Who would think movies, TV shows, and video games could be racist. Aladdin, a favourite childhood movie had some surprising racist elements that most of the public didn’t even notice, the opening song had the lyrics “I come from a land a far away land where caravan camels roam. Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face, it’s barbaric but hey its home.” This was soon changed after American Muslim protested against the movie. Disney then apologized and changed the lyrics however the lyrics still has the line “it’s barbaric” which...
Who would think movies, TV shows, and video games could be racist. Aladdin, a favourite childhood movie had some surprising racist elements that most of the public didn’t even notice, the opening song had the lyrics “I come from a land a far away land where caravan camels roam. Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face, it’s barbaric but hey its home.” This was soon changed after American Muslim protested against the movie. Disney then apologized and changed the lyrics however the lyrics still has the line “it’s barbaric” which is also highly culturally offensive. Video games also have some have some subtle, almost underhanded offences towards Muslim society. In Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, a picture of a Quran; the holy book for Muslims is found in the bathroom. Muslim gamers thought this was extremely disrespectful of Activition; Creators of Call of Duty. This was then removed after all the hate Activition received a lot of hate. TV show such as South Park and the Simpsons normalize being racist. Many kids watch these TV shows and are influenced to say stuff their favourite character says or think a certain way towards a race or religion.
In conclusion, this essay has highlighted several aspects of the media that show its influence on racist behaviour. However, the media also serves an important purpose in providing a platform for people to speak out against racism. This was most recently seen in the outrage caused by clothing label H&M’s ‘Coolest monkey in the jungle’ Hooded sweatshirt, which was modeled by a black child. People rushed to argue both sides of the argument online, which highlights the media’s most useful purpose: the creation of open discourse.
