The Princess and The Frog Controversy

I have to start by saying that I grew up on Disney films. Lion King, Aladdin, and Hercules were my favourites. After re-watching these films in high school, I realized how probelmatic the representations of ethnic characters were. Arabian Nights in Aladdin is extremely offensive "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face, it's barbaric but hey! it's home." Pocahontas is completely historically inaccurate. In Lion King, the villain is a dark brown while the heroic protagonists are golden (it could be argued that this colour scheme was meant for the children to visually see who is evil and who is good, but then another question arises: why is black the representative of evil?) Anyway, The Princess and the Frog is Disney's first Black princess and yet there is controversy surrounding this. And rightly so. I have only seen the trailers for this movie as it has not come out yet, and I already saw an array of stereotypes. The "shuck and jive" slave dance, the hypersexualized Latin prince, the voodoo magic is quite pointed, and I have to say even the way Princess Tiana speaks is also very pointed. And quite frankly, I am extremely sick and tired of people claiming that it is harmless because it is an animated film. Animated or not it perpetuates a particular image of Black people that has been reverbrating throughout cinematic history since Uncle Tom's Cabin. I am also sick and tired of people claiming that the controversy is stupid and that people are reading far too into this. People must understand the history surrounding African Americans/African Canadians and that racism does exist in contemporary society (Obama is the president of the United States and that is most definitely progress, but it is not a progessive milestone that eradicates all racism towards Black people in North American society) and that the way in which Black people are portrayed in film and television contributes to our social situation.