[It is the] current trend in producing colorful ethnicity for the white
consumer appetite that makes it possible for blackness to be
commodified in unprecedented ways, and for whites to appropriate
black culture without interrogating whiteness or showing concern for
the displeasure of blacks ... white cultural imperialism ... allows
white audiences to applaud representations of black culture, if they
are satisfied with the images and habits of being represented.
(hooks 1996: 223)The role of King Louie – an orangutan – in The Jungle Book provides an
example of another kind of stereotype: the African American entertainer,
the jokester or trickster. Louis Prima, who voiced the role of King Louie,
was an Italian American who grew up in New Orleans in the early
twentieth century and spent a lot of time with the blues and jazz
musicians, primarily African Americans, in the French Quarter. Given his
musical training, background and reputation for scat singing, it’s not
surprising that movie viewers generally believe that King Louie is voiced
by an African American. This might be seen as a fairly neutral case of
linguistic profiling.
Much has been made of King Louie and his manipulation of Mowgli,
the only human being in this story. He convinces Mowgli and the audience
that he has one goal in life, and that is to be the one thing he is not: a
human being, a man. African American males who are not linguistically
assimilated to the sociolinguistic norms of a middle and colorless United
States are allowed very few possibilities in life, but they are allowed to
want those things they do not have and cannot be.
Other infamous stereotypes occur in Dumbo (the shiftless, aimless but
friendly crows who advise Dumbo speak and sing AAVE – one of them is
called Jim Crow); and The Fox and the Hound where the protective and
wise Big Mama is voiced by Pearl Bailey.
While in the first study 161 *SAE speakers appear in proportions of
43.1 percent humanoid, 54.4 percent animal and 2.5 percent inanimate
creatures (such as the talking teapot in Beauty and the Beast), all AAVE-
speaking characters appear in animal rather than humanoid form. Given
the low overall number of AAVE speakers, however, it is hard to draw any
inferences from that fact. The issue is further complicated in that every
character with a Southern accent appears in animal rather than humanoid