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Who is the main character of "Aladdin"?

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[quote="AladdinFan92"]There I was,minding my buisniess on AOL,when the main page of my mom's sn, and web page entitled "Black Voices" came up as usual. It's a webpage with various articles about current events having to do with African Americans. And I found a very interesting DP article that I thought we could all discuss.

For the record---THIS IS NOT MY ARTICLE!!! I don't own it,and I didn't write it. I simply copy and pasted it because I thought it was an item of interest to all the Disney fans on this site. Read,enjoy,and feel free to get a discussion going! (we all know how explosive that article about Jasmine was,lol)

[b]Disney Princesses:Black Girls Need Not Apply[/b]
A Look at Disney's Animated Royalty

"Mommy, why don't any of the princesses look like me," asks the beautiful brown girl, a curious mixture of hurt and bewilderment in her eyes. It is questions like this that torment black parents or caretakers, who like everyone else, want their children to be respected, affirmed, and yes, represented.

Unfortunately, if said parents are in a Disney store, or at a Disney "Princesses on Ice" show with their kids, they'd better start thinking fast, because the mouse kingdom has never crowned a black princess.

Unless, as some wryly note, you count the character of Nala from the Africa-set 'The Lion King,' (who is in fact, an animal), African Americans are not represented in Disney's pantheon of princesses.

There are Disney princesses from almost every other ethnic group including Mulan (who is Chinese), Pocahontas (Native American), Jasmine (Middle Eastern descent), the original Caucasian princesses we all grew up with -- Snow White, Cinderella and Fantasia -- and even 'The Little Mermaid's' Ariel (of the sea).

To some, this is politics as usual, to others, not so big a deal when the black community has "real" issues to deal with. Yet, for some parents, this issue harkens back to a time when we had to explain to our children why we sat at the back of the bus. For girls, especially, notions of self-image and representation are an important part of development.

"Clearly there's always a correlation between the images you are bombarded by and how you feel about yourself," says Dr. Robert Atwell, president of the Association of Black Psychologists, who has been working with black children, adults and families for over 35 years. "So you either get presented with images that stimulate your sense of potential or images that ignore you or are negative."

In 2005, shortly after Katrina Helm and her family visited Walt Disney World, the North-Carolina-based mother started an online petition because her daughter asked such a question and Disney responded with what Helm deemed an unsatisfactory answer. According to her letter to the company, a representative from Disney responded by saying that there were "no African American fairy tales."

The Burbank based Walt Disney Company, which boasted about 8 billion dollars in sales last year, is one of the most recognized brands on the planet. Disney, the parent company to television network ABC, did not return any calls to Black Voices by press time.

Though no hard numbers exist, African Americans support Disney -- most of us have traveled to one its theme parks, bought our children a Disney DVD or have purchased Disney merchandise for our daughters, nieces or grandchildren.

The Disney company has historically been called out for everything from racism ('Song of the South') to sexism (how come all the princesses have to be rescued?) to unscrupulous labor practices. Some in the community caution that we should be careful what we wish for, especially as it relates to potentially reducing our girls to passive objects of adoration.

"I'm not sure that little black girls haven't fared better because they haven't had a princess," notes Dr. Deborah Cunningham, a New York-based psychologist. "Because if you look at the white [Disney] princesses, they've all been victimized in some way. They've all been saved by a prince, right? And they're all looking for true love."

She continues, "In other words, if [black girls] are not identifying with these delicate little white girls who are being saved by the prince and taken off to the kingdom, then that may not be so bad. Whether they feel beautiful is something else."

There also may be an effect on black boys as well -- and therefore the community as a whole, posits Cunningham, who says the whole Disney culture is a bit "scary."

"I think there's another piece to it, which also has to do with how others perceive us. So the fact that you're a princess -- whether you're a victim or not -- you still are adored. You're wonderful. Unconditional," she says. "I think that adoration, particularly when it comes to male/female relationships, is something we could work on. So you're adored, you're regarded, you're respected, all of those things. So I think on that front, little black girls may not get as much of that."

****************************

Alright. Now,for the record,here's my two cents:

I'm African American,but the absence of a black Disney Princess never bothered me in the slightest. I love them all,and I don't feel offended by them. I also have always admired the fact that Disney embraced other cultures in their films. Further down in my ancestry,I am also Native American,and I was thrilled when they made Pocohontas,and she became my hero as a child. Of course,Aladdin is my all time favorite Disney movie,and in this day an age when there's a lot of Middle East bashing done in the US,I'm glad there are movies like Aladdin that get rid of some of those stereotypes,so that children don't have to grow up thinking that people from the Middle East are any different from anybody else.

Anyway,my point is,I love Disney movies,and I love that they have movies about all different cultures,and not just white people. Just because they haven't made one about African Americans doensn't mean they're racist.

But what do you guys think? How many people here on AC are black like me? The only one I know of is AG. Did the abscece of a black DP offend you?[/quote]

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