January 20, 2021

"Remember in the Lion King when Scar cheated to win the title as king? And the pride land was overrun with the hyenas? And all of the lions lost everything they had built and maintained? Just asking. No reason."

Tweeted Donald Trump Jr., quoted in "Ivanka praises her own work in farewell message as bitter Don Jr compares Biden to The Lion King’s Uncle Scar/Members of the Trump family signed off after four tumultuous years in the White House" (The Independent).

Don't compare human beings to animals. Don't say "pride land was overrun with the hyenas"! Your father was called a racist for his statements and policies on immigration, and "pride" resonates with white pride and Proud Boys. Why would you do that? Sheer stupidity?

By the way, "The Lion King" is racist on its own. I've said that all along (having taken children to the original Disney cartoon and then to the Broadway show), but here's a 2019 article in Fast Company, "The original ‘Lion King’ had a racist hyena problem"
In an overwhelmingly white voice cast (for a movie about Africa), [the two main hyenas, Shenzi and Banzai] were brought to life by minority actors, Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin, who played them as low-life gangsters, reprobates who speak in slang and live tucked away in a shadowy corner of the Pride Lands—the wrong side of the tracks. 
Critics said their accents instantly demonized the characters. Academic pieces blasted the hyenas’ “street” vernacular. Some articles pointed out how the clever, cunning Scar—who speaks with white British actor Jeremy Irons’ King’s English—subjugates the destitute hyenas as his servants. “The good-for-nothing hyenas are urban blacks,” wrote a Harvard psychologist. A New York Times journalist dubbed them “Sambo-ish.”... 
I spoke to Dan Hassler-Forest, a professor of cultural studies at the University of Utrecht...  weighed in on hyenagate, agreeing that the critters are coded as ethnic and social minorities, not only in their accents but also in their skin color, which he points out is darker than the hides of real hyenas. 
“Simba and Nala’s first encounter with them is staged in a way that is familiar to most viewers in which naïve, innocent white kids stray into the ‘bad’ part of town and encounter dangerous gang members,” Hassler-Forest said.... “The three prominent hyenas fit neatly into notoriously stereotypical depictions of black, Hispanic, and mentally disabled depictions of the lower-class residents of ghettos.”...

193 comments:

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Let me know when "Gay Pride" parades are banned for being "racist", ok?

Joe Smith said...

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

You're reading far too much into it.

If you can hear the dog whistle then maybe you're the dog.

You get my point.

Shouting Thomas said...

I think there should be a $50,000 fine for any reference to racism.

For God’s sake, shut up about this shit.

lb said...

He's not wrong

deepelemblues said...

Lol what?

Cruel neutrality veers into amusing delusions.

tcrosse said...

"Pride" is the word for a family of lions.

Joe Smith said...

"Let me know when "Gay Pride" parades are banned for being "racist", ok?"

If I were a young trouble-maker in college, I would start groups and clubs that had only one word in them changed.

Anytime there was a black student union, I would form a white student union.

Anytime there was a minorities-only dorm, I would ask for a whites-only dorm.

I'm not sure why nobody has done this already.

It seems that the inevitable court cases would be fairly easy to win.

And if they weren't won, it would shine a bright light on racism on campus.

AlbertAnonymous said...

“Bitter Don Junior...”

Ken B said...

Animal Farm?

Chris said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gspencer said...

Psst, AA, though the lefties don't like to hear it, and certainly won't admit it (though they know it's true),

but,

not all cultures are equal. Some are way better than others.

Big Mike said...

@Althouse, he’s right and you’re a fool. The formula for the past four years has been straightforward: (1) take an utterance by any member of the Trump family, (2) find some obscure way the utterance can be contorted to be called “racist,” and (3) throw it out there for the gullible to swallow.

You ought to be better than this.

Chris said...

"Don't compare human beings to animals." Huh? So the Lion king is real? Lions can talk? I had no freaking idea. I thought it was a story written by human beings with animals as a stand in for humans. Huh. Fucking racist lions.

Roughcoat said...

Does Althouse buy into this shit or is she just trying to stir up trouble?

Sometimes it's hard to tell. This is one of those times.

320Busdriver said...

The hyenas also shit where they lay.

It’s analogous to the young punks attempt at car jacking the bmw only to find a manual transmission and being unable to complete the mission, firing a couple of rounds into the vehicle as they retreat to their low life.

Kevin said...

Don't compare human beings to animals. Don't say "pride land was overrun with the hyenas"! Your father was called a racist for his statements and policies on immigration, and "pride" resonates with white pride and Proud Boys. Why would you do that? Sheer stupidity?

Shorter Althouse: Ivanka is not free to speak because her words may be misconstrued against her in the court of public opinion.

We've moved from the era of "that's not funny" to the era of "you can't say that".

Wince said...

"Some articles pointed out how the clever, cunning Scar... subjugates the destitute hyenas as his servants."

Well, you have to admit that is the Democrat playbook.

James K said...

"Pride" is the word for a family of lions.

God forbid a Trump should ever use the word "niggardly." Biden's inauguration seems to have unleashed Althouse's inner leftism.

Michael P said...

"Remember when the Reichstag building burned down under very suspicious circumstances and the incident was used to demonize the ruling party's opponents and trample the rule of law? Just asking. No reason."

Is that comparison more palatable to those of cruelly neutral sensibilities?

Richie Aprile said...

The Trump hate runs deep in this one.

Gahrie said...

Don't compare human beings to animals

What the fuck? People have been doing that since humans developed language. Half the metaphors in English involve humans and animals. According to the Bible, God compares us to sheep.

Ever read Animal Farm? Or nearly any children's book?

What a vast over reaction. Well at least he didn't mention states' rights.

Kevin said...

By the way, "The Lion King" is racist on its own.

By the way, no one gives a shit what anyone thinks is racist anymore.

The word has lost all meaning, and anyone who thinks they can spot what is and isn't racist shows they haven't got a clue.

rcocean said...

Althouse has racism on the brain, and will never stop emoting over it, and looking for "clues" and "secrets signals" and "Code words" that denote RACISM. Every white is suspect, except for her of course, Like all well-to-do white ladies over 35, she's immune from Racism, and her job is to be on the lookout for it in others.

Ken B said...

Greenwald had a good tweet
“Trump left the White House about as weak, cucked, and submissive as it's possible for a grown adult to scamper away.”

No pardon for Assange or Snowden, but one for Bannon who stole from Trumpkins. Sad.

Sad, but hilarious to watch the Trumpkins make excuses.

Kevin said...

God forbid a Trump should ever use the word "niggardly."

Did you know Trump Tower is black?

It's long, and hard, and Trump stands on top of it all.

How the hell is Ivanka going to Tweet around that one?

Chuck said...

Althouse, it looks like your post-Inaugural honeymoon is over before it started. Personality cults never end well.

n.n said...

Diversity, yes. Lion supremacy, of course. Masculinism, too? An exclusive pride parade for the king of the jungle. What of the lionesses that bring home the bacon and raise the cubs?

What about Bambi? We never cry for the other animals. And Rudolph with his red nose? What of the deer mice?

#HateLovesAbortion

mockturtle said...

Don't compare human beings to animals.

So I guess you didn't like Animal Farm.

farmgirl said...

How about cancer? It’s ok to compare certain ppl to can, right?
https://t.co/SDWXgVYVWw?amp=1

Gahrie said...

Althouse proves once again that she is exactly the demographic targeted by the Left.

rcocean said...

Here's a "clue" and "Secret Signal" about Racism Althouse. The Liberal/left/Democrats are NEVER going to stop calling the people they dislike RACICSTS.

NEVER. Its nothing more than a club to destroy their opponents.

It doesn't matter what Trump or his family or any conservative/Right winger say or do, they will always be called Racists. The last 4 years prove that. If you still think "where there's smoke, there's racist fire" you're an idiot.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ken B said...

Down with Aesop!

rcocean said...

So, the LION KING is a racist movie? Who Knew.

mockturtle said...

Gahrie beat me to it. Much as I admire our hostess, she can be insanely clueless.

Gahrie said...

“Trump left the White House about as weak, cucked, and submissive as it's possible for a grown adult to scamper away.”

Well that sounds unifying. Fairly boring and moderate too.

farmgirl said...

I’d say Animal Farm was more about comparing Animals to the humans.
Until the end- when the pigs walked upright and the two kinds were indiscernible. It’s perfectly fine in this world of ours to humanize animals, but not to animalize humans. Got it

Gahrie said...

Here's a "clue" and "Secret Signal" about Racism Althouse. The Liberal/left/Democrats are NEVER going to stop calling the people they dislike RACICSTS.

Not even when it's obvious that they are in fact the racist ones. They just want to put White people at the bottom, instead of the top. (While at the same time attributing every successful characteristic as "Whiteness")

Annie said...

Before I read Althouse's post, I thought, "That's a clever and apt comparison." After I read the post I thought, "You get all that out of a Disney movie? It's still a clever and apt comparison." Kind of in the spirit of Aesop's Fables, which I'm guessing are now racist and wrong because they use animals to make points about humans.

Ken B said...

“ Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ”

n.n said...

Oh, and polygamy or friends with "benefits" in the pride. Lions are socially progressive. But no casting couches, no feelers, so what's his name and Biden are out. Also, with lionesses in charge of community and family administration, no pedophiles, too. Hands off the cubs. Do lions practice Planned Parenthood? I can't imagine that a lioness's maternal instinct would ever tolerate let alone support that solution.

tim in vermont said...

“Black people can’t have heroes and villains because they aren’t as sophisticated as us woke white lefties!”

farmgirl said...

Would that make Whoopi racist for having voiced Shenzi? A(n) hyena?

n.n said...

racism on the brain, and will never stop emoting over it

Diversity and em-pathy.

Gahrie said...

Do lions practice Planned Parenthood? I can't imagine that a lioness's maternal instinct would ever tolerate let alone support that solution.

If a male lion seizes control of a pride formerly controlled by a different male, he will kill all the young cubs so that the females will be receptive to breeding sooner. Not so different from humans after all.

NCMoss said...

Simba must be a symbol for deplorables; he's guilt-tripped into thinking he's done something awful and told he must run away and never return.

mccullough said...

Don’t want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard.

Chris of Rights said...

It seems to me that Professor Althouse's problem with this statement doesn't have anything to do with using animals as a metaphor for humans. It really is that she doesn't like The Lion King. Well, that's fine. But it's weak to conflate the two.

People use animal metaphors and similes all the time. I've never before seen AA come down so hard on one. Calling it "stupidity"? Really? Cheap and weak.

alfromchgo said...

"Your father was called a racist for his statements and policies on immigration

We doing the sins of the father thing now?

Rana said...

You've clutched your pearls so tightly that oxygen can't reach your brain. In the words of another Disney character, "Let It Go."

Ice Nine said...

Mining for racism in a dipshit kid cartoon must surely be the paragon of that never-ending Democrat endeavor.

tim in vermont said...

“Black people aren’t sophisticated enough to have villains and heroes that are both black.” - Woke Racist

“Besides, I can tell by my own racist interpretation of the movie where no racism objectively exists that other racist people whose souls I understand better than they do are going to take away a racist meaning from it, I just know it!” - Woke Racist

Althouse should watch one of those youtubes where a wokester and a white supremacist get to talking and realize how much they agree on. It would be a good challenge for her.

"Would that make Whoopi racist for having voiced Shenzi? A(n) hyena?”

If you ever saw the play on Broadway, which I have, it is a celebration of Africanness. Nobody thinks of the Lion King as white.

Lurker21 said...

Yes, but it was Disney cartoon, so I'm sure those hyenas had mad rhythms.



No to comparing humans to animals, but "pride" is a legitimate word for a group of lions and "Black Pride" was a slogan before "White Pride." Everybody needs a little pride, so I'll assume that objection was ironic.

Is that what it's going to be like, though? Every word of the Trumplings tweetlings is tortuously parsed while Biden/Harris skate on the really big things?

Cloudesley Shovell said...

You know you're over the target when you start taking flak, and Prof. Althouse is firing off her entire battery of verbal weapons: "white pride" "proud boys" "Lion King is racist!"

Kind regards,
CS

Odi said...

Ignoring, of course, that the Mufasa was voiced by James Earl Jones.

iowan2 said...

If I were a young trouble-maker in college, I would start groups and clubs that had only one word in them changed.

Anytime there was a black student union, I would form a white student union.

Anytime there was a minorities-only dorm, I would ask for a whites-only dorm.

I'm not sure why nobody has done this already.


Can't. Just like judges refused to listen to evidence of vote fraud, administrators rule and refuse to listen to evidence.

A young man in Iowa wanted to start a Republican/conservative club, in High School. He got shut down repeatedly, until a lawyer heard of the discrimination and forced the administration to outline the violation of policy that was preventing the approval.
Leftist are authoritarian dead heads, that won't stand for open discussion of Ideas

Ken B said...

Althouse
Haver you ever written about dog whistles? Used the word badgering? The word weasel? Accused anyone of hiding their head in the sand?

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Ivanka has small children. I'm sure The Lion King has been her daily background noise for years now. Referencing the movie as an example is something any young mother might do. Stop giving her shit for it.

Drago said...

James K: ""Pride" is the word for a family of lions.

God forbid a Trump should ever use the word "niggardly." Biden's inauguration seems to have unleashed Althouse's inner leftism."

Woe to any Astrophysicist who dares utter "black hole" within earshot of Althouse today.

Drago said...

Ken B: "Accused anyone of hiding their head in the sand?"

Sand?!

Now you've done it! Sand = Middle East = muslims = Trump "muslim ban"!

Racist!

Drago said...

NCMoss: "Simba must be a symbol for deplorables; he's guilt-tripped into thinking he's done something awful and told he must run away and never return."

Precisely.

Well played.

iowan2 said...

Is that what it's going to be like, though? Every word of the Trumplings tweetlings is tortuously parsed while Biden/Harris skate on the really big things?

1. January 6, Speaker of the House, Pelosi put a call into the Joint Chiefs. Not a peep out of anybody.

2. Joe Biden demanded the Military scrub any soldiers that showed support for the Sitting President. Nothing

Don Jr, is racist because Lion King is racist.

Lucien said...

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both said that marriage was between "one man and one woman", when that was the position that polled best. When the polls changed, their positions changed. They didn't actually give a fuck about gay people, but they wanted power. The LGBTQ folks loved 'em.
Trump supported same sex marriage, but was labeled as homophobic just because. Anyone who can think clearly knows that the left will always call the Trump family racists no matter what they say. These are the same people who bought into the Charleston hoax, the Russia hoax, Impeachment Part I, the inject bleach (or Lysol) hoax, the losers and suckers hoax, and now, the insurrection incitement hoax (Impeachment part II).
Hillary Clinton is so demented that she stills pushes -- without evidence -- the Russia hoax, a long-debunked conspiracy theory.

tim in vermont said...

"ou know you're over the target when you start taking flak, and Prof. Althouse is firing off her entire battery of verbal weapons: "white pride" "proud boys" "Lion King is racist!””

Althouse in her Miss Crabapple mode. She knows which way the wind is blowing and she desperately wants to be a Good American in our new fascist America.

No action is exempt from moral judgment; no activity can be despoiled of the value which a moral purpose confers on all things.

Sounds pretty woke, doesn’t it? It’s Mussolini.

TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...

"Remember in Lion King...."

No. I don't submit myself or my kids to Disney brainwashing. Even more so now that they kow tow to the Maoists in China and in the US.

Drago said...

Ken B: "Down with Aesop!"

Indeed.

Just another Dead White European Male...who probably stole his fables from a wise Latina similar to how Aristotle stole his knowledge from black Cleopatra...hundreds of years prior to 1619 which marked the"true beginning" of America...which was followed by the racist Abraham Lincoln who should not be celebrated at all....

Welcome to the New Democratical History Catechism.

Joe Smith said...

'"Don't compare human beings to animals." Huh? So the Lion king is real? Lions can talk? I had no freaking idea. I thought it was a story written by human beings with animals as a stand in for humans. Huh. Fucking racist lions.'

First chuckle of the morning : )

rehajm said...

Althouse in her Miss Crabapple mode. She knows which way the wind is blowing and she desperately wants to be a Good American in our new fascist America.

...the I for one welcome our new insect overlords defense.

donald said...

I guess today is not the day to note the simian features of Michelle Obama and her husband. I’m guessing references to war criminal George W Bush’s simian features will be justice.

rehajm said...

'"Don't compare human beings to animals."

You can try to stop it with your scolding but humans do this so much I believe they made a word for it.

tim in vermont said...

You knew that fascism was what they were going for when they made that awful Star Trek movie in 2016 as a Hillary ad and they made the Federation fascist (which would explain the wars of conquest) and fascist Scotty said: “Ya can nae break sticks in a bundle.”

Hilary’s slogan was “Stronger Together” and for those of you who think “it can’t happen here,” Obama’s slogan was “Yes it can!"

john said...

Did you catch Lady Gaga? She really uncorked it.

I'm sure you all caught it.

Gusty Winds said...

He compared them with a theme from a Disney Cartoon. And Don Jr. is right.

Ken B said...

Books and writers which fall afoul of the Althouse Rule:

The Koran
The Bible
Aesop
Shakespeare
Dr Seuss
Orwell
Homer
Salman Rushdie

robother said...

Of course, the whole notion that there is such a thing as a "bad neighborhood" is racist. All neighborhoods are equally safe or equally dangerous. Children should never, ever be taught to avoid (or even see) groups of people as dangerous. As we all know, crime happens completely randomly across racial and cultural lines and neighborhoods. Any FBI reports (or common sense observation) to the contrary are racist.

Got my mind right, boss!

Skeptical Voter said...

Speaking of being a Good American in the new regime, I got my lesson today from a headline on the op ed page of the Los Angeles Times. "Democracy Depends Upon The Loyalty of Losers". Naturally that was a call for all the sheep to fall in line behind Joe Biden.

The Rip Van Winkles at the LA Times must have been asleep during the last four years of the Democrat "Resistance". The subhead was that Trump had trashed his opposition. I dunno, I just thought Trump was returning fire.

It's going to be an interesting four years. I don't wish old Slow Joe any ill; but I hope he doesn't bumble too much. He's had almost 50 years of getting along by going along--and he's now surrounded by some pretty vicious people in his new hires and advisors.

Ken B said...

Busy as a beaver.
Beaver away.
Canadians have a lot to answer for.

Gahrie said...

“Trump left the White House about as weak, cucked, and submissive as it's possible for a grown adult to scamper away.”

{pointing at Greenwald like Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers}

Sinner!!! Cucked, stands for cuckhold, which is comparing humans to animals. Burn him!

Mark said...

Roberts: "Congratulations Mr. President."

Biden ain't president yet, you boob. Not for ten more minutes.

Michael K said...

Blogger Gahrie said...
Althouse proves once again that she is exactly the demographic targeted by the Left.


Yup and an object of derision as she should be for this.

Althouse in her Miss Crabapple mode. She knows which way the wind is blowing and she desperately wants to be a Good American in our new fascist America.

Or, at least in Madison WI.

rhhardin said...

Hyena is sexist.

Ken B said...

Lovebirds.
Billing and cooing.
Feathers ruffled.

Gusty Winds said...

Althouse lives in the middle of these ridiculous verbal sensitivities.

And good for Don Jr. He's being loyal to his father.

Don Jr. was put through the wringer via the Russian Hoax.

Hunter smokes crack with impunity. He is a hyena.


tim in vermont said...

"Democracy Depends Upon The Loyalty of Losers”

Spit my coffee on that one.

mockturtle said...

Did you catch Lady Gaga? She really uncorked it.

JLo was even better. Both great voices.

Klobuchar adds nothing positive to these proceedings. Was that choice the booby prize for losing out to Kamala?

Iman said...

Hakuna MuCaCa

mockturtle said...

Hyenas is as good a metaphor as any.

Ken B said...

Toronto Raptors.
Milwaukee Bucks.
Memphis Grizzlies.
Baltimore Orioles.
Boston Bruins.
Will this nightmare never end?

effinayright said...

rcocean said...
Althouse has racism on the brain, and will never stop emoting over it, and looking for "clues" and "secrets signals" and "Code words" that denote RACISM. Every white is suspect, except for her of course, Like all well-to-do white ladies over 35, she's immune from Racism, and her job is to be on the lookout for it in others.
************************

Exactly. The perfumed hanky sniffers, like Miss Ann, are now the White Eloi, while the deplorables are the White Morlocks, depraved beasts of burden.

mockturtle said...

"Democracy Depends Upon The Loyalty of Losers"

Hope springs eternal in the Democrat breast.

Gusty Winds said...

Blogger tcrosse said...
"Pride" is the word for a family of lions.

If we say a group of fish is a school, does that mean the Teachers Unions will shut them down?

effinayright said...

'"Don't compare human beings to animals."

A billion Hindus could not be reached for comment.

farmgirl said...

Boycotting tv today.

henge2243 said...

"Your father was called a racist for his statements and policies on immigration, and "pride" resonates with white pride and Proud Boys."

June is long gone and a long time away, but my memory reminds me that "Pride" resonates with the butt-pirates, rug-munchers and those to0 ugly to date.

Ken B said...

Let us see this clearly. As has been pointed out

He did not in fact compare anyone to an animal. He compared them to cartoon characters.

Animal comparisons are not inherently offensive anyway. They are common in language, religion, art. Althouse just roundly condemned Ovid and Muhammad and Aesop and Jesus.

The real issue is Althouse is triggered by The Lion King and the word pride, which she did not recognize as the collective noun.

effinayright said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Louie the Looper said...

I wonder if Biden will use the word “pride” or”proud” in his inaugural address. Racist.

Pride goeth before a fall.

tim in vermont said...

Biden sends his bag man son around the world scooping up graft, he is a hyena.

A federal appeals court in New York has upheld the bribery conviction of the former chairman of a think tank funded by a Chinese energy company linked to Hunter Biden.. - NY Post. (New York Times wouldn’t touch this factually true story with a ten foot pole)

Let’s look at highly biased Politifact and find out what they think:

• Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, had an investment deal that involved the Bank of China, but Trump’s $1.5 billion figure may be exaggerated. How much it’s exaggerated is unclear, given lack of disclosures.. - Politifact

If only the Bidens would tell us what really happened when they took that money, we would know exactly how big a liar Trump is!

Politifact couldn’t report on the story without inserting unsupported digs at Trump. That’s not reporting, that’s propaganda.

effinayright said...

Can anyone actually sing "Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave", while cowering in place under government diktat and wearing a stupid covid mask?

Rick.T. said...

And of course, Teddy Kennedy was the "liberal lion of the Senate"...when he wasn't out making waitress sandwiches.

effinayright said...

gspencer said...
Psst, AA, though the lefties don't like to hear it, and certainly won't admit it (though they know it's true),

but,

not all cultures are equal. Some are way better than others.
*************

I don't remember who said this:

"It is scarcely the same thing to put a man on the moon as to put a bone in your nose."

He got it right, but today he would be doxxed, canceled, ruined, and driven into the wilderness.

tim in vermont said...

"The real issue is Althouse is triggered by The Lion King “

This is an Althouse struggling with her own racist and condescending liberalism. Whatever racism she sees comes from her own mind.

tim in vermont said...

"while cowering in place under government diktat and wearing a stupid covid mask?”

What about say “and liberty and justice for all”?

chuck said...

Remember when

No. Never saw it. I suspect that without much effort anything can be found to be racist. Which is probably one of the academic attractions of that shtick. Using animals is always going to be a problem anyway, what about snakes?

Sebastian said...

"Don't compare human beings to animals."

Don Jr.! Listen to the nice women of America!

"Don't say "pride land was overrun with the hyenas"!"

Don Jr.! Remember: pride is bad!

"[the two main hyenas, Shenzi and Banzai] were brought to life by minority actors, Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin, who played them as low-life gangsters, reprobates who speak in slang and live tucked away in a shadowy corner of the Pride Lands"

Wait, I thought gangsta culture was good? Isn't it more racist to treat blacks as low-lifes who speak in, God forbid, slang?

"the wrong side of the tracks"

Who defines right and wrong here? I detect white privilege.

"Some articles pointed out how the clever, cunning Scar—who speaks with white British actor Jeremy Irons’ King’s English—subjugates the destitute hyenas as his servants."

So actually the worst character was voiced as white? Are whites allowed to complain?

Narr said...

So why did the Whoopster and Cheech do the voices?

Too stupid to notice?

Narr
In her case, a definite yes

DB said...

Is that sarcasm, or are you protesting about how great the sinker tastes?

Mid-Life Lawyer said...

"All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." You know who.

Skippy Tisdale said...

Critics said their accents instantly demonized the characters.

"It wasn't racist racist."

h said...

to those having trouble following along on the logic here.

1. In the original Lion King "hyenas were depicted as crass lowlifes that many interpreted as thinly veiled stand-ins for minorities" and that's racist.
2. DJT Jr. seemed to compare (mostly white) Trump supporters to hyenas in the Lion King.
3. Therefore .... um .... TRUMP IS A RACIST!

deepelemblues said...

An illuminating insight into the workings of the boomer female voter mind.

Edifying, innit it?

Temujin said...

Sometimes words have meaning. And they mean just what they say. Take his tweet for what it was and quit looking for shit through those progressive lenses. It is not a good look.

iowan2 said...

• Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, had an investment deal that involved the Bank of China, but Trump’s $1.5 billion figure may be exaggerated.

I just don't think the general population is near numerate enough to understand the magnitude of this bribe.
Cut the number in half. $750 million
How much is removed from you 401k account every month? Flat fee? percentage? %1, 1.5%, 2.0%
If Biden pulled out 1/2% a year administration fees, that is $37.5 million every year. Thats a big bribe to do China'a bidding. Thats past payments. But to what ends would you go, to assure the paycheck keeps coming?

Makes Clintons wife look like a skid row bagman for her paltry $100K one time take on the cattle futures scam.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

I have a bunch of former friends who are big into the "Gay Pride" scene. They all routinely refer to the events as "Pride", as in "I'm going to Pride this weekend"

The "Proud Boys" are 20% "People of Color", which puts them significantly ahead of most "Pride" events I've seen.

So, I think I might take Althouse's advice, and point out to them this year that their event is very racist.

Drago said...

Ken B: "Althouse just roundly condemned Ovid and Muhammad and Aesop and Jesus."

There is zero chance Althouse condemned muhammad.

Ken B said...

By the crazy/wild in bed rule, this could be Meade’s best day in months!

Ken B said...

Drago
You need to read the Koran and Hadith. Animal comparisons are made!

Fustigator said...

I think Althouse has gone all Charles Johnson at LittleGreenFootballs on us.

Mark said...

Well, Junior doesn't face a very promising future.

Doubling down on racism isn't taking a big risk for him.

rhhardin said...

Sheep are known for unity. Three sheep equals one sheep, if you want a herding maxim.

Two sheep don't herd, they go their own ways.

Francisco D said...

tim in vermont said...This is an Althouse struggling with her own racist and condescending liberalism. Whatever racism she sees comes from her own mind

I did not take her seriously. Althouse is indulging herself in playing the role of "sophisticated" cultural critic which has to be more fun than Law Professor.

The alternative hypothesis I that she is trolling.

rhhardin said...

Starlings are sort of unified but keep having new ideas in various parts of the swarm.

NCMoss said...

Fustigator commented: I think Althouse has gone all Charles Johnson at LittleGreenFootballs on us.

I don't think so; but if Althouse begins purging commenters willy-nilly, then maybe.

LA_Bob said...

""Remember in the Lion King when Scar cheated to win the title as king? And the pride land was overrun with the hyenas? And all of the lions lost everything they had built and maintained? Just asking. No reason."

Quite a stretch to find racialism in this tweet. Especially since the metaphor is about election fraud, not race.

Lions live in prides. Takes some interesting imagery to relate that to "white pride". Kind of tests the imagination.

"Don't compare human beings to animals." Aesop's Fables, anyone? Oh, wait...was Aesop white?

It's disappointing, Althouse. Must everything be about race?

Skippy Tisdale said...

By the way, no one gives a shit what anyone thinks is racist anymore

I would go see a band called The Racists, whose debut album was N-word*, Please. Or Date Rape whose debut album was You Know You Want It

* I made Althouse say the word in her head.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Screw that. Not x watching the vice pride from my vocabulary just because you say it’s racist. Disney’s fake worlds mean nothing to me and I don’t care if someone else thinks the cartoon might be racist. Someone ALWAYS finds racism if they look hard enough. Fuck em. “Even the losers keep a little bit of pride,” as the late great Tom Petty said.

narciso said...

simba was hamlet, and scar was polonius, essentially,

tim maguire said...

Don't compare human beings to animals.

When drawing on Hollywood for lessons about life, movies about animals are off the table?

Why?

Isn't this one of those fake rules that you normally decry, like how comparisons between men and women are ok so long as the woman is portrayed as superior?

TickTock said...

Racism is often in the eye of the beholder.

Jim Gust said...

In the traveling stage production of the Lion King that I saw, the cast was either 100% black or very close to it. It seemed like a show deliberately designed to give maximum paid roles to black actors.

Some racism. BTW, the show and the actors were terrific, well worth the high ticket price.

The race card is beginning to have negative value now--as it should.

Rory said...

"It’s like when you think that the Rorschoch ink blots are all about sex."

They're not?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Don jr should use nice language, like “belong in a basket of deplorables” which bring nonsensical is harder to characterize as racist. Look at Trumps pardons yesterday. Worst. Racist. Ever!

Fernandinande said...

Don't compare human beings to animals

Human beings ARE animals.

Rather than the silly racist stuff, I'm surprised there was no mention of hyena females dominating the males in their matriarchal society, and how lion social structure is more similar to that of ghetto dwellers.

Hunter said...

Not commenting on Don Jr's tweet, but what a moronic take on The Lion King.

We're supposed to just not notice that Simba's father and mother and Rafiki (almost half of the "good guys") were voiced by black actors, or that one of the hyenas was voiced by a white guy. I guess Ed the hyena might be problematic for mocking the mentally handicapped.

Gusty Winds said...

Tatiana McGrath couldn’t have written this analysis of Don Jr.’s tweet any better.

William said...

I read the article. In the new, improved Lion King, white voices are only used for the subordinate, comic relief parts. By the author's own reasoning isn't that racist? If Black actors can play Shakespeare and Regency roles cannot white actors play African animals.....I don't think people generally stereotype Blacks as hyenas. Capitalists are sometimes stereotyped as hyenas. Lots of Black kids watched and loved the original Lion King and never realized that they were being unfairly stereotyped. The points that the article makes are not completely out of left field, but if neither the creators conceived nor the audience perceived the original Lion King as racist can it fairly be called racist.....Off point: Caliban, in distant Freudian times, used to be portrayed as Prospero's unconscious, a horny bastard who acts out all of Prospero's sick desires. Now Caliban is generally portrayed as a victim of imperialism and is played by a Black man. I'm not sure if this subverts or augments the racial stereotype. Caliban remains horny and impulsive. Very confusing. It's important that we ony think nice thoughts about Black characters.

Fernandinande said...

"lions" tag leads me to the post about "The man who lived to tell the tale of his 10 minute fight with a mountain lion" kitten that was about 4-months old and weighed about 40 pounds, which is pretty close to what I predicted it weighed (50 to 80 pounds). Hurrah for me.

brylun said...

For Althouse, Zootopia is much preferable to Lion King.

alanc709 said...

Apparently "cruel neutrality" doesn't include actually being neutral.

Amadeus 48 said...

As they used to say at Disney, "Zip-ah-dee-doo-dah, zip-ah-dee-yay."

Gospace said...

That meme has been floating around for at least a week. I shared it on my Facebook page . Now with this nifty ne analysis Facebook censors now have an excuse to cover or delete it.

Censorship now, censorship forever, the new mantra of the left, disguised as “hate speech isn’t protected by the first amendment “.

effinayright said...

Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse and Steamboat Itchy could not be reached for comment.

boatbuilder said...

I wasn't paying very close attention, but I do seem to recall that the actual Lion king, the leading, noble character, was voiced by that noted white guy, James Earl Jones.
This racism stuff is hard to keep up with.

n.n said...

A pride parade: one dad, multiple moms, and diverse cubs in gay splendor frolicking, hunting, and indulging their carnivorous appetites.

Mary Beth said...

Let's avoid talking to anyone about anything because something we say may be misconstrued.

(I'd prefer everyone shutting up to the Harris/Emhoff dinners of everyone yelling over each other.)

n.n said...

Don't compare human beings to animals.

We bear a correlation to animals. Plants, too. A virus, a bacteria, or two. So it must be true.

n.n said...

Racism is often in the eye of the beholder.

Diversity (i.e. color judgment), not limited to racism, is a dogmatic belief, practice, institution, and, despite people's best efforts, a progressive condition.

The controversial alternative is diversity of individuals, minority of one, including judge people by the content of their character (e.g. principles).

farmgirl said...

Scar assassinated Mufasa, yes?
Trump’s character and presidency were also assassinated- along w/Ashli Babbit.
I’d say apt analogy.

LA_Bob said...

Gusty Winds said, "Tatiana McGrath couldn’t have written this analysis of Don Jr.’s tweet any better."

You might be right. Maybe we in the comment section got trolled big time.

I tip my hat to Althouse.

Jupiter said...

"Don't compare human beings to animals."

Well, strictly speaking, Don Jr. didn't mention any humans. But I suppose the shoe is a remarkably good fit.

Rabel said...

And in the end it was the hyenas who killed Scar.

Known Unknown said...

Since The Lion King is Hamlet, we are back to comparing humans to humans.

rhhardin said...

Althouse is running a household and correcting her children. The nation depends on other things, like structure, to channel feelings so that different people can get along.

Women seem immune to this idea.

chuck said...

no mention of hyena females dominating the males

Spotted Hyenas. Now tell us about the difficulties of copulating by inserting a penis into an enlarged mobile clitoris. Hyenas are weird.

Butkus51 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Butkus51 said...

Odd that the Disney factory wasn't brought up. You know, the ones who tell the stories and make the money. Aren't they one of the evil corporations at the head of the line as far as wokeness? Big dem donors too.

Lets not talk about that.

Kalli Davis said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsQV1FiOvRo

The_Dread_Pirate_Roberts said...

Well, I wonder what she thinks of Song of the South? Was Bagheera a Racist?

Yancey Ward said...

Biden definitely isn't Scar. You have to have an IQ above 95 to be Scar.

Chennaul said...

By the way, "The Lion King" is racist on its own. I've said that all along (having taken children to the original Disney cartoon and then to the Broadway show)

So Ann has always thought “The Lion King” was racist. Yet you took children to the movie and then the Broadway show— which going to the Broadway show really took effort and good money.

If it is racist why take kids to it multiple times and support “The Lion King” with significant amounts of your money?

That I don’t get. It seems inconsistent.

RichAndSceptical said...

The left hated Trump for what he said and the right loved him for what he did.

Amadeus 48 said...

"If it is racist why take kids to it multiple times and support 'The Lion King' with significant amounts of your money?"

Chennaul--What? Are you trying to teach an anti-racism seminar? Isn't this an example of structural racism, as Ibram X. Kendi or Robin D'Angelo would have it? Poor Althouse couldn't even entertain her children without racism creeping in. I hope she gave them properly woke lectures.

The horror! The horror!

Molly said...

(eaglebeak)

Don't compare human beings to animals? Good heavens! Go right ahead--that will put you in company with Winston Churchill, Jesus Christ, and a lot of other luminaries, including many heroes of the earlier days of this country.

How about this line? "Help us to save free Conscience from the paw/Of hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw." That's from John Milton's Sonnet 16 and you'd better believe he is comparing men to animals there.

I'm not analogizing Don, Jr. and John Milton, but the idea that we shouldn't compare men and beasts would certainly blow a lot of the poetry out of the world.

It seems a somewhat supercilious piece of advice.

Big Mike said...

The left hated Trump for what he said and the right loved him for what he did.

Not quite right. The left hated him for making life better for working people and small businesses, and for trying to end wars begun by his predecessors.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Fernandinande,

Human beings ARE animals.

THANK YOU. Strange that no one else chose that obvious retort.

I wonder, btw, what AA thinks of Uncle Remus. Br'er Fox and Br'er Rabbit and friends. Was he (or the storytellers whose works were compiled under his name) racist?

I won't go into almost every children's book ever, Toad and Mole, City Mouse and Country Mouse, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Aesop's Fables, Kipling's Just So Stories . . . What's the point? If AA is pathologically upset by animals used to analogize human behavior, then she is, and that's that. It seems to me a pretty strange sort of pathology, but "'tis a poor thing, but her own."

Amadeus 48 said...

"Don't compare human beings to animals."

Look at me...I'm a frickin' tiger. You think I like these stripes? I always wanted them lengthwise, not across. You know, like the Yankees put pinstripes on the uniforms so Babe Ruth wouldn't look so fat.

At least the Babe had some swing with the front office. I got nothin'.

The Vault Dweller said...

Well I rolled my eyes at the Lion King analogy but mainly because I think analogies to kids shows or movies are cringe inducing. Whenever I see someone make a political comparison to something in Harry Potter, or Star Wars, or the Marvel movies, I usually roll my eyes and worry that the person who made that comparison can vote. It bothers me that people analyze the world in terms of who is Voldemort and who is Dumbledore.

But since no one is arguing on Althouse's side I will attempt to. It was a bad analogy to make because people on the left will use it as proof of further racism from the Trump family. Is that a fair comparison? No, I don't think it is an intellectually honest analysis at all. However it has been effective. Every misconstrued statement gives media and people who are already emotionally primed to think he is racist more fuel to keep their hate-fires burning. If someone has been beating you up with the same unfair tactic for years, chances are that this instance won't be the one where suddenly everyone else figures out that the tactic is intellectually dishonest and unfair. I understand not liking it, and I don't, but it has been working that way for some time.

The Vault Dweller said...

Lion King was also homophobic because Timon, a meerkat was voiced by Gay actor/entertainer Nathan Lane. So that is effectively calling all gay people varmints. When you remember that Nathan Lane also in an adaptation of the movie, the Producers which was about Nazis and Hitler, the Lion King also becomes fascist. When you realize that Nathan Lane was also in the movie, "He Said, She Said" you discover that all this racist, homophobic, fascism ultimately ties back to Kevin Bacon.

The Vault Dweller said...

Blogger Greg The Class Traitor said...
Let me know when "Gay Pride" parades are banned for being "racist", ok?


I think a couple years ago there was a push to de-racismify gay pride parades and rallies by adding a brown and black stripe to the rainbow flags to represent Black and Brown LGBTQIAP2S members who were not represented before. Some people pointed out that there was no white stripe on the flag, and that the original flag was already inclusive and represented all LGBT members. And that by adding a black and brown stripe people would be injecting race into something that wasn't about race to begin with. I don't really keep track of Gay Pride events so I don't know how this all played out.

Josephbleau said...

“It’s like when you think that the Rorschoch ink blots are all about sex.”

Don’t call me a pervert Doctor, you are the one showing me all these dirty pictures!

stonethrower said...

"Sheer stupidity?" Yes, let us follow the rules made by awful people.

The Vault Dweller said...

Yes, let us follow the rules made by awful people.
Even if you don't follow the rules and think they are silly or stupid, that doesn't mean those silly or stupid rules won't apply to you. Tactically it makes sense to follow rules that are likely to apply to you, even if you personally don't like them or want to follow them. I hate seat-belt laws. They seem like the definition of Nanny-state overreach to me. And generally I think that is just a façade that local governments use to get more fine revenue. That being said I always buckle my seat-belt. Albeit mainly because I want to live if I get in a car-crash, but also because I don't want a ticket.

Quaestor said...

Much as I admire our hostess, she can be insanely clueless.

What remained of my admiration has been replaced with contempt.

stephen cooper said...

When writing "The Hobbit", poor little Tolkien had no compunction about giving cockney accents to the evil trolls.

At Rayner Unwin, none of the readers (the glorious story is that the leader of the publishing house, Rayner himself, gave the typed-up little novel to his son, who loved it) called out Tolkien for giving a cockney accent to the first villains who show up in the story (The hero, Bilbo, has an upperclass use of English language.... in later books, his nephew Frodo also has an upperclass style, while poor Sam Gamgee has to make do with 'peasant diction'.)

Not Tolkien, not Rayner Unwin, not the little son of Rayner Unwin who loved the Hobbit typescript appear to have cared at all about the little Cockney children who unsuspectingly would start to read the Hobbit, would read on with joy for a while, and then about four chapters in would find out that the rich little man who wrote the book thought it was a good idea to give their father's and their mother's accents to the evil trolls, and to nobody else in the story.

People, even good people, are often not as good as they seem. SAD!

Lewis called the middle-aged Tolkien, even though he liked him, a smooth and slippery guy.

If I had a choice between writing wonderful books that made me a universally beloved fantasy author, on the one hand, or not making little kids whose parents spoke Cockney feel insulted and the objects of contempt, on the other hand, I would choose not writing the books. I am sure most Tolkien fans would disagree, but they would be wrong to do so.

Narr said...

The flatulent warthog Pumbaa was my favorite; he seemed relatable.


True story. And a portent?

A friend of mine was enlisted one day a few weeks ago to watch the two kids-- a girl 5, and a boy 2--of a friend of my friend's daughter. I stopped by and heard that they were there in preference to being taken by DCS because mama had made some mistakes . . . had displayed bad judgement . . . It was all just a big misunderstanding . . .

I didn't pry; his daughter is a nurse, I assumed maybe a colleague had a drug problem or something, and I only thought about it the other day when my friend called me.

I asked what had transpired and he said that mama had been released and the kids returned-- after she explained to the judge that the whuppins were only because the tykes had used racist language.

Narr
No rod-sparing there

Chennaul said...

I hope she gave them properly woke lectures.

..............

During the show...

n.n said...

A pride parade is a marvelous scene in Nature: a lion, his lionesses, and their cubs in tow playing and hunting in gay abandon.

Marcus Bressler said...

Oh, give it a rest, Bloggess.

THEOLDMAN

No one wants to hear that old, tired claim of "racism". Get a life.

rcocean said...

Thank God Joe Biden isn't racist. He's a Democrat!

rcocean said...

BTW, the "Lion King" Sucks. God, its so fucking boring. Even my daughter agreed. "The Jungle Book (1967)" - is so much more fun. And it has better music.

Iman said...

Blogger narciso said...
simba was hamlet, and scar was polonius, essentially


To be, or not to be... that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
 the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take the impala down by the throat, eat the soft parts first and bathe in its blood.

Unknown said...

> By the way, "The Lion King" is racist on its own.

Woke Althouse policing classic cartoons.

Biden is not the only Change

Unknown said...

Proud Boys are a bad thing now? When did that happen? Proud Boys were the response to Portland Antifa blocking streets and attacking elderly drivers.

Is it OK to be white? Just say what you think. Should white people be genocided?

Unknown said...

THANK YOU so much Ann for uncovering this systemic racism

These days we seldom find anyone doing the difficult work of dissecting our entertainment for racism and sexism. The few who do this brave work of turning a mirror on our microaggressions and privilege get NO support from govt or mass/social media or biggest corporations.

Bravo for your stand against the tide and original insights

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&safe=off&q=loin+king+racist
About 5,590,000 results (0.62 seconds)

walter said...

"Don't say "pride land was overrun with the hyenas"! Your father was called a racist for his statements and policies on immigration, and "pride" resonates with white pride and Proud Boys"
Altparse off the rails.
Akin to That's not funny!

Bunkypotatohead said...

“Simba and Nala’s first encounter with them is staged in a way that is familiar to most viewers in which naïve, innocent white kids stray into the ‘bad’ part of town and encounter dangerous gang members,” Hassler-Forest said.... “The three prominent hyenas fit neatly into notoriously stereotypical depictions of black, Hispanic, and mentally disabled depictions of the lower-class residents of ghettos.”

My first introduction to blacks was to get mugged by a gang of them at age 12. No one had explained to me that civilization ended 6 streets over. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

Martin said...

Actually wouldn't the Hyena's be white since they were clearly Nazi's goose stepping past Scar as Hitler?

n.n said...

Thank God Joe Biden isn't racist. He's a Democrat!

Why stop with racism? Democrats are diversity dogmatists who exercise liberal license to indulge color judgments not limited to racism, sexism, ageism, notably the wicked solution ("planned parenthood" #CecileTheCannibal) or delegated responsibility - a neat trick. #InStorkTheyTrust

n.n said...

wouldn't the Hyena's be white since they were clearly Nazi's goose stepping past Scar as Hitler?

National Socialists, leftists in principle, and its attendant risks, come in all colors. Diversity is a progressive condition.

n.n said...

"Should white people be genocided?"

All Whites? For example, there is evidence that the Anasazi fell to intratribal genocide. Then there is the Hutu/Tutsi cycle of retributive and redistributive change. The post apartheid Progressive South African lynching episodes. The CCP's progression from the Great Leap to one-child to selective-child and concentration camps. Diversity dogma based on low information attributes has a long and bloody legacy, only outmatched by the excess deaths attributable to secular hopes and dreams.

Fernandinande said...

Bravo for your stand against the tide and original insights

Snort...

https://www.google.com/search?num=100&safe=off&q=loin+king+racist
About 5,590,000 results (0.62 seconds)


Loin King ? (And you should use quotes) Using google search to measure the popularity of phrases and ideas is nice, but keep in mind: google lies. Google lies a lot. Skip to the last page of results to see that ...

"lion king" "racist" has only 201 actual results. (oops, now it's up to 208)

Tina Trent said...

Racism on the brain. I’ll worry about it after I get done worrying about five-year olds who are being forced to examine their white privilege in kindergarten. In other words, never.

Unknown said...

But...what aboot Canadiens? What is to be done about them?