I found the post about "The Song of the South" to be interesting and i wanted to know more about it. Like stated below, the movie contains several different folktales. I found that the movie, created by Disney, was not even released on VHS in North America because of issues relating to race. The story 'Tar Baby' that we read in class was incorporated in this Disney film including several others. I did a search for the term 'tar baby' and discovered that some find the term to be very racial. The initial meaning of the term, in the story, was kind of like saying that one is caught in a sticky situation, much like Brer Rabbit in the story, and as much as he tries to get unstuck from the tar baby he just gets himself stuck further. I came across a few blogs discussing the use of this word and several people were angry at the connotation in some cases. It surprised me that the term 'tar-baby,' which is used in "From My People" -- an African American Folklore Novel, could be turned into a term that is against the very race who told the story. I found that in recent years some politicians have used the term in ways that mock the African American race, thus making it even more wrong.
Overall, I was surprised that a Disney movie incorporated racial material in its animations and I was surprised in how the term 'tar baby' has been used, after this folklore was told.
I am actually not that surprise about Disney making a movie titled “Tar Baby”. It is sad that they would contribute to all the negative views about African Americans in this time. Disney is known for putting sly comments in their movies that can either be racist or inappropriate for any child to hear. Since Disney is making movies for a certain age group, one would never even consider that their movies or titles were meant to be racist. Personally, I had never even heard of this movie but once I saw the picture you posted, I could tell that was probably not the most appropriate titles for Walt Disney to name their movie. I remember reading about African Americans being tarred and feather and the whole process is very cruel and unjust. So it is very odd that Disney choose to use this term even though it is know to have a very negative reaction from many people, maybe that is why the film was only put on VHS in certain areas.
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