ALL CHILDREN STORIES HAVE AN IMPLICATION OF RACISM

Years before Charlie had his visit to the factory, Willy Wonka ran his candy business with regular
workers, not "little funny colored people." But because Willy Wonka was the greatest candy maker in the
land, his enemies sent spies and recreated his greatest candy creations. So, rather than develop a security
solution to deal with these spies, Willy Wonka fired his entire workforce. However, Wonkas urge to make
the best candy made him employ little funny coloured people from a far away exotic land that operated
the most successful chocolate factory.
The childrens story, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roahl Dahl, implicitly portrays racism
through the demotion of coloured groups as well as the promotion of white supremacy in society.
The demotion of coloured groups is quite prevalent, making references to the savage and primitive
origins of the Oompa Loompas the little funny coloured people. Willy Wonka, while providing a tour of
the factory, points to the hard-working employees. They're Oompa-Loompas...Imported direct from
Loompaland...And oh what a terrible country it is! Nothing but thick jungles infested by the most dangerous
beasts in the world! Willy Wonka is referring to the Oompa Loompas as savage beasts in society, originating
not from built civilizations, but rather primitive jungles. Illustrations in the original 1964 edition illustrate
Oompa Loompas as black, gorilla-looking individuals with minimal clothing and singing war-chant like
songs indicating them as stereotypical Africans. Brave volunteers is a phrase that Willy Wonka uses
prodigiously when describing their consistent happiness in daring tasks and willingness to be experimented
on. All in all, the aforementioned savage illustrations of Oompa Loompas as stereotypical Africans, and their
profound willingness to serve their masters command, demonstrate their inability of independent thinking,
freedom and civility. Therefore, this portrayal of a lack of personal capability shows purposeful racism
through demoting coloured groups, such as Africans, to be an inferior race in society.
Although racism is commonly cited as a demotion of a minority, the promotion of supremacy of a
particular race is also a form of racism evident in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Portrayed as a rich
industrialist behind the worlds most successful chocolate factory, Willy Wonka embodies the persona of
the highly successful, white businessman. However, when Willy Wonka contemplates on giving away his
factory, he decides to pass it on to a novice ten-year-old white child, Charlie Bucket, in the faade of a
competition instead of the Oompa Loompas. However, despite the Oompa Loompas consistently backing
the success of Wonkas empire, they remained as slaves, rather than managers of a factory. This event in the
story implies the level of white supremacy in industries, which can limit the growth of otherwise hard-
working, coloured individuals. Therefore, the portrayal of white individuals as being able to take away or
provide opportunities shows purposeful racism through promoting the Caucasian race as a far more
superior, influential race in society than coloured individuals.
The game of Pac-man illustrates the traits of racism in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
particularly the promotion of supremacy and demotion of capability in respective races. Pac-Man starts off
at the bottom, with every direction and option seemingly available to him. Yet, he can only move within the
parameters made by the supreme, unknown architect. His life is always what the architect has designed for
him, and while he can perform flawlessly at each level, he is ever only doing so on a path of the supreme
architects vision for Pac-man. The architect-derived obstacles in the system ultimately shuts Pac-man
down. However, Pac-man helps the architect ensure his game is never over with each retry. The Oompa
Loompas, like Pac-man, are set on a path of demotion through a racist system designed by architect Willy
Wonka to limit capability. This keeps them in a fixed path of working diligently, while promoting white
capitalist Wonka to choose the path of his workers.
Hence, the promotion of Willy Wonka as a supremacy in controlling opportunities for coloured
individuals, alongside the systemic demotion of independence in savagely portrayed Oompa Loompas,
indicate a strong implicit message of multi-faceted racism in Roahl Dahls Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.