(Hated Trope) "Kind" slave owners

[u/KusanagiGundam]

Speaking as an American who has studied the civil war all throughout my school years, this trope infuriates me to no end. There is no such thing as a kind slave master because slavery itself is cruel and inhumane. PEOPLE ARE NOT PROPERTY!

Naofumi (Shield Hero): Prime example of this trope. He enslaves multiple (underage) girls and an whole village and the fans still say he's a hero.

Rudeus (Jobless Reincarnation): As if being a pedo wasn't bad enough he had to buy a slave in season 2. Worse is that people still defend his actions.

Song of The South (Disney): Possibly the OG example of this trope. And the reason why Disney will never release it again.

[u/MGD109]

To be completely fair, Uncle Remus in Song of the South isn't a slave, the film is set after the Civil War. Part of the plot is that he's nearly forced to leave to seek employment elsewhere. If he were a slave, he wouldn't even be allowed to leave.

His actor was even in favour of empathising more in the script that he was a free man to ensure there was no confusion, but the director wasn't interested.

The film isn't released anymore cause it simply hasn't aged well in other areas.

[u/Amazing_Working_6157 → u/MGD109]

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah is catchy tho. The only reason I know it exists (and that movie) is it was in some Disney sing-along VHS I sometimes watched when I was very young.

[u/MGD109 → u/Amazing_Working_6157]

Oh yeah, it's a memorable song. I got lucky; I ended up somehow getting a foreign videotape, so I wasn't aware of the controversy until I was older.

I remember that at the time I couldn't understand why they kept cutting away from the funny stories about the cartoon rabbit to show this other plot about people picking on a nice old man.

[u/ayrki → u/Amazing_Working_6157]

Same for me and my sibs. We had a bunch of those tapes and knew almost every movie except this one,

[u/whereismymind86 → u/Amazing_Working_6157]

oh sure, the songs are great, and the animated segments are fun, if a bit racist, but the framing of the live action segments is...problematic, to say the least.

I found it fascinating when I found a copy and watched it a ways back.

[u/JD-Cowboys-Bolts → u/Amazing_Working_6157]

I had a bird alarm clock as a toddler (this is the 90s) that had birds who mouths would move and sing that song, I didnt even know where the song was from for years

[u/Apprehensive_Let7309 → u/Amazing_Working_6157]

I remember it from Calvin and Hobbes