I suspect, if one looks hard enough, Song of the South or the super racist WB cartoons can also be found…
In other words, I don’t think this is like a new monarchy or dynasty of the past attempting to tear down the works of the previous… and even in those cases, from ages ago, we’re often still able to piece together what happened - albeit imperfectly, but that’s history for you… there never has been a perfect reconstruction of the past, because there just can’t be. We can often get close, but a lot of it is still going to be shaped by one’s chosen interpretive framework.
Heck, they used to show the animated bits of Song of the South on “Donald Duck Presents” and other Disney Channel shows up through the early 90s. What I’ll be curious about is if they release it on their new streaming service when it launches. Frankly, by keeping it off DVD for so long, Disney’s made its reputation far more toxic than necessary. I imagine that if it ever gets released – maybe with Oprah doing a little intro segment or some such thing – folks will realize it’s generally just a mediocre movie with some bits that are definitely much more racist in 2019 than when it was made.
Well, Louis Mayer’s adventures on the casting couch were well known to everyone in the biz for years, just like Weinstein was known about for years, just like Jackson’s behavior was known about for years.
Does that mean we ashcan every MGM film of the '30s?
Paradoxically though I would have had more respect for the Simpsons team if they had pulled this episode ten years ago. What really roils my bowels in all these entertainment industry predator scandals is the way that for decades everyone is the very picture of discretion and the careful averting of the eyes – right up until that magic night the Bat Signal goes up over Malibu, and the next morning it’s a unanimous chorus of "Oh, sweet Jeebus, if only we had known!!!’ Does not exactly move the needle on the ol’ integrity meter.
You know, I think I must have seen this episode the first time it aired, and up until now I never knew it was actually Michael Jackson to voice the character. Huh!
