I understand that the reason why Song Of The South was banned from sale in this country is because of the totally unrealistic depiction of blacks as basically happy, well-cared for and respected workers. Not that movies that have cartoons and music in them are normally expected to be hard-edge, realistic depictions of life on this planet. That said, I could understand someone who is black finding the movie offensive. Other than the Brer' Rabbit segments, I thought the movie was typical Disney schmaltz and wouldn't go back to see anything but the Brer' Rabbit sequences.
Julius Lester gets around the dialect issue (which from all accounts that I've read were Harris's most conscientious attempt to "record" the dialect of the ex-slaves who became the composite for Uncle Remus. In the forward to the book, there is no attempt to assign any racist motivation to Harris for his attempt to duplicate the dialect of some ex-slaves at the time. I'm afraid that it's the cumulative years of the bug-eyed broad comic presentation of blacks as ignorant, suspicious fools in movies, advertisements and radio that has understandably turned so many people off on the stories, themselves. Lester's "solution" is to put the stories in presnt day settings... even including a shopping mall. And while he is uncomfortable about the dialect Harris used, he creates a more contemporary "dialect" to make the stories more acceptable to young blacks.
I'm with KT on this one. I am truly story for those who are offended at the dialect, or the underlying depiction of post-slavery blacks as happy "darkies." I find the dialect used in the Harris stories a hurdle to overcome, but the stories are just so fine that I'm willing to make the effort. I'd probably prefer that the dialect was greatly diminshed, but I don't like the idea of placing the tales in a contemporary setting. To each his own, I guess. At the same time, I don't believe in telling people that they "shouldn't" be upset or angry. I respect emotions, and believe that they have their own validity.
I just hate to see the tarbaby thrown out with the bath water..