From an article 5 years ago:
Asked by Yahoo Movies what her favorite Disney movie is, (Whoopi Goldberg) the View host and EGOT winner deferred picking favorites and instead brought up Song of the South, the 1946 Walt Disney-produced live-action/animated film that has remained unreleased for decades due to its racially insensitive portrayal of African Americans in the Reconstruction Era.
“I’m trying to find a way to get people to start having conservations about bringing Song of the South back,” she said of the film, which Disney has kept locked in its vault, refusing to issue either digitally or on disc. “So we can talk about what it was and where it came from and why it came out.”
Disney needs to learn a lesson from Mel Brooks. When he was making "Blazing Saddles", almost every Hollywood studio absolutely refused to even consider the movie. It got to the point that even Mel Brooks was wondering if he went too far. So, he took a chance and showed the film to Richard Pryor. Mel Brooks said he was extremely nervous as Pryor watched the movie. After it was finished, Brooks asked Pryor what he thought of it. To Brooks' surprise and relief, Pryor said that it was the funniest movie he'd ever seen.
Disney needs to address the proverbial elephant in the room. Get African-American leaders together in a room and find out what they have to say. Disney could donate a large percentage of the profits to worthy African-American charities.
The discussions and questions about this movie are not going to go away. Address the issue once-and-for-all and be done with it.