Do parents still share Brer Rabbit and Uncle Remus stories?
The last time my dad visited us he made a reference to Brer Rabbit and my 5-year-old had no idea what he was talking about. It bothered my dad, who is from Savannah, that she didn’t know the character. He kept saying I needed to read “Song of the South” to her. I said “Dad, people don’t read that to their kids anymore.”
I am pretty sure we don’t have a copy of the Disney version of the famous Joel Chandler Harris tales in our house. We did have a copy growing up.
Various articles online seem to indicate that the objections are not to Joel Chandler Harris’ folklore stories about the South but instead the Disney adaption.
Here are some of the common objections to the Disney adaption of the Uncle Remus tales.
Here is a synopsis and good reviews for the Disney movie version of it
Here is a history of how the Uncle Remus tales were created by Georgia author Joel Chandler Harris.
From the New Georgia Encyclopedia:
“[Joel Chandler] Harris’s four years at Turnwold (1862-66) shaped his career in profound ways. Like Benjamin Franklin a century earlier, and like contemporaries Mark Twain and Walt Whitman, Harris learned to write by hand-setting newspaper type as a young man. He began composing lines of type at Turner’s elbow. Turner soon obtained a draft exemption for Harris because of his undersized build—and because his work for a paper loyal to the Southern cause aided the war effort. Turner gave Harris fatherly advice and expanded his education in the liberal arts by recommending books from his vast personal library. An avid sectionalist, Turner endorsed Edgar Allan Poe and Henry Timrod but also stressed Dickens and Shakespeare. He encouraged Harris to write creatively and critically. Harris published at least thirty poems and book reviews for The Countryman, along with numerous comic paragraphs over the byline “The Countryman’s Devil.””
“Harris also had full access to Turnwold’s slave quarters and to the kitchen, where he listened to African American animal stories told by Uncle George Terrell, Old Harbert, and Aunt Crissy. These slaves became models for Uncle Remus, Aunt Tempy, and other figures in the African American animal tales Harris began writing a decade later. Harris’s fictionalized autobiography, On the Plantation (1892), chronicles the influence of the Turnwold years on his development. The people he met and the stories he heard, the literary sensibility he began to cultivate there, and several physical features of the extensive middle Georgia plantation property itself informed Harris’s writing. …”
“His Uncle Remus character now began to tell old plantation folktales, back-home aphorisms, and slave songs, and newspapers around the country eagerly reprinted his rural legends and sayings. Before long, Harris had composed enough material for a book. Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings—The Folklore of the Old Plantation was published by Appleton in November 1880. Within four months it had sold 10,000 copies and was quickly reprinted. Harris eventually wrote 185 of the tales.”
“Along with his first book, Uncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings, the most ambitious of the Uncle Remus volumes is Nights with Uncle Remus: Myths and Legends of the Old Plantation (1883). This book comprises seventy-one tales that feature stories told by four different black narrators, including Uncle Remus.”
“Harris published five other collections of Uncle Remus tales in his lifetime, the most accomplished of which is Told by Uncle Remus: New Stories of the Old Plantation (1905). In this volume, a seemingly ageless Uncle Remus tells his complex allegorical tales to the son of the little boy from the first stories. This frail, citified, and “unduly repressed” child is sent by Miss Sally, his grandmother, to Remus’s knee to learn how to be a real boy in a complex, competitive, and even predatory world. Three shorter volumes of previously uncollected Uncle Remus stories appeared after Harris’s death.”
“The Uncle Remus volumes assured Harris’s reputation, which became international almost overnight. Professional folklorists praised his work in popularizing black storytelling traditions. In 1888 Harris was named a charter member, with Mark Twain, of the American Folklore Society. ”
On a similar note, Walsh was looking for something to read the other day and Michael handed him “Tom Sawyer.” But before Walsh could walk off Michael then tried to explain how the book uses the ‘n’ word and how he absolutely shouldn’t use it ever.
Is “Song of the South” like “Tom Sawyer” and “Huck Finn”? Can it be read but with caveats and historical explanations?
Could parents share the original Harris tales with their kids or are those offensive too?
Should there be another adaption made of Harris’ Uncle Remus tales that take the criticisms into account or are tales of the Old South just verboten?
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47 comments Add your comment
Disney is not real
July 6th, 2012
6:37 am
The curriculum we use (from k12.com) includes Brer Rabbit stories starting around 2nd or 3rd grade. Despite their slave origins, the stories themselves are harmless. They are presented as African folk tales full of fun, mischievious characters. We supplement these lesson by attending live storytelling events at the Wren’s Nest (in the West End).
In Kindergarten, the Grimm’s fairy tales actually have un-happy endings, sometimes with misery, unfairness, and wolves getting sliced open and their stomachs filled with stones. In the past, children’s stories were told to teach a moral or scare children from dangerous forests.
I automatically view any Disney adaptation as suspect. What is worse? A dose of historical reality, or a world view that every situation includes singing, dancing, and a happily ever after?
newblogger
July 6th, 2012
8:04 am
When we teach Georgia history, we don’t leave out the part about the Civil War and slavery just because it is uncomfortable. We teach it so we can learn from it, move forward and never repeat such horrible decisions. We can’t ignore it just because it is unpleasant to talk about. It is a part of who we all are. It happened. I always teach my fifth graders that history needs to be learned, warts and all, so we know from where we have come and so that we make informed decisions about where we are headed. We talk openly about how awful things must have been and how people who were probably inherently good, made bad decisions based on the only things they knew. Knowledge is powerful and we should use what we know to our advantage. I don’t think anything is wrong with reading those books, as long as there is dialogue to go along with it that explains why things were as they were, not the Disney version of it. There are a lot of valuable lessons to be learned from folk tales and spirituals.
GB
July 6th, 2012
8:18 am
Notice that the snopes article capitalizes the B in Black but not the w in white?
FCM
July 6th, 2012
8:42 am
You can get Song of the South (Disney Brer Rabbit) in Europe. Disney has never released it in the US on DVD or VHS because of the racial tension in the United States.
I agree with your Dad, get the real version, not the Disney one, then read it to your kids. Are you going to ban Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn? Gone With The Wind?
FCM
July 6th, 2012
8:47 am
TWG…I see Walsh is reading Tom Sawyer…is he liking it?
Dixiecrat
July 6th, 2012
9:16 am
I lived in Eatonton, GA back in the 70’s when I was a kid. I went to a birthday party at a classmate’s house that Joel Chandler Harris lived in at one time. I bought a book two weeks ago of the Brer Rabbit stories and have been re-reading them. I think the stories are great and the illustrations are fantastic too. I think parents should read these stories to their children in the original context the way they were written. Not the “disneyfied” version that tries to make everything so P.C.
YellsBells&Smells
July 6th, 2012
9:18 am
Once again, I recommend you think on it and make a decision with your husband on what is right and wrong for your children. What your ok with might be uncomfortable for someone else and vice versa. That’s theoretically the beauty of living in this country…you can choose a separate path for yourself and your family. I am almost white, 42 and grew up with Song of the South and the Uncle Remus tales. I plan to introduce both of them (if I can) to my daughter. I will read them in the old black dialect as they were read to me. Then when she has kids of her own, she can make a decision the same way.
YellsBells&Smells
July 6th, 2012
9:19 am
arrgh…you’re.
Me
July 6th, 2012
9:46 am
At what point whill you stop protecting your kids from the “real world”? Helicopter… How can one teach what is “right” without having the “wrong” by which to make an analogy or comparison?
Me
July 6th, 2012
9:46 am
Ugh — should have been “will” –
Ga. Peach
July 6th, 2012
9:46 am
I am glad to see that you allow your children to discover the tales. Back 10 years ago, I taught 5th grade and was told that I was not allowed to use the stories in my classroom even though we were studying the Civil War. The principal would show up in my room to ensure I had removed the books. I never did because they students enjoyed them and we had a wonderful dialogue about them. As a native Atlantan,I learned then the power of the PC police as it ended up being a reason my contract was not renewed (the principal stated as such).
LeeH1
July 6th, 2012
10:23 am
Yes, I read the Brer Rabbit stories. Also the Aesop fables, the brothers Grimm, the Arabian Nights and tales of India by Kipling. Get real. These tales are part of the world’s literature, and it is only the close-minded sectional people who don’t like their own local stories.
Warrior Woman
July 6th, 2012
10:39 am
There is no reason to exclude “Song of the South,” “Huckleberry Finn,” or “Tom Sawyer” from your children’s reading list, unless you think political correctness is more important than education.
Re: Walsh and "Tom Sawyer" and Michael's admonishions...
July 6th, 2012
11:01 am
…just hope he doesn’t listen to the current genre of “black” rappers gangsta junk or Michael will have a whole lotta “splainin’” to do…surely Rose has already heard a significant amount of this, as has Walsh – but who knows…
catlady
July 6th, 2012
11:26 am
Oh Em GEE, Theresa! What do you mean, parents don’t read to their kids anymore?! They do if they are any more than duck s**t to their famlies!
Now, specifically: I read Uncle Remus to my kids. I am reading it to my grandkids. I read it in many of the classes in school. I go to my daughter’s school and read it every year. Having lived in Alabama for about 10 years, I can do the speech mannerisms pretty well. JCH and Uncle Remus are part of our history, like the Jack tales in one area, Cucurachita Martina in another area, or stories about los duendes or the chukapavra. Our Walt Disney Uncle Remus book was so loved that when the first grandchild came along, my older daughter spent $90! getting a copy of it!
Yes, I do believe many parents don’t read to their kids. However, GOOD parents do! And they don’t stop when the child can read–they keep on sharing books into teenagerhood. My elder daughter had a great senior English teacher who “encouraged the students to co-read with a parent and then discuss. It was great!
RK
July 6th, 2012
11:37 am
I am from Eatonton, where Turnwold Plantation is located. I grew up reading and listening to the Uncle Remus stories. There is also an Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton, and my mother worked there for several years.
Slavery is part of our history. It happened. Should we bypass everything written, filmed, etc., because we would like to forget this part of our history?
I think that if we do that, we are in danger of future generations not knowing, understanding what happened, and more importantly, why it should never be allowed to happen again.
Yes, read the Uncle Remus stories. See the Song of the South Movie. Share these and other works with your children. And let it open up conversations about slavery, civil rights, etc. Use these as teaching tools.
Penguinmom
July 6th, 2012
11:54 am
When we visited the Wren’s Nest, they brought in a wonderful black storyteller to tell the Brer Rabbit tales. My kids loved it. The tour guides were all black also. The stories are fun and have a small moral to them.
Personally, I LOVE the Song of the South movie. I always felt like the controversy was focusing too much on the social situation and not enough on the actual characters portrayed.
.
White people in the movie: Generally portrayed as uninvolved in their kid’s lives, critical, worried, self-seeking or mean (the girl’s brothers). The 2 white children (who are the ones who accept each other regardless or race) are the only ones who really come out of the movie looking good. The mother and grandmother worry about appearances and seek social standing.
Black people in the movie: Wise, kind, helpful. The singing of the workers (they are not slaves) to me represented people finding joy in the midst of hardship which takes a huge amount of strength of character.
The two main characters – Uncle Remus and the boy develop a wonderful friendship without regards to race. The boy chooses his black friend (Uncle Remus) over his white mother and grandmother. (which you can understand because Uncle Remus is kind and wise, the mother and grandmother totally don’t understand the boy and are more worried about appearances than about happiness).
I so wish Disney would release this in the US. It is absurd that it is okay for Europeans and Japanese to watch but we Americans have to be protected. My 2 oldest have seen a (very poor) VHS tape made from the Japanese version. I would buy it in a heartbeat if it is ever released.
On a side note, we listened to Huckleberry Finn on Audio CD a few years ago. It was painful to hear the n* word so much. I had to stop it fairly early on and explain to my kids that was not an acceptable word and they were to never repeat it.
Patrick
July 6th, 2012
12:00 pm
Funny, I was talking about the Uncle Remus stories with a co-worker a couple of weeks ago. She’s only five years younger than me, and she’s never read or even heard of the stories. I warned her that they might seem offensive, relating to slavery, but she has to understand they take place in a different era. I even told her two stories from memory: Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby, and Brer Rabbit’s Laughing Place. That last one I remembered vaguely from the Disney movie. You can find clips of the movie on YouTube, which is where I was reminded of it.
I remember seeing a year or so ago a shareholder’s conference where someone asked Michael Eisner when they would release “Song of the South” to DVD. I don’t remember his answer, but I don’t think it was acceptable. I may have to look for a Region 1 DVD sold outside of the U.S.
Really?
July 6th, 2012
12:15 pm
Catlady–
She said “parents don’t read THAT to their kids anymore”
Relax
catlady
July 6th, 2012
12:27 pm
@Really? Yes, I acknowledged that in a post immediately afterward, but somehow it never showed up. Oh, well. Is it better to figure out you did a poor job reading (and post a mea culpa) or to have someone else point it out? ; p
However, I still hold with the rest. We have (in my area) a very very small number of parents who read to/with their kids. And we are fortunate, with a very active Kids Ferst in our area, which has signed up a high percentage of 0-5 year olds for free monthly books mailed to their homes. God bless folks like that!
Bernie
July 6th, 2012
12:41 pm
“Ef you wanter see yo’ owil sins, clean up a new groun”. – Uncle Remus
camille
July 6th, 2012
12:47 pm
I have never heard of the books Brer Rabbit and Uncle Remus. As an African American mother I continue to share our history (American History and African American history) with the kids. It wasn’t pretty, but a fact of life.
I am going to search for the books. Are they at the library?
LaQuidra
July 6th, 2012
2:22 pm
Yo daddy be racist!!
Uncle Remus
July 6th, 2012
2:35 pm
Does your father have a lawn jockey in his front yard?
motherjanegoose
July 6th, 2012
3:42 pm
Just back from a trip to Phoenix and also the beach.
I grew up in the North and we were not exposed to Brer Rabbit and Uncle Remus. My two did hear the stories, growing up in ATL, but not necessarily from me. It was not something that Yankees were likely to do and my husband is from the Midwest. I am not sure his parents ever read to him.
I also did not read Dr. Suess to them, even though I am all about rhythm and rhyme. I read dozens of other books each week to them, when they were too young to read themselves and also when they did like to read themselves. We love books.
I was in a Preschool in Florida, a month ago, and one teacher told me she knew Tim Tebow personally. I told her that I once ate dinner with Tomie Depaolo, not that he would remember…haha! NONE of those teachers even knew him. WHAT?
My sister just gave me THE READING PROMISE about a Dad and Daughter who read for 1000 nights. I LOVE PARENTS WHO READ TO AND WITH THEIR CHILDREN.
@ Uncle Remus….years ago, I visited a school and share my Fruit Salad song. It is not the same one as the Wiggles share. I passed out various fruits, for the children to hold. I gave a watermelon slice to an African American Child. The African American Teacher walked out and complained to the Director. I HAD NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED. I met my neighbors for lunch and they gave me a stern lecture. I still go to that school and everything is fine!
Many southern things are mysteries to me, as I grew up mostly in Chicago. My son had a neighborhood friend whom he called CHOCOLATE BOY when he was three. A wonderful family who we respected and admired. His Mom called me a few weeks ago to catch up as he just finished law school at Vanderbilt. I was thrilled for all of them! A chapter in our life that I was happy to revisit!
Fred ™
July 6th, 2012
3:52 pm
I gave a watermelon slice to an African American Child. The African American Teacher walked out and complained to the Director.
Which African Country was he from? How old was he when he left Africa and came to the US? How about the teacher? Was he/she from the same Country?
K's Mom
July 6th, 2012
4:37 pm
Joel Chandler Harris was related to my grandmother and I remember my grandfather telling the stories. I will read them to my boys and take them to the Wren’s Nest. For us it is not only local history, it is family history.
All of the PC crap we as a society subscribe to has set us back, not moved us forward….
FCM
July 6th, 2012
4:57 pm
Does it occur to anyone that by making a big PC fuss we actually call MORE attention to the very thing we are supposedly no longer doing?
Janie Reid
July 6th, 2012
4:58 pm
From the AJC.
K's Mom
July 6th, 2012
5:03 pm
@FCM, you are spot on.
Just me
July 6th, 2012
5:07 pm
Do parents still share Uncle Remus stories? No.
motherjanegoose
July 6th, 2012
5:19 pm
@ Fred…I was trying to be sensitive and if I chose the wrong words…I apologize. On this topic, I NEVER want to offend anyone.
Terms for things have changed a LOT in my almost 53 years. I grew up with a parent who often used the n word. As an adult, I told him that he was not allowed to use it in my house. That did not go over too well.
When we moved to ATL 23 years ago, there were janitors who acted like they were subserviant to me ( as a teacher). I treated them just like I would treat anyone else. In my world, decent people come in all shapes sizes and colors…as do weird people.
I did not really understand how racial things were, in the South, until I read and saw THE HELP. Racial scenarios were quite different ( from the south) in the north and midwest 40 years ago. We did not study it in detail and I had no idea how complicated it was.
As a girl, when I moved to Arkansas, in the mid 1970’s, they did not want to allow our movers to stay in the local hotel. We hired them from a moving company in Chicago. That was something we never expected for sure.
We lived in South Texas for 9 years and were friends with dozens of Hispanic people long before they lived all across the U.S. Our dear church friends took us in and treated us just like family. We are pretty much comfortable with most anyone.
FCM on my cell
July 6th, 2012
9:08 pm
Mjg. i believe Freds point is that if you were born in the US you r an American. Regardless of your skin hue. The title African American does as much to seperate, segegate, & call unnecessary attention to a singular group of people. He made a point that the only people who hold dual citizenship in Africa & America should call themselves African American.
my ancestors came from Ireland during famine. Does that mean I am not white but Irish American?
DS
July 6th, 2012
10:05 pm
Bravo to you parents and grandparents who are not buying in to this PC BS and are actually reading Harris and Twain to your children and grandchildren. Political correctness in all its notorious glory and arrogant claims to consideration to all views is more dangerous to academic freedom and reason than the most close minded bigot or racist ever will be.
For example, one of the latest assaults on works such as Harris and Twain centers on a classic of our time dealing with race and bigotry – To Kill A Mockingbird. A school in Florida was forced to cancel it’s production of the play based upon the book, because an ignorant, short-sighted parent objected to the use of the “n”-word and was “offended”. Well, the play like the book is copyrighted. As such, words cannot be changed just because someone is “offended”, unless the copyright and production agreements specifically allow it – which those for Too Kill A Mockingbird do not. As such, the community missed out on a powerful message for we should strive not to return to the Jim Crow Era.
As wrong as we may view that word today, it was an accepted part of life at one point in this nation’s history. More importantly, usage of that word in To Kill A Mockingbird helps communicate in its proper historical setting what black Americans faced in the South during the Jim Crow Era. Personally, I would rather read books, such as those by Harris, Twain, and Lee, that use that word in its proper historical context than hear the gratuitous usage by the so-called “gangasta” rappers and other such ilk, who think they are being “cool”.
Sally Harrell
July 6th, 2012
11:07 pm
Forget Disney! I read Brer Rabbit adaptations written by Julius Lester to my kids and they begged me for more. Since there are about 5 of these books, it kept us busy for quite some time. Julius Lester received a Coretta Scott King honor award for one of these books. I know they are available through the Dekalb library system, so perhaps they are also available through other systems.
A.D.
July 7th, 2012
12:29 am
@FCM on my cell…The point is that African Americans have the right to call themselves whatever they wish (just like anyone else). Didn’t we just celebrate a holiday dealing with independence, freedom, or something like that?
FCM on my cell
July 7th, 2012
7:21 am
Twg my comment went to cyber trash
Who Cares?
July 7th, 2012
1:40 pm
…and this PC stuff has worked out so well for us, hasn’t it! The truth is the truth, sorry. @ Ga. Peach, July 6th, 2012, 9:46 am, thank you for standing with your beliefs. Political Correctness will be our downfall, as we are not allowed to identify problems and are forced to hold everyone at the same level, regardless of their actions or competencies. I grew up with Joel Chandler Harris and “Songs of the South”, and to this day, it’s my 79 year old father’s favorite series of stories. Like many have said, it’s history. Those arguing against this fact are making it racist!
God
July 7th, 2012
2:24 pm
Cat Lady wears a hood.
catlady
July 7th, 2012
2:34 pm
MJG, here where I live, in 1973, a black deliveryman came to the school. I watched in horror as the 6th and 7th graders surrounded his truck and started making derisive comments.
I remember when Georgia had a black guy playing basketball. When they went to Tennessee, every time he touched the ball the students would “Whoop!” at him.
When I was born a black woman was engaged to take care of me and the house while my mother “recovered”. This was typical in that time among middle class women. She may be why I survived (my mother was not at all flexible about her expectations). The lady stayed till I was 3–childbirth must have been harder on women back then!
When my mom went back to work when I was 10 (guess she had finally recovered), we had a woman who came twice a week to clean and iron. One day she didn’t show so we went to her house. It was in a different part of town, a part that had no paved roads and few telephones.
Since I am one of the “more senior” (ahem, ahem) members of the faculty, I frequently talk to the third and 4th graders about my memories of that time–the separate water fountains and bathrooms, the “bus rules,” black men giving a little bow if you met on the sidewalk. I remember having to buy textbooks in Alabama, and separate schools, and poll taxes.
I read the Uncle Remus stories because of the historical context, yes, but mostly because the children enjoy them–there is some good vocabulary (ie goobers, for example), character development, predicting what will happen next, and laughter in the stories.
Bob in Lawrenceville
July 8th, 2012
11:09 am
I bought a copy of “Song of the South” back in the 1990’s from the UK, since you can’t buy it here in the States. The video format is different (PAL in Europe, NTSC in the US) so I had to get it transferred. The place that did the conversion begged me for a copy of it.
My wife and I showed it to our then 10 year old son. Both of us were amazed at its presentation; we had forgotten how it was produced. We were both noticably uncomfortable during the entire movie. Our son asked us when it was over “Did they really talk like that”? Some things are best left forgotten…..
Kris Jones
July 8th, 2012
12:48 pm
Perhaps Disney should make a new version of “Song of the South”, I’d love to see Obama play the “Uncle Remus” character. Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah!!!!!
Lynda in Bama
July 8th, 2012
7:41 pm
I grew up in Georgia. Before we took our 5 yr old to DisneyWorld, I had the UK version of the movie made into the proper format so my daughter would be familiar with the story behind Splash Mountain(yes, even a trip to DisneyWorld can be an educational experience). We also have the Julius Lester version. As a teenager, we also took our daughter to see The Help and of course she read Mockingbird in school.
Swangirl
July 8th, 2012
8:32 pm
I am surprised and pleased to read that so many people are still reading these stories to their children. I barely remember seeing a revival of “Song of the South” at an Ohio movie theater as a child. I do remember how much fun the songs were. When we moved to Georgia, I read the stories in elementary school and truly enjoyed them.
Unfortunately, the Wren’s Nest seems to be a landmark that gets sadly overlooked because of the negative stereotypes perceived from the Disney film. I am pretty sure that if I asked 100 out-of-state tourists if they knew the Wren’s Nest was in Atlanta, only a few would say they did. It doesn’t get chatted up when people talk about places to go like Zoo Atlanta, the Georgia Aquarium or the High Museum of Art.
My sister has been hunting for a copy of the movie for years. Every now and then an internationally-manufactured copy (in a format we can’t use) will show up on eBay. I hope it is released on DVD here someday so it could be discussed. If people can obtain copies of such films as “Birth of a Nation” (which is truly offensive), why not “Song of the South”?
Laura
July 8th, 2012
9:38 pm
Disney adaptations (of anything) are never in the same class as the original.
And Uncle Remus stories are for grandparents to read to their grandchildren. My parents never read them to me but those are the only “bedtime” stories I recall being read at my grandparents’ house. And now my parents read them to my kids. At this time in my life, I don’t have the time or inclination to wade through that dialect. I suspect most parents of young kids, even if they have fond memories of those stories, are with me on this. Theresa, tell your Dad to buy the book to read to his grandchildren when they visit him!
Patrick
July 9th, 2012
5:58 pm
A little something for all of those offended by the use of the *N*-word in the classic stories of Huckleberry Finn, or the racial content of the Uncle Remus stories: A couple of years ago I bought all six volumes of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection on DVD. Each volume has a disclaimer about how some of the cartoons featured offensive and racy material, usually demeaning certain races or religious affiliations. The disclaimer said how these jokes, references, and epithets were wrong then as they are now. The disclaimer also went on to mention how the cartoons were restored with this material in them, because to erase them would be to like trying to deny such actions and attitudes towards certain races or religious affiliates ever took place. If anything, the racist content could be used as a stepping stone for teaching about racial and religious equality, and how far along we’ve come in such a short time regarding equality among mankind.
In short, parents should still read and share the Uncle Remus stories, and Disney needs to “man up” and release “Song of the South” to DVD in the U.S.
tracey
July 9th, 2012
7:03 pm
i remember reading the stories when i was little. i can see where some people might get offended, but i agree with the people who think that we should read them, and use them as a stepping stone to talke to our kids about racism, slavery etc etc etc. and i never figured out why people get so offended about huck finn. the racist people are clearly the idiots in the story.