The film It's a Wonderful Life holds a special place in my family. We watch it every Christmas Eve without fail. It also inspired the name of my late dog, Zuzu, who passed away in July 2023.
So, when I learned that some unhinged leftist professor claimed that this classic contains "secret racial and bigoted" ideas, and got his crazy views published in a taxpayer-subsidized outlet called The Conversation, I was beyond furious. As much as the left loves to claim that racism is such a huge problem today, they have to spend a ridiculous amount of energy to find racism where it doesn’t exist.
Writing in the taxpayer-subsidized, liberal publication The Conversation, Professor James Deaville explores how the 1946 Christmas classic is politically incorrect and has racist undertones.
“Some depictions of music and sound beg analysis around how these reflect racist ideas about ‘proper’ musical, social and community norms,” Professor Deaville wrote on Dec. 21.
After providing the historical background of the film and its music, Deaville dives into what he sees are problematic messages in the movie.
Deaville zeroes in on how black musical forms appear in the film, writing that "a key concerning aspect to the music heard in It's a Wonderful Life revolves around the portrayal of black musical forms and practitioners.” His big example? The Bedford Falls dance scene features a white band playing "The Charleston," a song written by African American pianist James P. Johnson. To Deaville, this amounts to cultural appropriation rather than a sign of admiration for black musicians.
He also leans on Columbia journalism professor Sam Freedman, who noted in a podcast on whiteness and racism that Bedford Falls is overwhelmingly white, with the only significant black presence being a stereotypical housekeeper in the Bailey household. Never mind that the film was made in 1946 and reflected the demographics of countless small American towns of that era.
The professor extends his critique to Pottersville, the film's darker alternate reality. He objects that "the quaint main street is overrun by nightclubs and full of bright lights," treating this depiction as evidence of coded racism because of the black jazz playing. According to Deaville, the film uses jazz music associated with black artists to signal moral degradation while simultaneously "draw[ing] upon and appropriat[ing] black musical forms as necessary and key to popular American life but in a white-controlled version.”
If your head hurts, you’re not alone.
Deaville, who is white, suggests that viewers should "appreciate the film on a deeper level" by considering "varied and competing narratives around music, race, class, and belonging.” Apparently, he couldn't just say to enjoy the film instead of hunting for racism where it doesn't exist. The movie is about the value of human life and community, not a coded manifesto on racial hierarchies.
The whole controversy showcases how some academics now weaponize identity politics and racial frameworks to reinterpret beloved American films based on current-day standards. Today, Hollywood imposes racial quotas in virtually every aspect of the industry. Remakes are rife with race swaps, with Disney among the worst offenders. Disney remakes of its own classics have given us a black Ariel the mermaid and a brown Snow White. Disney’s Pinocchio remake cast the Blue Fairy as a black, bald character. Lady and the Tramp awkwardly reimagined Jim Dear and Darling as an interracial couple, even though interracial marriage was illegal in the early 1900s Midwest, where the story is set.
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In its rush to boost “representation,” Disney whitewashed history, pretending that racism never existed to score woke points. Other studios make similar decisions with new content. Even advertising isn’t immune. Heck, if you’ve seen a white couple in a commercial, buy a lottery ticket.
When people like Deaville have to overanalyze decades-old entertainment to find racism, it’s a sign that there isn’t enough real racism today for them to complain about. Think about it. Today, blatant racism is so rare that people like Jussie Smollett have to make it up, and academics have created the concept of “microaggressions” to explain why something that isn’t racist actually is racist because they say so.
In the end, the woke left isn’t trying to improve anything; it actually wants to ruin everything for everyone. Leftists are miserable, insufferable people desperate to prove how “anti-racist” they are.
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