Disney's first black princess endorses watermelon-flavored candy
By EJ DicksonMarch 5th, 2012, 3:15 pmComments (24)
From the jive-talking black crows in Dumbo to the Uncle Remus character in Song of the South to the anti-Semitic portrayal of Aladdin's Iago, patterned after Shakespeare's Shylock and Marlowe's Barrabas (okay, that last one might be a bit of a stretch), Disney has a longstanding tradition of delighting children with offensive racial stereotypes. So it really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that the company used Princess Tiana, the heroine of 2009's Princess and the Frog and the first black Disney princess in history, to sell watermelon-flavored candy.
As Sociological Images reports, the Valentine's Day-themed product is a Dig'n'Dips Candy Stick & Dip (above), featuring Sleeping Beauty on the "dipping stick" side and Tiana on the "dipping candy" side. The white Sleeping Beauty character decorates the vanilla-flavored candy, while Tiana decorates the side that contains the watermelon-flavored candy. Um, cool, guys. I guess we should be thankful it's not grape drink?
Truth be told, this seems more like a prolonged brain-fart on the candy company's behalf than actual racism, but considering how long it took Disney to create a black character that didn't sing about how fun it is to be a slave, they'd be well-advised to think more about being racially sensitive and less about trying to enslave the minds of princess-loving, candy-craving youngsters. But then again, asking Disney to stop thinking about money is kind of like asking the sun to stop shining, so at least we can still fault them for trying to market something as repulsive as watermelon-vanilla Dig'n'Dips.
Commentarium (24 Comments)
One day, when you guys are older and not just reacting to shit, you may do a little research into how products actually come to market.
It may shock you to find out that Disney doesn't actually make candy or 99% of the shit that bears the names of the characters it created. This is all done via something called licensing and it works like a charm when it actually works (like when you see Mickey on pudding, Buzz Lightyear on diapers, and a ton of other instances), but when it doesn't, you end up with shit like this.
Truth be told, this was probably just a brain fart, but it wasn't on Disney's part, it was on the candy makers, who probably just lost their license deal for not thinking this one through.
Thank you.
If you think that Disney doesn't look at every image that goes out under its name, you don't know much about licensing at all. I've worked in licensing for more than a decade and the final product approval ALWAYS goes to the licensor, in this case Disney.
I work in fashion, and no bag, piece of clothing or home product I've ever worked on has hit the shelf without the licensor's pre-approval. And in the industry, it's well-known that Disney is super strict about their brands and there's just no way they didn't know about this.
Beyond that, I agree with the author. Most likely a brain fart, but time to get a clue.
Do you really thnk that a company that is as image conscious as Disney doesn't approve what their products are marketed on and that they doesn't have strict guidelines as to how their characters are used?
How did the whole "African-American Love Watermelon" thing come about, anyway (not to mention fried chicken)? It's something I never understood. I mean, who doesn't love fried chicken and watermelon? On what weird planet could those be a.) relegated to a racial stereotype, and b.) a negative one at that? It just seems to random to me, but this is speaking from a perspective of a very privileged white person who loves loves loves fried chicken and watermelon.
Because of things like Lolo's Chicken and Waffles. Go ahead and look them up, they're on the web. And when their website says things like "Lo-Lo's is a celebrity favorite and has been frequented by guests including Muhammad Ali , Amare Stoudemire, Charles Barkley, and more.." complete with a nice photo gallery of famous black people eating fried chicken and enjoying a jar of "drank" (it's on the menu folks) then stereotypes get created. Please keep in mind that their food is fantastic and I think even Rush would adopt his fat white ass into a southern black family after eating there.
I mean, sure this is offensive but at least it's offensive to whites and blacks alike. White blond girl is just "vanilla" and the black girl loves watermelon. Also that's Sleeping Beauty, not Rapunzel. (don't get me wrong here I'm not saying the two are comparabley offensive things, prejudice against African Americans has social context and repugnant history that can't really compare.) just that as a whole, this is a very ill conceived product.
If the only two flavors they had were vanilla and watermelon and the only two princesses they had to use were Sleeping Beauty and Tiana , would it be more or less offensive to put Tiana on the "Vanilla" side?
Not that I"m defending Disney, because screw them. Just, prejudices are weird to think about.
At least it wasn't crack flavored.
Stereotypes are always a weird thing to navigate, but are we supposed to agree as a society to never use a black character in relation to something watermelon flavored?
Not featuring Tiana at all would be a lack of representation.
Are we supposed to ban black actors from KFC commercials because someone might say "OMG! Black people eating fried chicken! Racist!"
That's Aurora, not Rapunzel.
I'm out.
Thank you. How did that one pass through the editing board?
Ridiculous. Get over it.
THANK YOU.
Its racist because you make it racist. If you didn't pay any attention to it, instead of whoring it out for page-views, then no-body would have cared. You are perpetuating racism for money.
Okay, so you publish this on March 5th, after reading the actual article it's something that could have been written in fifteen minutes. A little dumb research, because it's basically common knowledge in the English speaking world is that Valentines day, that happens on the 14th of February.
This is something where someone was too bored, where someone needed space to fill, and someone needed to point out something that more or less would have gone apathetically unnoticed by the general public. Nobody cares except people who want to point at something and say "RACISM!"
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Sigmund Freud
You might want to actually, I don't know, research your facts before you write your article instead of regurgitating crap you heard someone else say. There are NO slaves in Song of the South. The movie is set after The Civil War. At one point, feeling like he is causing too much trouble, Uncle Remus packs his belongings and leaves. Not really an option for a "slave" is it? It's thanks to idiots like you we will probably never get an official DVD of that movie. Everyone wants to decry it as racist, but ONLY because someone else told them it was, not because they have seen it themselves.
I just found out we have a black president ... Oh Lawd
Nobody has noticed that Tiana is looking over her shoulder and her huge pinkish-red baboon-like booty (the heart shape in the foreground) is all up yo face? Well I did.
"Sometimes a cigar is a big ol' dick."
Jigman Floyd
so i guess this is a problem cause black people dont like watermelon?
It's people like you that have to find something wrong or "racist" in every thing that keeps this idea going. Why don't you just let it the hell go and get on with your life? Don't you have anything better to do? I'm getting sick and tired of this "political correctness" BS. For a country that's suppose to be able to have freedom of speech, you just wont let it happen. Get a life and leave your petty opinions to yourself. If you hadn't pointed it out, I doubt that anyone would have given it a second thought.
I hear ya Luke but "minorities" are always the first to cry foul when it fits their agenda, and are always allowed to express their racial solidarity within their group at the top of their lungs. But White folks do it and lordy, lordy, lordy! It's a sin of the highest calibre, punishible by shaming until whitey grovels for absolution, or at the least backpedal until they look like a total arse in everyone's eyes. There is no middle ground and there never will be. Race is a reality with real differences and jealousies that will never be resolved, no matter what dogma attempts to do so. To ignore these realities is to consign yourself and your kind to subservience at the least, and extiction at the most.
I never understood why watermelon is offensive. Now if it was crack, colt45 or Princess Stealsalot then ya sure...but watermelon?? Get over it.
Get a life. If this is really bothers you, off yourself now...I mean really people.
How exactly is Iago from Aladdin anti-Semitic? It's played by Gilbert Gottfried. He is Jewish. If you thing his portrayal of his own people is negative, then it sounds like you sir are racist.
And as for the rest of your article, it's just candy. Would you be equally offended if she appeared on chocolate bars?
Now you say something