The evil that is Horton Hears a Who

by James Oliphant

Did you know Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a blog?

Me neither.

But he does, hosted by our sister paper, The Los Angeles Times.

Since he retired from NBA, Abdul-Jabbar has been something of a renaissance man, writing several books and working in the fields of cinema and jazz, among other things.

But the hall-of-famer has a problem, a big one, if you'll excuse the pun, with the new family film, Horton Hears a Who. He thinks its sexist. And by that, he means racist.

Here's why:

To make the story long enough for a full-length movie, a sub-plot was added about the mayor of Whoville who has 96 cheerful daughters and one brooding son. This is where things take a nasty turn. Basically, the mayor ignores his 96 daughters in order to groom his uninterested son to become mayor. Why doesn't he groom one of his much more enthusiastic daughters? And, of course, it is the brooding son who, in the end, saves the entire world of Whoville. The daughters? They get to cheer from the sidelines. While it's true that in the book a "very small shirker named Jo-Jo" does add his tiny voice to the din and thus saves Whoville, but that promotes the idea that we all have our part to play in our community, not that sons are smarter than daughters.

"Hey, it's just a cartoon," you might say. But this particular cartoon will be seen by millions of children around the world. And they will come away with a clear impression that a single son is worth more than 96 daughters. Those boys are inherently more valuable than girls, and more likely to be successful (in this case, in saving the world) than girls.

What's especially insidious here isn't just that the subplot was written and approved and filmed, but that since the movie has come out, there hasn't been a popular outcry about it. That we don't even ask why, in the years it took to make the movie, no one along the line said, "This isn't a good message to send to our kids." Is it because sexism is so ingrained in our society that we don't even flinch at it when it's shoved in our faces?

What's all this have to do with racism?

Well, if our society is willing to tolerate any form of social injustice and discrimination toward any single group, then they have created a breeding ground for injustice throughout society. If we allow sexism, ageism, homophobia, religious intolerance, than racism can only flourish as well.

You can check out the blog here.

Abdul-Jabbar is an Obama man, but he says on the blog that if he fails to capture the White House, it won't be because of racism. But here's the question: If Hillary Clinton doesn't secure the Democratic nomination, will it be because of Horton Hears a Who? Can this pernicious beast of a film be stopped?

For the record, my daughter liked it. But mainly because of the elephant.

By the way, here's a favorite Kareem highlight, away from the hardwood.