This week I chose the movie “Pocahontas” and Hip hop as my popular artifacts related to the

issue Race/ethnicity.

Pocahontas is an American animated musical romantic drama epic film which plot portrays the
love between an Asian princess, who had lived all her life in a remote place with their uncivilized
group and a white young man from London. This movie was released in 1995 in the Unites States
and it builds on the story of Pocahontas, the first Native American woman to marry an
Englishman and to visit England. At the beginning the film was acclaimed by the audience as it
appears to respond the development of cultural diversity, to against race discrimination, to show
a woman with a dominant role and other etic role models. However, over the time different
details have been noticed for the different type of audience and their opinion had changed. Amy
Aidman in their article Disney's "Pocahontas": Conversations with Native American and Euro-
American Girls revels some details and reviews. For example, some people believe that the
movie reinforces the stereotype of a Native American as a primitive. Besides, Pocahontas was
drawn from blended photos of top models. So, her body looks like a Barbie doll body with an
unrealistic body shape. “Feminist arguments point out that holding up these unrealistic body
images to young audiences is unhealthy” (Aidman). Although, these opinions were negative,
the film managed Disney to collect a large amount of money. An example is that Pocahontas
Costume was the best-selling Halloween costume in 19951.

Over the time the new audience is more critic about details in the movies. Now it is not enough
a film with a multicultural variety of characters. The audience focus their attention in the
characters’ personality construction and the way their costumes are reflected. In order to
satisfice this new audience, Pixar had done a great job with their movie “Coco” released in 2017,
which reflect the reality of the Latin families and that is the reason of their success. To many
people had felt identified with the story.

To conclude, animates movies about multicultural race have been develop their plots to satisfice
what the public are looking for: A story that reflect the multicultural reality and which they can
fell identify.

In the other hand, Hip hop has been described such as “a US pop culture movement originating
in the 1980s comprising rap music, graffiti, and break dancing, which retrieved historic black
ideas, movements, and focused attention in combating racial discrimination” (Jírová 2012, p.3).
In their early years, hip hop was considered a movement that increase the glorification of
violence and crime. Nevertheless, some part of the audience, now, consider hip hop such as an
“effective therapeutic tool for working with young people” (Cole 2014). This perception is
because Hip hop allows young people to express their feelings and thoughtfulls about different
social issues. Furthermore, there are some artists who bring awareness to social and global
issues through their lyrics.

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References:

García, M. (2017). ‘Coco’ Was the Story of My Life: Readers Share Reactions to Pixar’s Film.
Retrieved September 8, 2018 from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/movies/coco-
mexico-audiences-react-pixars.html

Aidman, A. (1999). Disney's "Pocahontas": Conversations with Native American and Euro-
American Girls. Retrieved September 8, 2018 from
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED427892.pdf

Devos, J. (2007). The Evolution of Hip-Hop Culture. Retrieved September 8, 2018 from
https://vibeserver.net/scripties/evolution%20of%20hiphop%20culture.pdf

Jírová, O. (2012). Hip hop in American Culture. Retrieved September 8, 2018 from
https://theses.cz/id/ya207u/00162505-738794606.pdf