Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs Analysis

Darina Mittelmann

Response Paper

All what is wrong with “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs”

Discrimination in the media exists since its beginning of it. People have always been racist, sexist, classists, and many more. Although, now, we recognize that discrimination is ruining the society, it still exists, and some people just can’t stop oppressing others and being prejudice. Back in the forties racism and segregation was prevalent in the US, and it was considered “normal”. A cartoon that demonstrates how acceptable racism was in the forties is “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs”, which is an “all black” parody on the cartoon “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The animation was produced in 1943 for the “Merrie Melodies” series by Warner Brothers

In a nutshell the storyline is nearly identical to the classical Snow-White, but everyone in the cartoon are black and portrayed with ginormous lips, they all speak Jive and dance it as well. There is a mean Queen, she is very rich, she has lots of jewels, car tires, sugar, coffee, gin, and candy. She is overweight and her skin is significantly darker then the skin from the other characters. She asked the magic mirror for a 6-foot-tall prince, and Prince Chawmin’ comes in a car, but instead of going to the queen he goes to So White. Prince Chawmin’ has gold teeth, and instead of front two feet he has dice, also he is smoking. So White is the Queen’s maid, she has a tiny white blouse on, her skirt is a mini skirt with two slits on the sides and she is also wearing high heels. Her movements as she is cleaning something seem to be very sexualized. When the Queen finds out, that Prince Chawmin’ is with So White she orders Murder Inc. to “blackout” So White. On the Murder Inc. car there is a sign “We rub out anybody - 1$, Midgets- 1/2 Price, Japs- FREE”. They kidnap So White, however they leave her unharmed, and the she gets out of the car, the kidnappers are all covered in lipstick. As she walks through the forest she finds one of the dwarfs, later the other six join them. Dwarfs are portrayed as soldiers, they sing that they are in the army now, they are

With this cartoon originating in the forties it is important to understand that it was produced during the WW2, hence the military theme that is prevalent in the animation. If this cartoon is marked as a parody we should think that it is not offensive, because of its purpose. However, this claim can be made only in our time. Back in 40s, although this is a parody, the purpose of the cartoon is to laugh at the African American community and not at the actual cartoon itself. The audience was white and wealthy, meaning that they watched the cartoon and found it funny and not racist. The fact that the cartoon is funny cannot be denied, but the way it is made funny is no more socially