Pixie Dust, Plays and Problematic Plots

When my Daughter's theater crew shut down Peter Pan for being racist, I had questions -- then I did the research. This episode flies from middle school stages to mouse-fearing moguls to unpack what's really hiding in Neverland!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome back. Know it alls to another episode. If I
didn't know, maybe you didn't either, And I'm your host
b Dots And of course I kick off every episode
with three of the most useless facts you'll never need
a day in life. Up first, did you know bananas
are berries, but strawberries aren't. Banglish language is stupid, botanicalless speaking,

(00:26):
A berry has seeds and pulp that develop from a
single ovary like bananas, but strawberries they don't do that.
So even though they got the name berries in it,
strawberries ain't a berry. Your second useless fact octopuses. That
word seems like I should pause it. Octopuses have three hearts.
Did you know that? Yeah? Two pump blood to the

(00:48):
gills and one pumps it to the rest of the body.
And when an octopus swims, the heart that delivers the
blood to the body actually stops beating. And your final
useless facts, Walk Disney was afraid of mice.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, despite creating the world's.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Most famous mouse, old Walk had a fear of real ones.
Those have been your three useless facts. Bananas are berries,
but strawberries are not. Optibuses have three hearts, and Walt
Disney was afraid of mice. And speaking of Walt Disney,
my thirteen year old daughter Ryan has been bitten by

(01:24):
the acting bug.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yep. She was in her second play this year.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Her school recreated the movie Into the Woods, and they
just performed it for Junior Broadway. So now they're trying
to decide what play they'll do next year. So she
and I were brainstorming. I was like, what about the
Princess and the Frog? She said, well, I offered that
suggestion to the teacher, but the teacher said she didn't
think she was cultured.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Enough to direct it. I got hot, like, what because it's.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
A black story and black characters out of New Orleans,
and this white teacher don't think she can relate to
that is acting? Learn your lines and act them out.
We just did the Little Murma. He ain't last year.
Ain't nobody mermaids in the school.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
But I digress. I said, okay, what about Peter Pan?

Speaker 1 (02:05):
And she said, oh, Dad, we definitely can't do Peter
Pan because it's racist.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
I said, is racist? I didn't know. No, I didn't know.
I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I didn't know, I didn't know, y'all.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
You ever go back and watch something from your childhood
and be like, wait a minute, was that racist? That's
Peter Pan aka the Flying Kid who didn't want to
grow up, but he probably should have grew up because
some of that content ain't aged well at all. Peter
Pan got Neverland, Fairies, pirates, lost Boys, and the whole
tribe of Native Americans. And when I saw that, I

(02:47):
immediately said, who green lit this? Seeing Jam Barry's original
nineteen oh four play and the nineteen eleven novel Peter
and Wendy, there's a fictional tribe and you will not
believe what their name is. Ki tribe. I kid you,
not the Pickaninni tribe. That word is literally a racial
slur used against black children, not even hiding it. That's

(03:09):
like naming a tribe the n words and saying yup,
that's authentic. And the folks in this tribe didn't even
have indigenous names like running Bear or morning Star. Nah.
He had characters like tiger Lily. The chief was just
called chief. That's it, no creativity at all, just chief.
Might as well call them dude in feathers. And then

(03:30):
in nineteen fifty three, Disney said, hold my pipe. They
dropped the animated version. Whoa Buddy. They hit us with
a whole musical number. What made the Red Man red?
That's the actual title, y'all? What made the Red Man red?
You know it's bad when the title alone felt like
a hate crime. It was a line in the sommer

(03:51):
and said, why does he ask you? How like what
I ain't gonna come? I was a kid jamming to it,
but now it's just like there's just feel like a
social media apology waiting to have to We thought the
villain was Captain Hook in the movie. Meanwhile, it was
the script all along. Now, look, I get it, different times,
different norms. But that's why it's so important to revisit

(04:14):
this stuff with a grown lens, not to cancel it,
but to understand the messages that's baked in and how
they shaped how generations viewed race and identity.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
And before you hit me with the it's just a.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Cartoon, dot relaxed, Nah, cousins. Cartoons are curriculum. They teach
even when they entertain, and if we ain't careful, they'll
have your kid thinking picking ninny is a cute word
and not something that got folks punched in the face.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
In the sixties, Peter Pan.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Flew fault pirates and hung with a racist caricature crew.
Try Pigeon at the Disney Plus today you'll be flying
straight to unemployment. Look some of our classics just need
a disclaimer warning make calls cringing when watched with woke eyes.

Speaker 2 (05:01):
I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either, I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
H