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For decades many African-Americans have voiced conflicted feelings about Disney, to put it mildly.
Disney has worked overtime in recent years to leave that past behind, and a surprising groundswell of support from
black viewers for a new TV cartoon called “Doc McStuffins” is the latest indication that its efforts may be paying off.
Aimed at preschoolers,
“Doc McStuffins” centers on its title character, a 6-year-old African-American girl.
Her mother is
a doctor (Dad stays home and tends the garden), and the girl emulates her by opening a clinic for stuffed animals. “I
haven’t lost a toy yet,” she says sweetly to a sick dinosaur in one episode.
The series, which made its debut in March on the Disney Channel and a new cable network called Disney Junior, is a
ratings hit, attracting an average of 918,000 children age 2 to 5, according to Nielsen data. But “Doc McStuffins” also
seems to have struck a cultural nerve, generating loud applause on parent blogs, Facebook and even in academia for
its positive vocational message for African-American girls.
“It truly warmed my heart and almost brought tears to my eyes when my 8-year-old, Mikaela, saw ‘Doc McStuffins’ for
the first time and said,
‘Wow, mommy — she’s brown,’ ” Kia Morgan Smith, an Atlanta mother of five, wrote on her blog
Cincomom.com. Myiesha Taylor, a Dallas doctor who blogs at CoilyEmbrace.com, took her praise a step further, writing,
“This program featuring a little African-American girl and her family is crucial to changing the future of this nation.” [
link to www.nytimes.com]
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United States
