148: “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” Minstrels in Hollywood and The Oscars (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 3)

"Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" functions as a direct descendant of the 1834 minstrel song "Zip Coon," highlighting the pervasive influence of minstrel culture on Disney’s early filmography. *Song of the South* intentionally employs these regressive tropes, casting Black characters as docile, servile figures to romanticize a sanitized, plantation-era past. While the studio faced significant backlash for its depiction of race, Walt Disney utilized the film’s music and the casting of James Baskett to deflect criticism. Baskett’s honorary Academy Award, rather than representing genuine progress for Black performers, functioned as a calculated, self-congratulatory gesture to maintain the status quo. This history reveals Hollywood’s systemic hypocrisy, where the industry simultaneously profited from racist caricatures while performing performative acts of inclusion to appease public outcry during the onset of the Hollywood blacklist.