Walt's Original Sins: Disney and Racism

Was Walt Woke

The conundrum of Walt Disney's racism, sexism, and other-isms is enduring fodder for speculation, argument, and of course, "outrage". Here, in compact form, ready for renewed analysis, is a catalog of the Disney company's cinematic "sins", from Mickey to Moana.

Disney itself feeds the frenzy by its permanent embargo of Song of the South, the film that many fans—even those who haven't seen it—regard as irredeemably racist.

But what about Peter Pan? Aladdin? Mulan? The Jungle Book? Even Lady and the Tramp and The Aristocats? Do all these films truly contain threads of racism and misogyny, or have they been unfairly deconstructed by modern critics?

Film critic Josh Spiegel takes a close look at Disney's classic films and finds that it wasn't just Walt who didn't get woke.