Want to teach your kids about the dangers of reverse racism? Show them Zootopia.

WARNING! Major spoiler alert! I'll be pretty much giving away the entire movie plot here, so read at your own risk.

In 1945, George Orwell published Animal Farm, an allegorical novel that used animals to depict issues in his society. Disey's recent movie Zootopia (or Zootropolis for my U.K. buddies) is a modern-day Animal Farm, in a sense. Animal Farm was an allegory of George Orwell's society, just like Zootopia is an allegory of our society. Both deal with issues relevant to the societies they were written for. Of course, the film is first and foremost a cute kids' movie, but it deals with some very complicated and intense themes for a kids' movie about talking animals. After watching it once or twice, most people, including older children, will realize that it's about racism, discrimination, racial profiling, etc., but did you know that it actually touches on a much more complex aspect of racism? That's right, Zootopia is about reverse racism. For those who don't know, reverse racism (or reverse discrimination) is the term used to describe when a race or group of people that has a history of being oppressed turns and attacks or oppresses their former oppressors. To learn more about what reverse racism is, feel free to check out my stamp:
Also, here is a helpful Wikipedia page that describes what it is: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_… The term "reverse racism" is misleading. I personally think it should be called "response racism," but that's just me.

"Reverse racism is a phenomenon in which discrimination, sometimes officially sanctioned, against a dominant or formerly dominant racial or other group representative of the majority in a particular society takes place, for a variety of reasons, often initially as an attempt at redressing past wrongs. More often than not, reverse racism is in the form of giving special benefits or opportunities to people who belong to a group which has been under-privileged in the past. In effect, you are essentially committing a racist act by giving preference to one person over another because of their race, religion, or ethnicity, rather than their personal merit, skills, or knowledge."

Some people are bringing up minorities as an issue here, because prey animals in Zootopia outnumber predators 10 to 1. I think that's beside the point, though, because the filmakers behind Zootopia didn't base the ratio off of blacks and whites, they based it off of real life prey animals to predators (www.awn.com/animationworld/zoo…). Besides, it's not just minorities who have been oppressed in the past. Native Americans, for example, were oppressed by whites even though they once outnumbered the whites in North America. The British once oppressed India, even though English were the minority in India. In WW2, Germany, allied with the other Axis powers, oppressed the entire world. Germany was not and is not a world majority. Today, many Germans now face racism and hatred for a crime that some of their ancestors committed. White Germans, white Gypsies, and others, all experience racism today for different reasons. Racism and reverse racism is not about who's a minority, it's about who's oppressing who. Racism is racism not matter who it's against, and as Zootopia shows us, ANY form of racism is WRONG. All these terrible situations are mirrored in Zootopia, even if in a playful, kid-friendly manner.

Zootopia shows kids that ALL forms of racism are dangerous, no matter who they're against.

From the day it hit theaters, Zootopia was wildly popular, and for good reason. The film is full of hilarious jokes, the animation is stunning, the voice acting is fabulous, and its overall message is a good one of love and acceptance. Sure, it got some backlash from Christian fundamentalist groups because of its infamous naturalist club scene, but let's face it: the scene is only about 3 minutes long, it's about animals (not people), and hey, let's be honest - the scene is actually kind of making fun of nudist colonies. I personally would not have put a scene like that in a kids' movie, but it really isn't that bad, and it's easy to skip if it really bothers you that much. If you want to miss out on a great movie because of 3 minutes of sort of questionable material, that's your loss.

Zootopia opens with a scene from Judy Hopps's childhood where she puts on a play with her friends about how she wants to become a police officer. In her play, she expresses her happiness that predators and prey live in harmony, but also describes how predators used to oppress prey animals by eating them. The opening play clearly lays out the undercurrent of predator supremacy in the Zootopian world. Bringing the racial tension to the forefront is Gideon Gray, a heavy-set fox who shouts out "Bunny cop! That is the most stupidest thing I ever heard!"



After her play, Judy sees a group of sheep and rabbits (prey animals) being bullied by a fox and a weasel (predators). When she stands up for them, she in turn gets attacked. The fact that Judy and the sheep get bullied for being prey animals in a town populated almost entirely by prey animals shows that the "predator supremacy" undercurrent is still quite strong.
Take the words "sheep" and "bunny" in this scene and replace them with "n***er," and suddenly it becomes a scene from the 1950s.

Gideon Gray: "I want you to remember this moment, when you think you will ever be anything more than just a stupid, carrot-farming, dumb bunny!"

The scene ends with Judy putting her hat back on and saying "I don't know when to quit," implying that the movie will be about protecting prey animals from aggression and oppression from predators.



Judy grows up and trains to be a police officer, where she finds that being a rabbit puts her at a disadvantage, not only just because she's physically small, but because the other animals don't believe a bunny is capable of being a cop. She faces racial discrimination. Instead of giving into it and giving up, she just tries harder.



Judy earns her badge and enters the Zootopia Police Department (ZPD). All the other animals are large, and mostly predators. She hopes to get an interesting assignment, but instead gets stuck with parking duty because Chief Bogo doesn't believe she can handle anything else. In this scene, Judy even tells Bogo that she's not a "token bunny," further pushing the idea that prey animals in Zootopia allegorically represent oppressed minorities, (even though ratio of prey to predators is based off of real life wildlife.)



Against Bogo's wishes, Judy practically assigns herself to find a missing otter, one of 14 missing animals. She talks to Bellweather, a small sheep who tells her that "us little guys need to stick together," further implying that prey are oppressed by predators. In her search for the otter, she meets Nick Wild, a red fox with a knack for conning other animals out of their cash. She also finds out that the otter disappeared not because he was kidnapped, but because he had "gone savage." She and Nick also read about "Night Howlers" being involved with the disappearances, which she falsely assumes to be wolves.



When they find the otter, Judy and Nick also find all the other missing animals. They'd all gone savage, and Judy takes a video of Mayor Lionheart talking to a badger doctor, where they make the connection that the only animals going savage are predators. Mayor Lionheart expresses fear about how Zootopia will react to their mayor, who is a lion, a very fearsome predator. The mayor is arrested for hiding the evidence (0:45 in the video below.) This is where we see Zootopia's the reverse racism theme beginning to take shape. 



After all that is brought to light, Bellweather the sheep is made the new mayor. She puts Judy, the smallest prey animal on the force, in charge of public relations for the ZPD, just like how we are beginning to see people of minority races get jobs simply because of their race. Judy is interviewed by the press and reveals that the only animals going savage are predators. She says that it "may have something to do with biology," unintentionally framing all predators as savages. Notice how she mentions how predators acted "thousands of years ago." This is very similar to how anti-white groups argue: they constantly bring up the enslavement of blacks, a crime which took place over a century ago, and of which all the perpetrators are long dead.

The scene linked to here is probably one of the most explicit scenes in the movie about reverse discrimination.

"It's not as if a [black person] could [be racist]."
"Right, but a [white person] could, huh?"

"It's not as if a [LGBT person] could [be discriminatory]."
"Right, but a [Christian] could, huh?"

"It's not as if a [woman] could [be abusive]."
"Right, but a [man] could, huh?"



Zootopia is "gripped by fear." Prey animals react in near violence to predators. Predators all over the city get labeled as "savages." Many, such as Benjamin Clawhauser the cheetah, lose their jobs or are forced to work out of sight. When a peace rally is held, prey animals protest against it. Zootopia is ripped apart from the inside out.

Do we see anything like this in our society? Isolated acts of violence against a formerly oppressed group of people inciting massive riots, protests, chaos, racial tension, fear, violence, etc.? Something like, I don’t know, *cough*blacklivesmatter*cough* ?

One prey animal, Gazelle, speaks out against the reverse racism.

Gazelle: "This is not the Zootopia I know. The Zootopia I know is better than this. We don't just blindly assign blame. We don't know why these attacks keep happening, but it is irresponsible to label all predators as savages. We cannot let fear divide us. Please, give me back the Zootopia I love."

Judy looks at the changes happening in Zootopia, and says "I tried to make the world a better place, but I think I broke it." She gives up her police badge and leaves the ZPD. She returns home to her family's carrot farm, where she meets up with Gideon Gray, the fox who had bullied her when she was little. He apologizes for his past actions and Judy accepts his apology. On a side note, I loved this scene. Bullies almost never get redemption in movies, so it was very refreshing to see! While they're talking, Judy's parents warn some baby bunnies not to run through a patch of flowers because they make animals go crazy and aggressive. Gideon calls them "Night Howlers." At that point, Judy makes the connection between the flowers and the savage predators, and, realizing that she has solved the case, drives back to Zootopia.



After apologizing to Nick the fox for being racist, Nick and Judy find the laboratory where the night howler flowers are being used to make a serum that's put into a dart gun and shot at predators to make them go savage. They bring the evidence to Mayor Bellweather, the sheep. At the last minute, Judy gets suspicious about how Bellweather and her sheep bodyguards knew where they were. She says she'll take the evidence to the ZPD herself, and Bellweather attacks her and Nick. Judy and Nick realize that the only way to reveal the truth about how Bellweather had been framing predators would be to get a recording in her own words. So, they replace the serum in the dart gun with blueberries and lure Bellweather to shoot Nick. Nick pretends to go savage, and Judy records Bellweather's confession.

Judy: "So that's it: prey fears predator and you stay in power? It won't work!"
Bellweather: "Fear always works. And I'll dart every predator in Zootopia to keep it that way."

Does this kind of thing sound familiar? Using fear to stay in power? How many times have we seen current politicians pull the race card to serve their own agendas? How many times have you heard people tell you that white people and other majorities can't experience racism or discrimination? Organizations such as Black Lives Matter feed off that fear. White people are labeled as aggressive, oppressive people, and whenever cop takes action against a person of color, he's called a savage racist. Do we know what's going on in his mind? Do we even have the full story of why he did it? Of course not, but people assume the worst simply because he is white. In fact, though, most white folks just want to live in harmony with everyone else.

It's very surprising to see Disney presenting such a conservative idea in a positive way. But in the words of Judy Hopps,

"Real life's a little bit more complicated than a slogan on a bumper sticker. Real life is messy. We all have limitations. We all make mistakes, which means, hey, glass half full, we all have a lot in common. And the more we try to understand one another, the more exceptional each of us will be. ... Look inside yourself and recognize that change starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with all of us."