Leftist Decries the ‘Whiteness of Toy Story’ – Yes, Really

The Hollywood Reporter writer Stephen Galloway liked the Toy Story franchise, but there was something that bothered him about the series of blockbuster kids’ movies.  “Why did a slightly bitter taste linger, a sense that something was naggingly wrong?” he asks in a recent article.

It didn’t take him long to figure it out.  Race, naturally:

In many ways TS4’s worldview seems like an Eisenhower-era fantasy, a vision of America that might have come from the most die-hard reactionary: lovely if you’re wealthy and white, but alarming if you’re black or brown or gay or a member of any other minority — in other words, more than half the U.S. population.

True, there are a few characters of color (including two supporting players voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele); but each of the leads is Caucasian, and not just the franchise regulars but a host of new ones including a very white fork (Tony Hale) that’s among the more memorable — and merchandisable — creations of this fourth iteration in the series.

So let me get this straight.  Forky, which is literally a plastic white fork, is Caucasian? Why not decry that the character is one-use plastic?  (Perhaps Galloway is waiting to unload that bombshell environmental accusation in a different hard-hitting expose´.  Or perhaps, he’s happy the fork got repurposed?  We can wait with bated breath to find out his level of offense on this topic.) And what about the ethnic background of the green dinosaur?  And Mr. Potato Head? And Slinky Dog? And the pigs?  

Galloway accuses Pixar of “racism-by-exclusion that’s no less pernicious than the real thing.”  (And in case you think Galloway is otherwise reasonable, he also claims that Pixar’s Cars franchise promotes anti-immigrant attitudes.)

Alright, folks, let’s take a deep breath.  This writer expects me to believe that a movie about talking toys (or talking cars) is AS terrible as true racism?  This is so deeply offensive to people who’ve actually been victims of racism, and not – you know – simply had to sit in a $10 per ticket movie theater, eating popcorn while being afflicted that a fake pig on screen is pink.

The white liberals who get paid to write this non-sense need to seriously relax.  Or, keep writing this drivel and exposing the non-sense that leftism truly is.

Image Credit: Pixabay