“What makes the red man red?”
What’s so bad about it? Granted, I don’t even think it’s accurate because Native Americans don’t even look the slightest bit red to me but where in the song are their any racist lyrics putting down Native Americans? It’s only “problematic” because of the atrocities that happened to Native Americans centuries ago. All of the Disney movies and attractions that are “problematic” now are like 6 degrees of separation problematic.
In the song don’t they make a joke like the red man is red because he got embarrassed or something like that?
I just rewatched the entirety of the Peter Pan Indian segments, and while what is or is not offensive is could be debated, there are at least a few things that I think most people would find troubling if they thought about what they were watching on any level. Here are just a few things that stood out to me:
First, why are they even looking for the Indians? Because they want to go hunting, and though animals are suggested,
John wants to see the aborigines. To which Peter says "Alright men. Go out and capture a few Indians." So what's the goal here? To antagonize them. In "Following the Leader" they sing:
We're off to fight the Injuns, the Injuns, the Injuns,
We're off to fight the Injuns because he told us so.
Not because the Indians, so far as we know, actually did anything to Peter and the lost boys, but because why not? We're bored. Let's go bother them for fun! And it'll be entertaining for John and Michael, the visiting tourists. Bad implications, and we haven't even met the Indians yet.
But let's get to the actual scenes. Scene 1: the kidnapping scene and aftermath. Times are approximate.
~33:40 Indian tracks spotted. John helpfully points out that they're an Algonquin tribe and they're "quite savage, you know." Immediate response from others? "Let's go get'em." John rejects the idea, not because idea bad, but because they need a
strategy.
34:40 John: "Now remember, the Indian is cunning but not intelligent."
35:00 generally speaking if your minority characters don't even have eyes you're not headed in the direction of a positive depiction.
35:35 Caricatured Indian Chief, check. Broken English, check. "Me no spoof 'em." Eyes that make him appear crazy, check.
Scene 2.
50:13 First thing the Indians do after making Peter Pan an honorary Indian is pass around drugs.
Chief: "Teach 'em paleface brother all about red man." John, as if he's learning about a rare animal at a zoo: "Good, this should be most enlightening."
50:23 One of the lost boys asks "when did [the red man] first say "Ugh?" Because that's how Indians talk, you know.
I suppose in general you could debate just
how offensive the song is, but I think most people would agree it's not great, much in the same way that calling Native Americans red is not really ok anymore (when precisely it became outdated I cannot say, but I'd wager it was before my lifetime and I'm in my thirties), so making a whole song about this is...not great optics. There's a reason that songs like this and "We Are Siamese" are pretty much extinct now.
51:16 Good news, now that they're not trying to kill our heroes, the Indians have gained eyes. The bad news is that they're slits most of the time, noticeably a problem that no non-Indian character in the film has. The only Indian characters to consistently have actual eyes are Tiger Lily and the chief (but he has crazy eyes). Most everyone else looks like this:
~52:10 Wendy's reaction to the boys joining the Indian dances is kinda akin to a horrified mother worrying that her children will lose all that civilized society taught them and "go native."
Just a few things that popped out immediately upon rewatching the scene.
Now, when the Peter Pan story was originally written and the Disney film were made, undoubtedly attitudes were different than they are today, but I can't exactly blame modern audiences for finding fault with that aspect of the finished film.
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