Fact-Checking the Age-Old Rumors of Walt Disney’s Dark Side
The charge: Walt Disney was racist.
The evidence: These charges stem primarily from the use of racial stereotypes in Disney movies from the 40s: Dumbo's black crows; Fantasia's black servant centaurette; and Song of the South, a movie so offensive that the Disney company will no longer let it be seen in public. Then there is Walt Disney's own behavior: Gabler cites a meeting in which Disney referred to the Snow White dwarves as a "nigger pile" and another in which he used the term "pickaninny." The book notes that Disney anticipated the Song of the South controversy and attempted to make it less racist with a rewrite and meeting with the NAACP. The meeting never happened, and the movie was released anyway. There was also some controversy about the company's unwillingness to hire minorities at Disneyland.
Believability: Those are certainly not flattering facts, but they are facts.
The charge: Walt Disney was also sexist.
The evidence: From Gabler: "Some of his associates thought Walt didn't particularly like women. 'He didn't trust women or cats,' Ward Kimball observed." And then there is this letter, sent from the Disney company in 1938, informing an applicant that "women do not do creative work."
Believability: Women didn't get hired for most things in 1938. But again: not flattering.