The Color of Friendship

Assumptions get everyone all the time. Just when you thought you had Disney was the place who could give you a laugh or two without a lot, here they come with something challenging.

Disney Channel’s 2000 film, “The Color of Friendship,” steers away from the films that had a moral life lesson at the end (i.e., smoking is bad). Here, Disney looks at the many ways and angels of prejudice. If this movie can work that usual Disney magic on its audience, it’ll help parents and children discuss race problems, a topic that might not come up anywhere else.

“The Color of Friendship” is based on a true story of an American family’s experience with a white South African exchange student who came to live in their home for several months at the request of their young teenage daughter.

The thing is the family, the patriarch being Congressman Ron Dellums and his wife, Roscoe, is African American. MelanieMcFarland said in her review, “What's more, at the time the story took place, in the late 1970s, Dellums was spearheading efforts to rally Americans to the cause of abolishing apartheid, making him an enemy of the South African government.”

This is heavy material for Disney, especially when you look at the usual kids’ channels handle race issues: by overlooking them. Now, Disney deserves credit for consistently including multicultural casts in its series and movies, but discussions of race interaction rarely come up. What children’s shows should teach, at one time or another, is that despite people are created equal, there are a few differences between cultures, and those differences should be accepted. This fact is what works with “The Color of Friendship.” The exchange student, Mahree, played by Lindsey Haun, must learn that lesson the hard way, by suddenly being put into a house of people she was raised to fear.

The part where Mahree receives permission to visit America from her father – a white policeman who, in the film, helped capture the infamous South African activist Steven Biko – she casually looks on as a black busboy is insulted and kicked across the room by a white restaurant employee. Later, when Roscoe (Penny Johnson) and 13-year-old Piper (Shadia Simmons) meet Mahree at the airport, she mistakes her hosts for servants.

Mahree’s not the only one with misunderstandings. The Dellums thought they were getting a black South African student and are visibly disappointed when Mahree appears.

“We assumed African meant black African, she assumed congressman meant white politician. We both assumed wrong,” Roscoe sighs when they see Mahree’s reaction to their skin color.

Their learning process is a difficult one, as Mahree starts out locking herself in her room before changing herself to getting to know the Dellums. She slowly comes to understand the system of trickery and prejudice her country’s government has taught her.

Piper, on the other hand, must teach her own patience. McFarland said, “he bears up as Mahree, unaware of the depth of her racism, expresses surprise at having to go to the same school as Piper and casually tosses off terms like bantu, colored and kaffir - all words for "black," the last one being derogatory.” Congressman Dellums, played by Carl Lumbly, also has his own difficulties. He starts out believing Mahree should just be sent home, but ends up saving her from the South African embassy, who steals her from her host family when protests of Biko’s death get heated.

Obviously, the similarities ease the girls’ friendship. They laugh when they discover their gifts for one another are the same bracelets. They both like K.C. and the Sunshine Band, they bond over a liking of fashion. Yes, this is Disney, so the girls still find time to shop at the mall and go to the theater to see “Freaky Friday.”

Precious breaks don’t ruin the movie’s impact. “The Color of Friendship” can be one of the better films you’ll see from Disney Channel, and worth making time for the family to see together. McFarland ended her review by saying, “Talk about misperceptions - I would have never guessed there was real substance under those round ears.”

Like I had mentioned yesterday, when I saw the movie, I felt as though it was farfetched and overboard. What I didn’t know is that this was based on a real event, which I do believe they noted at the beginning of the film. I thought that this really went over-the-top with the race issues, but I guess that was the point. I don’t think I will be seeing this again after one viewing, seeing how I wasn’t very fond of it, but then again, I shouldn’t be hard on a film that is based on real events. Check it out and see for yourself.

Tomorrow I will be looking at a film that I can relate to, but is silly, in “Disney Month 2021.”