Does Disney’s use of AAVE perpetuate stereotypes? When you think of Disney what comes to mind? Most of us would say princesses, magic, castles, fairy tales, happily ever afters? These all may be true but one important feature is lacking from this list, stereotypes. According to critics of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), the use of it reinforces African American stereotypes. (Rickford 14-15). Elements of AAVE are found through out the Disney movie Princess and The Frog. The features can be found in the language of main characters Mama Odie, Louis, Ray, but rarely appears in Disney’s first African American Princess, Tiana’s language. It is because of Disney’s selective use of AAVE in their movie Princess and The Frog, both perpetuates
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Mama Odie’s main role is to perform magic and give advice to Tiana and Prince Naveen. Mama’s vocabulary encompasses features of African American Vernacular English in her song “Dig a Little Deeper.” For example she says, “You blind to what you need” to Tiana. According to Rckford, This is a grammatical feature AAVE that includes the absence of ‘are’ which is known as zero copula (Rickford 114). This is a correct use of AAVE because the present tense of are or is were omitted. If the context included was and were the sentence wouldn’t follow the grammatical rules of AAVE (Rickford 114-115). According to Rickford, this is what separates AAVE from Standard English. If Mama Odie spoke in Standard English, the sentence would say you are blind to what you …show more content…
Due to the lack of AAVE found in Tiana’s language, Tiana defies stereotypes assigned to Mama Odie and other characters. For example, in contrast to Mama Odie Tiana does not use zero copula, “You're broke, and you had the gall to call me a liar. Had she have spoke like the other African American characters she would have said, “You broke, and you had the gall to call me a liar. But because of her white mannerisms and attributes Disney gave her, she uses Standard English. Although Tiana defies stereotypes by using AAVE it is stripping her of her African American identity. On top of Standard English she still speaks with a southern accent and says y’all, but is still the only African American character to not speak in
Mama Odie’s main role is to perform magic and give advice to Tiana and Prince Naveen. Mama’s vocabulary encompasses features of African American Vernacular English in her song “Dig a Little Deeper.” For example she says, “You blind to what you need” to Tiana. According to Rckford, This is a grammatical feature AAVE that includes the absence of ‘are’ which is known as zero copula (Rickford 114). This is a correct use of AAVE because the present tense of are or is were omitted. If the context included was and were the sentence wouldn’t follow the grammatical rules of AAVE (Rickford 114-115). According to Rickford, this is what separates AAVE from Standard English. If Mama Odie spoke in Standard English, the sentence would say you are blind to what you …show more content…
Due to the lack of AAVE found in Tiana’s language, Tiana defies stereotypes assigned to Mama Odie and other characters. For example, in contrast to Mama Odie Tiana does not use zero copula, “You're broke, and you had the gall to call me a liar. Had she have spoke like the other African American characters she would have said, “You broke, and you had the gall to call me a liar. But because of her white mannerisms and attributes Disney gave her, she uses Standard English. Although Tiana defies stereotypes by using AAVE it is stripping her of her African American identity. On top of Standard English she still speaks with a southern accent and says y’all, but is still the only African American character to not speak in