Abstract
Drawing from strategic whiteness and postracism as critical frames, and utilizing critical rhetorical analysis, this manuscript argues that the 2016 Disney animated hit film Zootopia is a postracial narrative developed by the White imagination to embody an ideal diversity that sustains whiteness. This project seeks to expose how, within the film Zootopia, whiteness toils as a strategic rhetoric to maintain its dominance, benefiting logics of postracism that hinder White liability and any possibilities for White ally-ship. This project offers two identified primary themes. First, the metropolis, Zootopia, is strategically constructed a postracial space of the White imaginary. Second, the film reinscribes racial “Otherness” on Black masculine bodies while centralizing whiteness and romanticizing racism through the common anti-racist White hero trope.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to extend a thank you to anonymous reviewers as well as Drs. Alberto González and Andrew Donofrio for their insightful feedback that enhanced this research.
Notes
1 Like Cramer (Citation2019), I identify people who contribute to and/or benefit from the cultural space of whiteness by referring to individuals as those who “occupy White positionality” and “occupy whiteness” or a variation of these terms rather than as “White” (Nakayama & Krizek, Citation1995). Consistent with American Psychological Association formatting, I capitalize “White” but not “whiteness” to identify “White” as a racial identification and cultural location and to call attention to its significance.
2 Zootopia is referred to as Zootropolis in the United Kingdom.
3 The film is referencing then-Senator Joe Biden’s comments about then-Senator Barack Obama during the 2007 presidential campaign in which he stated, “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” Biden’s remarks were widely understood as racist, so he administered a public and personal apology to Obama (Thai & Barrett, Citation2007).