Song of the South -- Should it be re-released?

[Arsenette]

The message I am getting from these posts is that you all don't care if kids get their feelings hurt as long as your childhood memories are not disturbed?

No that's not what I meant - I'm talking about "revisionist history". If it's released to the public I don't see why it should be edited any further. Besides - I found nothing wrong with any of what was changed (in the example of the Warner Brothers Library) - so why should someone else change history to fulfill his own insecure needs? If he wanted to create a "wholesome image" he should have done it himself than tamper with someone else's creation. I mean really.. entire generations were brought up on that and last time I checked I'm not warped or racist.

One vital issue people seem to be forgetting (not all - I think I read it earlier in this thread). This is merchandise that can be bought - if we don't like it - don't buy it. Very simple. :agree:

 

[Arsenette]

Piel has point that it's a matter of perspective. As a person of Chinese descent, some racial jokes made without historical reference do offend me - regardless of whether they are about Asians, Africans, Europeans, etc. I have some friends who are very insensitive about such things, which probably explains why I don't count them amongst by closest friends. My best friends are the ones who are at least aware that an innocent statement might offend.

I've also noticed that it's ok for one black person to call another black person the 'n' word, but it's not ok for anyone else to do so. I wouldn't want someone who wasn't Chinese to call me a chink either, but don't feel the same if someone who is Chinese says it. It's a case of "it's ok for me to say because I know what both sides are about."

I whole heartedly agree. I think what it boils down to is "respect" (and lack of it). I don't see anyone of any race "respecting" their own friends by calling them derogatory names. Some of my relatives used to call each other "'ho" and "wench" -.. until the kids picked up on it. Then it stopped VERY quickly. If someone is running out of adjectives and nouns to call our own friends.. maybe they should be educated and actually pick up a thesaurus and come up with a more appropriate name/word/advective to call someone they actually care about.. Man I sound old sometimes.. but REALLY what on earth makes people think that calling ANYONE they care about something that the rest of the world has accepted as derogatory? :disapp:

 

[Piel]

One vital issue people seem to be forgetting (not all - I think I read it earlier in this thread). This is merchandise that can be bought - if we don't like it - don't buy it. Very simple.

People who are offended by it buying it is not the problem. The problem is someone who's parent did buy it using it to hurt kids who are offended by it. Sometimes the most well meaning parents have the meanest children. Parents cannot control what their kids do when out of their sight, and children today can be extremely mean and cruel. Yes those types are always with us, you have to consider the source, the behaviour says more about the one doing the name calling............This doesn't make it any less hurtful to the child being attacked. I live in an area where there is still as much tension between the races as there was in the 60's. Our GS service unit (group of troops) which is about half white and half African American was combined with another all white servuice unit a few years ago. Prior to to this the all white unit had an end of year pool party (every year for the past 10 years) at a private pool that a lot of the all white leaders belong to. The year the service units were combined it was suddenly not convenient for the pool to continue allowing the GSs to use the pool. Nothing that can be proved but by other activities that they allow we got the messsage. So we arranged to have the party at a pool in our town. Now it became inconvenient for the all white troops to work it into their schedules. EVEN WHEN IT WAS THE EXACT SAME EVENING IT HAD BEEN HELD FOR THE PAST TEN YEARS.

 

[Arsenette]

Wow Piel that's something that really can't be forseen by entertainment distributers. As AWFUL as that is done - and quite frankly.. criminal - there is really no way to determine what people will do with what is on the market. Heck - how can we even come up with safeguards for that kind of behavior? Whether it's a movie or a book or anything else - you can't use things to hurt anyone, especially children - but to ban it from release because we "think" that can happen and not even determine where or when is unfortunately an issue that is not left to a distributor when deciding whether or not an already previously released movie should be re-released.

 

[Piel]

PLEASE...no thinking to it.... IT HAPPENS! Of course it can be forseen. Have you been around 6 to 12 year olds lately? Why give any more ammunition? No one's knowledge of American literature or film is going to be THAT deficiant if these stories are locked away forever. Let's see which is more important someone being entertained and feeling all warm and fuzzy or some child being called names? The target audience of the film does not have the emotional maturity to make these decisions.


Every February we have a GS international; celebration where each troop represents a different country. This year my middle school girls drew South Africa. One mother, a college educated business woman pulled her daughter out when she found that they were representing this country. Another suggested that this year we may not want to be as "authentic" with our costumes. A week before the event we had a sleepover as we do every year for the girls to do a dress rehearsal and decide on their makeup and hair. The girls voted to wear their hair in braids with beads to match their jewelry they had made. One girl, M called her mother and complained that she didn't want to wear her hair like that because it would make her look "too African". Another girl H, reminded her that the group had voted and that was the decision so she needed to either go with the group decision or not do the event. What does M do? Finds H's sleeping bag where H has her special pillow that was given to her by her mother before the mother committed suicide and slashes it with a metal nail file.