While Disney has had a history of racism in their films and amusement parks, as discussed by Giroux in his article, "Are Disney Movies Good For Your Kids?" Dumbo seems to have taken things a step too far. A set of racist black crows with stereotypical African American traits, and names like Jim Crowe is only the beginning, and in my opinion not nearly as offensive as the lyrics to one of the films opening songs, "The Song of the Roustabouts":
Some of the most offensive lyrics are as follows:
We work all day, we work all night We never learned to read or write We're happy-hearted roustabouts
When other folks have gone to bed We slave until we're almost dead We're happy-hearted roustabouts
We don't know when we get our pay And when we do, we throw our pay away (When we get our pay, we throw our money all away) We get our pay when children say With happy hearts, "It's circus day today" (Then we get our pay, just watching kids on circus day)
Boss man houndin' Keep on poundin' For your bed and feed
I found these lyrics to be appalling. Is Disney teaching our children that slavery was OK? That's what it seems like. This song is saying that slaves worked all night doing back breaking labor, but the system wasn't wrong, because the slaves were happy to do the work. The song even mentions that slaves were also satisfied with working for no pay. The lyrics suggest that money wasn't something they worried about. They didn't know when they were getting paid, but it didn't matter because once they did get paid they would just throw their money away. Their true payment was watching the joy of the children on circus day and that was fulfillment enough for all their hard labor. Lyrics such as "we slave until we're almost dead" but, "we're happy hearted"are utterly absurd and disgraceful. Slavery was a morally wrong institution and the fact that Disney is condoning its practices is horrifying. Although I will forever remain a Disney fan, and will want my children to to be exposed to the happiness that Disney movies can bring, I can be sure that I will not be sitting my child in front of Dumbo!
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ReplyDeleteSince Dumbo and the Elephants are associated as the same as the "roustabouts" could it be that Dumbo is actually a movie decrying slavery and the racism of the Jim Crow South (an animal ridiculed for being different who ultimately shows his true worth).
ReplyDeleteThis is very clearly a darkly ironic song-- at the time, adults went to the theatre to watch Dumbo as well (there was little else to see), and as any reasonable adult could immediately tell, the line "happy hearted roustabouts" is completely sarcastic. The pounding rain, back-breaking labor, monotonous tune, and the general darkness of this night scene are all set in juxtaposition to the lyrics. Here's a better quotation from the lyrics then the ones you've selected: "Swing that sledge! Sing that song! Work and laugh the whole night long, you happy-hearted roustabouts!" This is a command that they are quoting, given to them by their employers, and the song is their entirely ironic response.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. I feel like it may just be a way disney stabbed at the topic.
DeleteI completely agree. I feel like it may just be a way disney stabbed at the topic.
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Delete"Darkly ironic"? THe song begins with the roustabouts calling THEMSELVES "happy-hearted" -- it is not a reponse to their employers, who aren't quoted until later in the song, including calling the roustabouts "hairy apes." (And no, there are no actual apes in the scene to which they might have been referring.) And despite the dark of night and pounding rain, the tune is lighthearted and jaunty and Dumbo is seens smiling as he watches and partricipates. ... This is hardly the stuff of dark irony.
DeleteHow about the "big hairy ape" part of the roustabouts song? When I heard that my jaw literally dropped.
ReplyDeleteYour familiarity with older popular literature may not be all that great, but calling someone an "ape" was a common insult applied to all walks of life and all races. If you look up "ape" in a modern dictionary you'll find that one of the definitions is "a big, ugly, clumsy person." It was not intended as a racial comment.
DeleteDisagree completely
Delete@jonf, you are completely off-base here. Ape is a common derogatory image of Black people. https://www.theroot.com/comparing-black-people-to-apes-it-s-worse-than-you-tho-1790875821
DeleteThe film is a product of a different era. An era of segregation and accepting of stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteStill, a child typically doesn't pick up on the stereotyping, hence there is no reinforcement of the ills of the past.
I'm not one to condemn a product of the past over some ill fitting today stereotyping of that era.
So, my grandchildren will enjoy this movie. They'll not be exposed to some Warner Brothers cartoons of that same era with blatant stereotyping that WOULD impart disparaging messages. I'll keep them for myself to view on occasion as a message of how far we HAVE come and how far we still have to travel as a society.
The song is as Tess said, darkly ironic, bitingly sarcastic. Dumbo is clearly associated with the black/brown laborers as one of them, as are the other elephants. They are not viewed as having intrinsic worth by the ringmaster and the other circus leaders.
ReplyDeleteDitto the crows later. They aren't negative stereotypes, but free spirits who can recognize suffering, dignity and worth better than anyone. They too have felt the sting of being outcasts, and have more compassion than any other group we run across.
Dumbo is one of Disney's greatest achievements, an economic story told with such accute emotional resonance that anyone can feel Dumbo's sorrow and revel in his eventual triumph. Give it a watchthrough(and I dare you not to get misty during Baby Mine, the most emotional song in Disney's catalog).
"Darkly ironic"? The song begins with the roustabouts calling THEMSELVES "happy-hearted" -- it is not a reponse to their employers, who aren't quoted until later in the song, including calling the roustabouts "hairy apes." (And no, there are no actual apes in the scene to which they might have been referring.) And despite the dark of night and pounding rain, the tune is lighthearted and jaunty and Dumbo is seens smiling as he watches and partricipates. ... This is hardly the stuff of dark irony.
DeleteAs for the crows, they are stereotypical depictions of shucking/jiving, bad-English speaking Black folks. No it's not as bad as many depictions of the day, but still innacurate and insulting. The fact that the crows help Dumbo by teaching him to fly is part of the Magical Negro trope. https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/C_Glenn_Power_2009.pdf
If you think the men singing Roustabouts are actually slaves, or singing about slavery, you're an idiot. This film doesn't take place before the civil war. They're simply uneducated men, typical of those who worked for the circus. Take your misplaced and ignorant rage somewhere else, because Dumbo doesn't deserve it. Articles like this simply serve to make you feel good about yourself and your high horse.
ReplyDeleteAs I always understood the film, it is a combination of this answer and the dark irony mentioned above. The song is about the "slave-like" labor of a "free" roustabout and holds a deeply sarcastic tone meant to fly over the heads of young children, but not their parents.
DeleteDisney is ridiculed for being racist because the company is old and the movies are timeless. The intentions are almost always agreeable, but the methods used to portray them are being forgotten or even taboo over time. Disney even created an anti Nazi cartoon that portrayed Donald Duck as a Nazi, only to wake from a dream thankful to be an American. Today this would be considered taboo, but at the time, it was fantastic war propaganda for a cause Disney believe in. We are just becoming too far removed from films like Dumbo to appreciate their intended motives.
There is no "dark irony," (see my comments above). And no, they are not slaves due to the references to getting pay, but they are representative of overworked, underpaid Black people--who, by the way, are HAPPY to be so. And yes, Disney was undeniably racist. "Gabler cites a meeting in which Disney referred to the Snow White dwarves as a “nigger pile” and another in which he used the term “pickaninny.” The book notes that Disney anticipated the Song of the South controversy and attempted to make it less racist with a rewrite and meeting with the NAACP. The meeting never happened, and the movie was released anyway. There was also some controversy about the company’s unwillingness to hire minorities at Disneyland." https://www.vulture.com/2013/12/walt-disney-anti-semitism-racism-sexism-frozen-head.html
DeleteAs for being an antisemite, the same source concludes: Gabler posits that the charges stemmed less from personal behavior and more from Disney’s association with the very anti-Semitic Motion Picture Alliance, which the CEO founded after a particularly bitter labor dispute in 1941. Even if he wasn’t personally anti-Semitic, Gabler allows that Disney “willingly, even enthusiastically, embraced [anti-Semites] and cast his fate with them.”
If you think the men singing Roustabouts are actually slaves, or singing about slavery, you're an idiot. This film doesn't take place before the civil war. They're simply uneducated men, typical of those who worked for the circus. Take your misplaced and ignorant rage somewhere else, because Dumbo doesn't deserve it. Articles like this simply serve to make you feel good about yourself and your high horse.
ReplyDeleteLol they just all happen to be black though? Smh delusional
DeleteRight well that's just ignorant
DeleteIt was a reference to the time before the civil war dumbass
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ReplyDeleteI'd actually heard that this song was racist and just went to rewatch it and read the lyrics. While the interpretation that it's racist is tempting at first glance, it is clearly meant as satire. If the song was actually pushing the 'happiness in slavery' trope, they would whitewash the difficulty of the work. However, they explicitly show that the work is grueling and unbearable. It's meant to say "we live like this, and the white man still wants to think we're happy." As for the "throw our pay away" line, that's most likely an indicator that these men, who "never learned to read or write," don't know how to improve their situation, so they spend it on short-term escapes from their misery.
ReplyDeleteI'd actually heard that this song was racist and just went to rewatch it and read the lyrics. While the interpretation that it's racist is tempting at first glance, it is clearly meant as satire. If the song was actually pushing the 'happiness in slavery' trope, they would whitewash the difficulty of the work. However, they explicitly show that the work is grueling and unbearable. It's meant to say "we live like this, and the white man still wants to think we're happy." As for the "throw our pay away" line, that's most likely an indicator that these men, who "never learned to read or write," don't know how to improve their situation, so they spend it on short-term escapes from their misery.
ReplyDeleteYeah...except for the whole "Hairy Ape" comment at the end...there's no getting around that. Regardless of any supposed Irony in the song's message, black people still wind up being characterized as uneducated, unintelligent, only good for back-breaking manual labor, undisciplined "hairy ape"s who are only poor because they lack the self control to save their money. Intended or not (it was intended) it is a very damaging stereotype based in no small part on racial prejudice.
DeleteYour familiarity with older popular literature may not be all that great, but if you even look up "ape" in the modern dictionary you'll find that one of the definitions is "a big, ugly, clumsy person." It was a common insult applied to all walks of life and all races. It was absolutely not intended as a racial comment and I'm admittedly curious as to why you would assume it was.
DeleteUknown is absolutely correct. No it most definitely is NOT meant as satire. While the song takes place at night, in pounding rain, and depicts hard labor, the roustabouts declare themselves to be "happy hearted" at the very start. The tune is jaunty and lighthearted and Dumbo is seen smiling as he watches and participates.
DeleteAs for your analysis that these roustabouts "don't know how to improve their situation" is highly insulting and doesn't acknowledge the impossibility of "improving their situation" in the face of meager wages and racism.
@jonf, ape is most certainly commonly used to refer to Black people. https://www.theroot.com/comparing-black-people-to-apes-it-s-worse-than-you-tho-1790875821
DeleteHow many of you realized this song was borderline racist when you were 5? Shut the fuck up.
ReplyDeleteDoes it matter if you realized it or not? Just because you didn't see it doesn't mean it wasn't inappropriate.
DeleteLike others parts of the song the line "grab that rope you hairy ape" is quoting an order they were given and again falls in line with the sarcastic theorise above
ReplyDeleteI was watching this movie with my 3 year old son yesterday and watching that scene actually brought tears to my eyes that the black man was represented so poorly!!! although this is an old movie and it would NEVER be released today in this day and age, it made me mad and made me want to change the channel to watch NickJr... My husband is black and my step family was black when I was growing up, my closest cousin is black... I relate to people of color before a group of Caucasian... So as a white Woman I STILL found this scene and the scene with the crows insulting and wrong, and it should be put in history but not shown over the weekend on the Disney channel... I know, I know, my 3 year old isn't going to think the way we do... But watching his he will be desensitized... My son will be told about our American history at an appropriate time and by me, not our pathetic public education systems way of washing over it like it was some little mistake we made over 100 years ago... Racism is still very much alive today... Even more so with Trump making racists think they have every right to feel the way they do... My son will know better, my child will know you don't discriminate or hate or judge ANYONE by the color of their skin, their faith, their accent or any difference... But by their character and kindness...
ReplyDeleteI was watching this movie with my 3 year old son yesterday and watching that scene actually brought tears to my eyes that the black man was represented so poorly!!! although this is an old movie and it would NEVER be released today in this day and age, it made me mad and made me want to change the channel to watch NickJr... My husband is black and my step family was black when I was growing up, my closest cousin is black... I relate to people of color before a group of Caucasian... So as a white Woman I STILL found this scene and the scene with the crows insulting and wrong, and it should be put in history but not shown over the weekend on the Disney channel... I know, I know, my 3 year old isn't going to think the way we do... But watching his he will be desensitized... My son will be told about our American history at an appropriate time and by me, not our pathetic public education systems way of washing over it like it was some little mistake we made over 100 years ago... Racism is still very much alive today... Even more so with Trump making racists think they have every right to feel the way they do... My son will know better, my child will know you don't discriminate or hate or judge ANYONE by the color of their skin, their faith, their accent or any difference... But by their character and kindness...
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I was absolutely shocked as well, and I don't think it matters whether or not your small child picks up on it immediately or not, it's still ruminates with them; especially with continued exposure. I personally remember watching Dumbo and Pinocchio as a small child, and though not grasping the meanings still having nightmares about these dark scenes. If Dumbo is satirical why don't the roustabouts have any characteristics like defined faces,part of the satire?... or not. I don't want to go to far into the argument about Disney's intentions,because sometimes intentions don't matter. I just want to say that I agree that I won't be sitting my childen down to watch this one either, at least not until I can show them what had changed in our world, and what hasn't.
DeleteI firmly believe that this serves a purpose. Racist or not the depiction is historically accurate for a cartoon. It is worse to hide the fact that these things were reality. Plus you probably watched Dumbo as a child and you clearly think you are quite near perfect.
ReplyDeleteNo, cartoons for children should NOT depict racism in any form. This is not erasing history. There are plenty of historical records documenting the horrible racism in our past (continuing through today), despite the fact that conservatives do not want it taught in our schools. They are the ones attempting to erase or reconfigure and whitewash history.
DeleteOf course a 5 year old kid won't pick up on it as being racist. It just becomes part of their experience and they think it is normal.
ReplyDeleteOf course a 5 year old kid won't pick up on it as being racist. It just becomes part of their experience and they think it is normal.
ReplyDeleteDumbo was very much a protest AGAINST animal cruelty and racism. The roustabouts represented black laborers while the animals, particularly the elephants, were forced to do humiliating tricks to entertain an audience. The crows were meant to represent freed slaves and ultimately, Dumbo learned to fly and in the end he escaped the circus life and became a freed slave himself.
ReplyDeleteI think your problem is largely a lack of linguistic and historical background. "To slave" doesn't mean they were slaves. It's simply a verb meaning to work hard for little or no reward. It's called hyperbole. This is the 1930s, they were not slaves, in case your history is a bit fuzzy. Also, calling someone a hairy ape was a common insult in the old days, and had nothing to do with race. The dictionary defines "ape" as "(Informal) a big, ugly, clumsy person." Oddly it's mainly modern liberals who consider it a racial slur, presumably because liberals think black people look like apes?? As an insult it has always been applied to all races, and you could find dozens if not hundreds of examples in popular literature where it was applied to whites.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, it isn't even entirely clear that these are supposed to black laborers. The entire scene is drawn in very dark and shadowy light, and the individuals are faceless. I think it's a beautifully done piece of animation, and I always considered the roustabouts to be strong, heroic figures in this context. My wife is black, and our daughter, who loves this movie, will certainly not be raised to imagine this has anything to do with slavery, or some nonsense that society thinks she should maintain some low position in life because she's black. It's paranoid to think that this scene is going to warp her mind to think that way unless some adult tells her that's what it means and that's what she should think. And I honestly don't think the Disney animators were thinking any such thing at the time they made this film.
I think honestly you're really just trying a bit too hard to find racism where it doesn't even exist. I think you could ease up a bit on Dumbo and find things that are truly worth being indignant about.
Calm, sensible AND honest?! It's a wonder why no one else has replied to your comment, John. Oh wait, that's right...because there's nothing about it to argue.
DeleteTHANK YOU John, for not wasting words in a time where so many do and for beautifully recognizing the humanity in this film.
Apologies on my spelling, JON.
DeleteAnother thing about the Crows, with the exception of the leader, the rest were voiced by black singers. And as for the name of the leader, unfortunately named Jim Crow, its understandable, they are crows and do you know who the voice of the leader is? Cliff Edwards. Don't recognize his name? Maybe you will recognize the name of the character he voiced in one of the previous and then quite recent film Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket.
ReplyDeleteWhat you should do is some Circus history research. The roustabouts were men of every color and most of them were of backgrounds where they never learned to read or write. Usually they were men on the run, ex-cons, or just couldn't get hired elsewhere due to lack of education. This still rings true in the Circus and Carnival world, present day.
ReplyDeleteIf people would just learn the facts before jumping to their own conclusions, we wouldn't be in the crisis we are today.
This song has nothing to do with slavery. People who are ignorant probably should inquire, instead of comment as though they are knowledgeable. That's what a conscientious person would do. But conscientiousness is not a popular trait these days.
ReplyDeleteWhile the roustabouts are not slaves, they are being compared to the elephants and the lyrics describe them with racist stereotypes of the era. There is really no way around that. The song is not ironic or satiric and Disney is not poking fun at the stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it is also really well crafted. It is a beautiful piece that is horrible in its ideas. Its beauty is what probably makes people try to find a way to defend it or rationalize it, but its ideas are indefensible.
Absolutely agree!
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ReplyDeleteThe lengths folks are going to in order to deny the obvious racism in this song is astounding. "Biting sarcasm"?! Aside from the rain and nighttime setting, the tune is lighthearted and Dumbo smiles as he watches and participates. It is clearly depicting literally faceless, hulking black men, singing as they work, implying that they get their "pay" by watching the happy (white) children attending the circus! And when they do get actual pay they fritter it away. And the bosses call them "hairy apes." And no, there are no actual apes engaging in the work so clearly this moniker is directed at the roustabouts. Disgusting!
ReplyDeleteHere's a good analysis of the song: https://filmmusiccentral.com/2018/06/27/dumbo-song-of-the-roustabouts-1941/
ReplyDeleteThis comment section is very concerning.
ReplyDelete