Can you feel the racism tonight?

Disney are making history with their forthcoming film The Princess and the Frog by including their first ever African American Disney princess in the film. Although Disney are being praised for their decision to finally include a black princess in their catalogue, things haven’t always been so PC in the world of Disney films.

Taking a look through the studio’s back catalogue, there’s a shameful amount of subtle and not so subtle racism to be found. Here’s just five of Disney’s most racist characters.

The Merchant from Aladdin: As the movie opens we are introduced to a Middle Eastern character who sings, “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face”. Naturally, Arab American groups were outraged by the line, which was subsequently changed for the DVD release to, “Where it’s flat and immense and the heat is intense.”

The Crows from Dumbo: The crows, a group of chain-smoking, pimp-like characters are depicted as stereotypical African American characters. The main crow is even called “Jim Crow” – the same name given to a blackface routine and old US black/white segregation laws.

The Siamese Twin Gang from Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers: These Asian cats, from the 1989 film, are portrayed as criminals who run a Laundromat with an illegal underground gambling ring. They speak with a horribly stereotypical Asian accent, and sell their karate expert, a Japanese fighting fish, for a suitcase full of dead fish. Hmmm…

The monkeys from The Jungle Book: While everyone else in the jungle speaks with proper English accents, the monkeys are jive-talking African-Americans. And just to compound things, they have a big number where they sing that they “wanna be like you” to the human character Mowgli.

The Indians from Peter Pan: When asked “What makes the red man red?”, the Native Americans in this film launch in to a song where they explain that long ago a Native American kissed a girl and, naturally turned red from blushing. And that’s why they’re not white.