WALT DISNEY: THE ANTI SEMITE DEBATE

Walt Disney is the creative genius that gave 90's kids a childhood along with happiness to generations of Americans. However, his name has one negative parasite on it after all these years and that is the rumor (or fact) that he was an anti-semite. He basically is getting in trouble posthumously for having what was once an 1,000 year popular opinion.

One of the hardest things to do is prove someone isn't racist. Sure they can be nice to someone of a particular race openly but then that seems forced and fake. What we have is a back and forth of people's word against each other and select few events.

An article published by jsn.org written by Rafael Medoff stated:

“Of the Jews who worked [with Disney], it was hard to find any who thought Walt was an anti-Semite,” Gabler reported. “Joe Grant, who had been an artist, the head of the model department, and the storyman responsible for Dumbo... declared emphatically that Walt was not an anti-Semite. ‘Some of the most influential people at the studio were Jewish,’ Grant recalled, thinking no doubt of himself, production manager Harry Tytle, and Kay Kamen [head of Disney’s merchandising arm], who once quipped that Disney's New York office had more Jews than the Book of Leviticus. Maurice Rapf concurred that Walt was not anti-Semitic; he was just a ‘very conservative guy.’”


Here we have a situation resembling "I'm not racist, my best friend is (insert race here)" Does having Jewish people working for him in upstanding positions make Disney not racist? it definitely helps his case but doesn't cover him completely. Again, all we have is witness accounts. If I was a racist asshole at the head of a huge company filled with talented Jewish people making me successful I would be nice to them as well, and also still be a racist asshole.

The other side of the debate has people's witness accounts as well,

"On the other hand, one former Disney animator, David Swift, has claimed he heard Walt make an anti-Semitic remark, and another ex-staffer, David Hilberman, has alleged that one employee was fired because he was Jewish. (However, according to Gabler, Disney himself was rarely involved in firing anyone except the top brass). In addition, the original animated version of the “Three Little Pigs” portrayed the Big Bad Wolf as a stereotypically Jewish peddler, although after complaints, the segment was altered."

Think about it guys... Why would Disney go out of his way to make the wolf Jewish when his entire goal in the movie is chasing after pigs? Doesn't make any sense. As we know from psychology witness accounts are about as reliable as jet fuel melting steel beams. Who knows what influenced the perceptions of these people to make the claims they did.

The concrete evidence definitely stacks in the favor of Disney being a supporter of Jewish people based on the numerous donations he made and the lack of any hard evidence to the contrary. In fact, I wonder how rumors of this magnitude even start when there is no concrete examples to base the claims off of.

Turns out that Walt has been tragically called Anti-Semitic by association, as explained in the following:

The “anti-Semitic industry lobbying group” with which Disney was associated was the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals. The group’s statement of principles said nothing about Jews; its declared purpose was to prevent “Communist, Fascist, and other totalitarian-minded groups” from gaining a foothold in Hollywood.... But some of its other members were accused of being privately anti-Semitic, and in general it had a reputation as being reactionary... Walt Disney certainly was aware of the MPA’s purported anti-Semitism, but he chose to ignore it… The price he paid was that he would always be lumped not only with anti-Communists but also with anti-Semites.”

Here we have reached the 2nd objective of my blog which is to clear up a name in history. Scream it from the mountain tops people, Walt Disney was not an anti-semite. It seems like the only thing he hated was reasonably priced food and thin people, judging by Disneyland today.

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