Zootopia: A Post-racial Utopia or Perpetuation of White Supremacy?, Study notes of Humanities

Download Zootopia: A Post-racial Utopia or Perpetuation of White Supremacy? and more Study notes Humanities in PDF only on Docsity! Garcia Ceja 1 Alejandra Garcia Ceja Dr. Frouzesh Humanities Core 1C 12 June 2020 Disney’s 2016 Film, Zootopia as a Postracial Utopia Created by the White Imaginary “Back then, the world was divided in two-- vicious predator or meek prey. But over time, we evolved. And moved beyond our primitive and savage ways. Now, predator and prey live in harmony” (00:01:41-00:02:02). Zootopia, the city where “anyone can be anything” (00:03:04), has a population that consists of both mammal prey and predators; both big and small. Zootopia is painted as a utopian space hinted by the wordplay in the name and in the opening scenes of the film. In other words, it is presented as a progressive space free from forms discrimination and oppression. To her disappointment, bunny police officer Judy Hopps, finds that the world is still “divided in two”, as there are predators who are being treated unjustly as they are deemed untrustworthy and intimidating to the prey population. Not only are members of the predator division oppressed, but they are also victims in a missing mammal case-- with all fifteen being predators. As this overview suggests, Disney’s 2016 film Zootopia casts different species as racial groups, assigning stereotypical accents and cultural attributes which make it hard to avoid and hard for the audience not to recognize. The division between prey and predator is related to the division between Whiteness and “Otherness”. The film’s depiction of animals in racial terms is a post-racial imaginary which preserves and promotes the trope of the colonial white savior, therefore perpetuating and centralizing Whiteness as superior. In effect, the film exposes the Garcia Ceja 2 casual racism that continues to prevail in both social and political forms in American society today. Disney’s 2016 film Zootopia presents the protagonist, Judy Hopps, as the white savior of the racial predators in what appears to be a supposed post-racial, progressive space created by the White imaginary. Released in the midst of social activist movements and the 2016 presidential election of the US, the film represents, reinforces and seamlessly mimics the hypocrisy of American society through a “family friendly” cartoon. The release of Zootopia in the last stretch of the Obama presidency was no coincidence; the racial content of the film touched on issues of public awareness of Black Lives Matter and its Blue Lives Matter appropriation. Founded in 2013 by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, the Black Lives Matter Movement is “an ideological and political intervention in a world where Black lives are systematically and intentionally targeted for demise” (Garza 23). Despite being founded in 2013, the movement reached a peak in 2016 after a series of deaths of African Americans unjustly occurred at the hands of the police force. The movement received attention on a national scale, with people across the nation holding protests and celebrities speaking in solidarity with the movement. However, the movement was not well received by some Americans and in retaliation created a counter-movement: Blue Lives Matter. Both Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter create what Johanna Soloman and Adam Martin, scholars specializing in political science, call a “competitive victimhood” in which both parties attempt to prove that one has suffered more than the other (Martin et al. 1). Blue Lives Matter came into light when the police force was met with a hostile public in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, therefore shifting the blame onto the Black community for the backlash they were receiving (Martin et al. 18). Zootopia’s release in the midst of social activist movements in the Garcia Ceja 5 Michigan State University state, “predators make up 9 or 10 percent of the population of Zootopia, with prey constituting the other 90 or 91 percent. These numbers are similar to the demographic numbers for Black men and women within the United States” (Beaudine et al. 227). Given that the demographic numbers match up, the city of Zootopia is meant to model an American city which allows there to be a post-segregation interpretation when viewing the film. The animals in Zootopia moving past their “primitive and savage ways” (00:01:41-00:02:02) implies that it was only the racialized “Other” that had to change their ways and conform to Whiteness in order to have harmony-- therefore suggesting that employing Whiteness is necessary criterion for having an ideal world. Linsay M. Crammer, scholar of intercultural communication and Whiteness studies in media, states that within the film “prey as occupants of white positionality [are] inherently good, pure and innocent and racial “Others” as inherently dangerous” (Crammer 7). This refers to the belief that racial “Others” were often viewed as uncivilized by Europeans in their colonial encounters. In effect, the “Other”, or the predators in this case, had to conform to White society and ideologies in order to be considered civilized. Disney’s Zootopia portrays the city of Zootopia as a post racial imaginary space filled with microaggressions and casual racism, and it is further proven through the acts of casual racism displayed by the protagonist Judy Hopps. The film is a host to colorblind racism, which is the belief that racism is no longer a problem in today’s society and it undermines the issues surrounding race. Sarah Nilsen, an associate professor in the history of film surrounding issues of race, states that “The social ideology of colorblindness has been used to justify the persistence of racial injustice in the US criminal justice system” (Nilsen para. 5). As Nilsen describes, racial injustice in the film Zootopia becomes normalized through the ideology of colorblindness and it Garcia Ceja 6 is expressed in casual forms of racism. Racism often stems from fear and such fear becomes the breeding ground for ignorance within a society, resulting in discrimination of the predators in the city of Zootopia. One scene that displays an instance of casual racism is when Judy profiles Nick Wilde, a predator. On Judy’s first day on the job as a police officer, to her disappointment, she is assigned the job of a meter maid. As she is patrolling the streets, she notices Nick Wilde, a fox who she believes is engaging in suspicious behavior as seen in Figure 1. By following him, Judy is racially profiling Nick simply because he is a predator, and everything a predator does is deemed as suspicious or threatening in the eyes of the prey. By doing so, the film hints at more parallels between predators and racialized “Others”, as those of racial disposition are deemed guilty before committing a crime. Figure 1:Judy Hopps (left image) spying on Nick Wilde (right image) due to his suspicious demeanor. In the next scene, Judy follows Nick as she reaches for her fox repellent spray into the ice cream shop and finds that he was only trying to buy his son a jumbo pop, therefore revealing that Judy had wrongfully profiled him. The fact that Judy carries fox repellent hints at the fact that there is still a deep instilled fear of predators, despite them moving past their primitive ways thus reinforcing the inherent distrust of predators. In the next scene, the elephant shop owner denies Garcia Ceja 7 him service by stating “There aren’t any fox ice cream joints in your part of town?” (00:19:08), which causes Judy to jump in and help Nick, thus painting her as the anti-racist hero. After threatening the shop with a health code violation if they deny Nick service, the shop owner complies and sells him the jumbo pop. In the next scene Judy tells Nick that it “burns [her] up to see folks with such backward attitudes toward foxes” (00:20:55), which in turn exposes her hypocrisy as she was quick to profile Nick and how she was reaching for her fox repellent. She then follows up this statement by saying that Nick is “a real articulate fella” (00:21:05). This statement serves as a backhanded compliment, as it implies that foxes aren’t articulate and that Nick is only an exemption from this generalization of his species, or in symbolic terms, race. Overall, from this scene it is evident that Judy is guilty of engaging in acts of casual racism, though she is depicted as the supposed anti-racist hero of the film. Zootopia associates violence and anger with the biological components of the predators, which in turn is related to forms of biological racism that existed in the past. Judy and Nick first find out about the predators who have been reverting back to their primitive roots in a lab-like facility that contains all of the missing predator mammals in cages. Figure 2:Judy and Nick find the missing predators in a lab facility, and find they have gone “savage”. Garcia Ceja 10 At the end of the film, Judy discovers the truth as to why the predators have been reverting to their primitive ways. Judy finds that it was actually the work of the evil mastermind Assistant Mayor Bellwether who was making the predators go savage by shooting them with “NightHowler” flowers that are able to turn any animal savage. Assistant Mayor Bellwether, a member of the prey division, longed for a future in which the “little guys” (prey) no longer had to cower from the threatening predators. Judy was able to discover her plans and managed to get evidence to arrest her. The film ends by painting Judy as the progressive white cop hero of the predators who were being even more discriminated against as a result of Bellwether’s plans. Scholar Lindsay Crammer states that Bellwether is “a rare, dated, racist, bigot who just needs to go away (i.e., to prison) in order for racial harmony and the postracial to be maintained” (Crammer 13). In other words, Bellwether’s character serves as a foil character in order to highlight Judy’s progressiveness as a white cop hero for the racialized “Others”. In effect, the film associates Whiteness with integrity and honor through Judy’s actions and beliefs. On another note, the film suggests that fear is an effective strategy to uphold the oppression and discrimination of the racialized “Other”. “We all have limitations. We all make mistakes… Look inside yourself and recognize that change starts with you” (01:24:34). The closing words of the film by Judy end on an optimistic note by giving the audience advice on how to be an effective ally to people of color. It is evident that Disney did not have bad intentions in the making of this film; the film touches upon important themes such as stereotyping, race, racism that could spark conversations among young children across the nation in a critical time. However, Disney’s Zootopia talks about such issues through the lens of a White imaginary-- one that centralizes Whiteness as the only possible Garcia Ceja 11 option for a utopian future. The film creates a post-racial imaginary filled with microaggressions toward the racialized “Other” in ways that are hard to avoid and not recognize. From the start of the film up until the end, Zootopia manages to mask progressiveness with Whiteness by repeatedly mentioning that it was the predators that had to move past their “primitive” and “savage” ways in order to have a utopian space. In effect, the film reinforces and perpetuates the notion that Whiteness is superior. A possible way for an influential company like Disney to effectively bring up conversations surrounding race in an appropriate way would be to bring up crucial themes surrounding white privilege as well as the lasting effects of slavery, such as systematic racism. In brief, educating oneself about those crucial themes may bring about awareness and ideas on how to combat both subtle and overt forms of racism. Garcia Ceja 12 Works Cited Cook, “Of Men, Missing Links and Nondescripts: The Strange Career of P.T. Barnum’s ‘What Is It?’ Exhibition.” Darwin, Charles. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. London: J. Murray, 1872. Garza, Alicia Magdalena Nevárez. “A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement.” (2014). Gregory Beaudine, Oyemolade Osibodu, and Aliya Beavers, "Disney’s Metaphorical Exploration of Racism and Stereotypes: A Review of Zootopia," Comparative Education Review 61, no. 1 (February 2017): 227-234. Linsay M. Cramer (2019) Whiteness and the Postracial Imaginary in Disney’s Zootopia, Howard Journal of Communications, DOI: 10.1080/10646175.2019.1666070 Nilsen S. (2019) Living in Zootopia: Tracking the Neoliberal Subject in a Colorblind World. In: Turner S., Nilsen S. (eds) The Myth of Colorblindness. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham “propaganda, n.3” OED Online, Oxford University Press, September 2019, https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/152605. Accessed 20 May 2020. Sandlin, J. and Snaza, N. (2018), “It's Called a Hustle, Sweetheart”: Black Lives Matter, the Police State, and the Politics of Colonizing Anger in Zootopia . J Pop Cult, 51: 1190-1213. doi:10.1111/jpcu.12714 Solomon, J, Martin, A. “Competitive victimhood as a lens to reconciliation: An analysis of the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements”. Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 2019; 37: 7– 31. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21262 Zootopia. Directed by Byron Howard and Rich Moore. Walt Disney Animation Studios. 2016.