The Orange County Register’s headline was another signpost along the way of our long march toward Racial Justice: “Disneyland quietly removes controversial lyric from new parade soundtrack.” That’s good, eh? It’s heartwarming to see the big corporations doing what must be done in order to ensure a just and equitable society for all. And so visitors to Disneyland will never again be subjected to having to hear these horrific racist lyrics: “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay / My, oh my, what a wonderful day / Plenty of sunshine headin’ my way / Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay.”
The Register’s story was not a parody, although, in any sane society, it would have been. Disneyland, the Register reported, “has removed a controversial lyric from a new parade in the latest symbolic step to distance the Anaheim theme park from the 1940s Disney film ‘Song of the South’ that has been criticized for perpetuating racist stereotypes.” Accordingly, Disneyland “has quietly cut a reference to the ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’ song from the soundtrack of the Magic Happens parade that returned in late February after a three-year hiatus.” All right. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but it is important to take a look at this “controversial lyric” and see exactly how horrible our grandparents were, that they actually enjoyed this sort of thing (this viciously racist song, “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” actually won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1947).
Cover the kids’ eyes. “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” after the bit about it being a wonderful, sunshine-filled day, continues: “Mister Bluebird’s on my shoulder / It’s the truth, it’s actual / Ev’rything is satisfactual / Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay / Wonderful feeling, wonderful day, yes sir!” That’s basically it. There is nothing in the song about blacks or whites or anything having to do with race at all. The Left hates the song because it is joyful, which Leftists never are, and because it was sung in the movie Song of the South by a black man, James Baskett, in a context that suggests that human beings could still be happy even amid circumstances of oppression and injustice. That kind of thinking blunts the revolutionary ardor, and that will never do.
Above all, Song of the South has frequently been denounced as racist, and so even though there isn’t anything remotely racist about the song “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” itself, it is associated with a racist production, and so it has to go. One wonders how the wokesters who run Disney came to this conclusion. Were they inundated with complaints from black Americans and their Leftist “allies,” who found themselves weeping at the collective memory of the chains of the slaver and the lash of the overseer whenever they heard that it was a wonderful, sunshiny day?
Were the Disney offices overwhelmed with angry emails from people berating the sinister media giant for reminding them of the awful Song of the South (of which Disney is so ashamed that it doesn’t offer it for sale, despite the critical acclaim it received upon its release and its historical and cultural significance)? Or (and this is, of course, much more likely) did no one express any offense at all, but the woke censors prevailed anyway?
Related: Went Woke, Going Broke: The Fall and Rise and Fall of Disney
Did Disney do any research on how many visitors to Disneyland even know that “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” comes from Song of the South, or if they do, that Song of the South has been accused of being racist? Did Disney’s Maoists make any effort to discover if anyone, anyone at all, was traumatized by memories (or imaginings) of racism upon hearing “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah”?
Almost certainly not, but the die is cast. The Register tells us that “the ‘Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah’ line near the finale of the parade was replaced with ‘Think of the happiest things’ from the song ‘You Can Fly’ in the 1953 Disney animated film ‘Peter Pan.’” But wait! Disney produced Peter Pan? But, but, that’s the same company that produced Song of the South! If “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” is tainted by the association, why isn’t “You Can Fly,” and every other aspect of Disneyland, down to the smallest detail?
If Disney really wants to strike a blow for racial justice, it should shut down Disneyland and all its other theme parks in view of its past dissemination of racist tropes, and pronto. It’s the least that Disney can do, and it’ll be doing us all a favor.
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