupe of examples.

* The Tar Baby in one of Uncle Remus stories is not a disrespectful representation of a Black baby, but a doll of sticky tar made by Br’er Fox to entrap Br’er Rabbit. Most people figured that out, as evidenced by the usage of “tar baby” as a sticky situation difficult to extricate oneself from.

* The “slaves” in the Joel Chandler Harris stories were no longer slaves, since the stories take place during the post-Civil War Reconstruction period. Although Walt Disney chose not to specify when exactly the stories in Song of the South take place, we can look at when Chandler Harris says they took place. We can also notice that when Miss Sally asks Uncle Remus not to tell any more stories to Johnny (because Johnny is too young and might get confused), Uncle Remus is so sad that he prepares to leave the plantation. Slaves didn’t usually walk away from plantations.

Seeing what is not there is one of the results of reductionisn.

Hopefully, the current practice of reducing complex situations into a matter of race will soon end. Other fads, like hula hoops and pet rocks, did eventually fade away. There’s hope.

MLK I have a dream

Critical Race Theory: A Dream Cancelled

Blogs, ,

Andrew Gutmann, parent of a 4th grader at the elite Brearley School in New York City, has touched a nerve in today’s woke culture. His 1,700-word letter to 650 parents at the school, decrying the famed institution’s race-saturated curriculum went viral after being leaked.

Mr. Gutmann explained in his April 13, 2021, letter why he and his family decided not to reenroll their daughter at Brearley for the 2021-22 school year. The letter discusses his objections to the schools’ embrace of critical race theory. Here are two of his objections that are particularly forceful.

I object to the view that I should be judged by the color of my skin. I cannot tolerate a school that not only judges my daughter by the color of her skin, but encourages and instructs her to prejudge others by theirs. By viewing every element of education, every aspect of history, and every facet of society through the lens of skin color and race, we are desecrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and utterly violating the movement for which such civil rights leaders believed, fought, and died.

I object to the idea that Blacks are unable to succeed in this country without aid from government or from whites. Brearley, by adopting critical race theory, is advocating the abhorrent viewpoint that Blacks should forever be regarded as helpless victims, and are incapable of success regardless of their skills, talents, or hard work. What Brearley is teaching our children is precisely the true and correct definition of racism.

Predictably, the response from the Brearley administration is to suggest Mr. Gutmann is a racist, ignoring that what he was so vehemently opposing in his letter was the racism inherent in critical race theory. Surely the Brearley administration is capable of grasping how anti-racism has devolved from the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr to the decrees of Black Lives Matter. Or perhaps not.

We express our unequivocal support for our Black, Asian, Indigenous, Multiracial and Latinx students, faculty, staff, and alums. Many of our students of color, especially those who identify as Black, felt that the letter questioned their belonging in the Brearley community. Their belonging and their excellence are unquestionable.

Brearley Is Not Alon

* Paul Rossi, a teacher at Grace Church High School in Manhattan, wrote an essay, which podcaster Bari Weiss published on April 13 (as she did Andrew Gutmann’s letter). Mr. Rossi warned that Grace Church’s focus on race was damaging to students. Here is a short excerpt of his essay.

As a teacher, my first obligation is to my students. But right now, my school is asking me to embrace “antiracism” training and pedagogy that I believe is deeply harmful to them and to any person who seeks to nurture the virtues of curiosity, empathy and understanding …

My school, like so many others, induces students via shame and sophistry to identify primarily with their race before their individual identities are fully formed. Students are pressured to conform their opinions to those broadly associated with their race and gender and to minimize or dismiss individual experiences that don’t match those assumptions.

* “Parents at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles gather to strategize in their war on the school’s race orthodoxy. Bari Weiss was invited to one such gathering, and reported what transpired in “The Miseducation of America’s Elites.” This from City Journal

Affluent parents, terrified of running afoul of the new orthodoxy in their children’s private schools, organize in secret.

In a backyard behind a four-bedroom home, ten people sat in a circle of plastic Adirondack chairs, eating bags of Skinny Pop. These are the rebels: well-off Los Angeles parents who send their children to Harvard-Westlake, the most prestigious private school in the city.

Most of all, they worry that the school’s new plan to become an “anti-racist institution”—unveiled this July, in a 20-page document—is making their kids fixate on race and attach importance to it in ways that strike them as grotesque.

These are America’s cream of the crop $40,000 – $55,000 a year schools, feeders to Princeton, Yale, and Harvard. Average on-lookers might find it strange that any student at such schools would actually view themselves as oppressed. But, often reality is situational.

Chances are there will be more schools embracing a race-based curriculum

On April 19, The U.S. Department of Education proposed a two-prong approach to embed race-based curriculum in American schools. The proposals are described in The Federal Register (the public comment period of these proposals ends May 19, 2021).

Proposed Priority 1—Projects That Incorporate Racially, Ethnically, Culturally, and Linguistically Diverse Perspectives into Teaching and Learning. Proposed

Priority 2—Promoting Information Literacy Skills.

Proposal #1 is fairly clear. Proposal #2 is open to interpretation, but might mean simply don’t look at anything on Zero Hedge, The Keiser Report, or Alex Jones.

President Joe Biden is considering grants to support implementation of these proposals. Public schools always need more money. Private schools might be welcoming extra funding to make up for loss of tuition due to Covid-19 closure. Federal grant money could be the enforcing mechanism for implementation of critical race theory in American schools.

In Fairness To Woke Progressives

Parents rebelling against today’s critical race theory curriculum are often quoted as saying their children are being indoctrinated, not educated. True, indoctrination of what is occurring.

However, it is only fair to say woke indoctrination on race is not unique in America. Our country’s schools operated under strict government-sanctioned segregation by race for nearly 80 years. The school segregation mirrored the wider culture at the time, when white people felt they needed to be vigilant against black people “forgetting their place.”

Thankfully, there were brave people who fought to dismantle the race-obsessed, baseless indoctrination inherent in Jim Crow.

Let’s ensure today’s parents are not contributing, willing or unwillingly, to raising racists. Let’s not let our desire to foster inclusiveness to turn into obsession with race.

April 1 cartoon

A Modest Proposal: Rename April 1 Useful Fools Day

Blogs, ,

Today is April 1, celebrated for centuries as April Fools Day. It’s a day to play pranks on the unsuspecting gullible. Given the current penchant for updating history and renaming symbols, the Just Vote No Blog proposes that April Fools Day be renamed Useful Fools Day. The new name would be more inclusive, and therefore more equitable.

Why the proposal?

Historians disagree on the origins of April Fools Day, but have some likely suggestions, all relating to events in the distant past: celebrations of the cult of Cybele, change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, start of the Vernal Equinox – all old stuff. We need to add to the list a newer event that, as the ones before, produced sufficient confusion to create a large pool of unsuspecting gullible people. Also, we need to update the title of the celebration, since these days simple fools are not anywhere near as visible and important as useful fools.

Event of the 21st Century: Covid-19 Response

The Just Vote No Blog proposes that the outsized response to the Covid-19 pandemic be the 21st Century’s contribution to April 1, and that useful fools be celebrated on that day. The Blog further proposes that celebrations include not only ordinary individuals, but also a lot of Wall Street darlings, public servants, and respected professionals.

A comprehensive list of prominent useful fools would take up several volumes, so here is just a sample of possible candidates for inclusion in the updated April Useful Fools Day.

*Our fearful brethren that support a slash and burn approach to the pandemic in an effort to receive protection and safety. The establishment has been more than happy to grow by leaps and bounds by providing such protection and safety. Problem is, as is usually the case, there is a lot of collateral damage.

Discarded surgical masks strewn along the sidewalk aptly represent COVID-19’s lasting legacy. The federal medical bureaucracy’s response to the pandemic has resulted in a wasteland of lost economic and educational opportunities, psychologically damaged children, terminally lonely nursing home residents, and lives lost to suicide, illicit drug overdoses, and missed diagnoses…

Shameless non-clinician bureaucrats have stolen our lives, stolen the smiles from children’s faces, and bullied a segment of the population into paralyzing fear. Those hiding behind masks (including our precious children) no longer see people as people, but as 170-pound nests of germs and certain death.

Dr. Marilyn Singleton, MD, JD. The New Wasteland: COVID-19’s Shameful Legacy. March 31, 2021.

* Our crony capitalists in technology that turned collaborators in the war against Covid-19. Whether collaboration will protect them against anti-trust intervention and onerous regulation remains to be seen.

A decades-old law shields companies such as Facebook and Twitter from lawsuits over content their users post on their platforms. Now that legislation is under attack as lawmakers look to hold social media firms accountable.

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill generally agree that changes need to be made to Section 230, a provision in the Communications Decency Act that gives legal protections to social media companies.

What’s Section 230? The Social Media Law in the Crosshairs of Congress. March 26, 2021.

The government has flailed in its response to the pandemic, and Big Tech has presented itself as a beneficent friend, willing to lend a competent hand. As Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, wrote in April, “The challenges we face demand an unprecedented alliance between business and government.”

What Big Tech Wants Out of the Pandemic. The Atlantic. July-August 2020 issue.

*Our leaders in Washington forge on

Back in January 2021, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order on domestic and international travel. A clause that stands out mandates that U.S. agencies study the feasibility of linking COVID-19 vaccination to International Certificates of Vaccination. On March 12, the White House issued a press briefing noting that the private sector and non-profits are taking care of these vaccine certificates with guidance from federal agencies.

We are to rejoice that at present government will not be keeping a central database on who has been vaccinated and who has not. We are also to rejoice Joe Biden is reviving our lives, our businesses and our economy.

Once again we seem to be blind to the collateral damage – the vaccine apps will be the equivalent of the ancient “Quo Vadis?” and the modern equivalent of “show me your papers.”

Old Saying: Nobody is useless; they can always serve as a horrible example

Useful fools are an extremely valuable commodity. They come in all forms – a concerned individual, a greedy corporation, a government on a tyranny dry run. Each hopes for protection, security or power that may or may not materialize. Each deserves a day of celebration dedicated to them.

Pictured Above

Interesting picture on Realm of History website’s article Ancient Romans and Medieval Church: The usual suspects in the origins of April Fools’ Day. From the article,

In any case, historically, April Fools’ Day possibly became a standardized affair by 18th century in Britain. The jests and pranks were especially popular in many parts of Scotland, with people actively participating in concocting fake errands and even inventing the ‘art’ of putting signs on the unsuspecting person’s back.

Recommended Article: Cancel Culture Threatening My World

Blogs, ,

Richard Eber likes to write when he has a free moment from working to make a living. His articles often appear in the Diablo Gazette and the California Political News & Views. His piece Cancel Culture Threatening My World needs to be shared. We have seen the movie before in real life – think Nazi Germany – and in countless works of fiction – think 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. Yet, the narrative continues with cancelling individuals and groups, erasing history, indoctrinating the populace, and disappearing books. Here is Richard Eber’s article as it appeared in the California Political News &Views.

Cancel Culture Threatening My World

Richard Eber, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 3/11/21

Being a conservative does not mean one is totally against progress. As Sonny Bono aptly put it in The Beat Goes On, “The Grocery Store’s the Super Market Now.” With that said the so called cancel culture of today has more than fulfilled the Star Trek tag line “to go where no man has gone before.”

Things have gotten so weird that living and breathing in many quarters (especially without a mask attached) is considered to be a hate crime. To adhere to PC-Woke norms in California, a proper family should likely:

Abandon their single family home in the suburbs and move into crime infested urbanized Stack and Pack housing in close proximity to government subsidized mass transit systems.

Dispose of their SUV’s in favor of utilizing bikes and buses for their primary source of getting around town. If an automobile is necessary, it should be of the electric variety.

Insist all members of the household are card carrying Democrats. If kids are exhibiting GOP like behavior such as being independent (non team players) and thrifty, it is best to seek therapy at an early age. This should be at the same time they determine their sexual identities.

Organized religion should be replaced in households with obedience to the Green New Deal. If Catholics still insist on going to confession, taking a ride in a gas powered vehicle must be worth several “Hail Mary’s”

It is recommended to enroll all family members in a Woke sensitivity course to avoid hurting the feelings of those whom they come in contact with. A new unabridged PC Dictionary must be strictly adhered to. Examples include The Homeless are Outside Urban Dwellers, Perverts are designated to be sexually dysfunctional and robbery is now part of wealth redistribution. Antifa is considered to be a middle of the road philanthropic political group similar to where the Red Cross was once stood.

Of course junkies are drug dependents and law enforcement officers are criminals wearing a badge.

Nothing is what it seems. Everything that I have grown up believing has been challenged and debunked by Cancel Culture norms.

Education and literature are at the top of the list. Banning Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are old news. Now a good number of Dr. Seuss books are considered to be off limits because of alleged racial overtones. Historical novels such as William Styron’s The Confessions of Nat Turner, Pearl Buck’s Good Earth, Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with Wind, and anything authored by Ayn Rand are on the “no fly list.”

My greatest fear is that the works of William Shakespeare will soon no longer be considered to be relevant.

While growing up and later on, I enjoyed all of the literature listed above. At no time did I ever believe these classics belonged in the Dewey Decimal non-fiction section of the library.

Whether this proves me having good taste or gives credence to Woke sensors desire to crash and burn everything that offends them, is a matter of conjecture these days.

What worries me most about today’s so called ethnic cleansing of books are the similarities to what transpired in Nazis Germany in the 1930’s. I have to ask what is the difference between Hitler’s followers engaged in public book burning as compared to attacking poor old Dr. Seuss and the Muppets?

A match?

Separating fact from fiction seems to be chronic dilemma in the world of Woke Cancel-Culture we live in. Blocking historical events is a vehicle used to create a new social order based upon ideological purity. In doing so taking down statues of Southern Civil War heroes such as Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis have brought slightly less resistance than trying to trash Abraham Lincoln.

Nothing seems to be off limits from these history deniers.

Making Christopher Columbus a villain 630 years after he discovered American makes little more sense than depicting George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison as George Orwell’s “Unpersons” characters in his dystopian novel 1984.

The Fathers of our Country, who defeated the British in battle while writing the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution, have been placed on the scrap heap of history by the Cancel Culture. Having slaves in 17th Century Colonial times is too serious an offense for their sensitivities.

With Cancel Culture advocates, what occurred in the past is no longer relevant. All that matters is what those who interpret history today believe.

In such a totalitarian environment, our democracy has reached such a low point that in order to prosecute Donald Trump for alleged crimes committed as President; the Progressive Turnout Project PAC has organized a petition drive aimed at incoming Attorney General Merrick Garland. Based upon receiving over 100,000 signatures, he has been directed by The Court of Public Opinion to indict Trump for undefined offenses.

This is how our system of laws works today. Petitions and polls are supposed to determine how justice is dispensed.

It never occurred to these fruit cakes that if Garland was to do as they asked, he would be breaking his oath of office of administering impartial justice. Mob rule characteristic of totalitarian governments would be replacing the rule of law.

Before we get off our high horse it must be realized the Democratic PAC in gathering signatures to present the A.G. were performing this task as a fund raising ploy. It is doubtful their efforts will end up on anyone’s desk. The circular file is filled with similar schemes to raise money for Leftist causes.

Of paramount importance is that opponents of Cancel Culture be them Republican, Democrats, Independents, Green, or Libertarian, Black, Yellow, White, etc., stand up to preserve important American social values.

Somewhere along the line Joe Biden or whoever is running the asylum needs to muster up the courage to say “no” to unilaterally tearing down historical statues. Stop trying to sensor literature and tell people, (especially school children), what they should be thinking.

Is this too much to ask of the greatest democracy ever created? Do we need to dispose of Mr. Potato Head and Aesop’s Tables in the name of appeasing Woke sensitivities?

Nothing surprises me anymore. At this juncture I am afraid to answer these questions for fear that everything I know and love about my country are soon to be on the Cancel Culture chopping block.

Stop the world, I want to get off!