A City With an Ideal Civilization

Imagine living in a city with a perfect civilization, Zootopia is the place to be. Zootopia has a specific meaning, and you can get the meaning by breaking down the word. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “an area in which animals, esp. wild animals, are kept so that people can go and look at them” is the meaning of zoo. In the same dictionary, “a perfect society in which everyone is happy” is the meaning of utopia. In this movie, Zootopia has a female rabbit by the name Judy Hopps becoming the first rabbit police officer and giving all of the other animals hope.

As said repeatedly in this movie, “in Zootopia you can be whatever you want to be.’ and Judy Hopps lived by it. This movie motivates you to keep pushing no matter what and shows you how you could be a change in society. Zootopia utilizes specific scenes and characters to display how race is a social construction and reflect issues surrounding race and the criminal justice system such as the War on Drugs.

Social construction allows individuals to create their own social reality.

According to the class lecture slides called The Social Construction of Race this is the ideal society must be created and recreated by human beings.  The Social Construction of Race in class lecture classifies social construction as a social phenomenon. According to study.com, a social phenomenon is, “the individual, external, social constructions that influence our lives and development, and are constantly evolving as we age.

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” the people in society help you to create a social phenomenon. Zootopia reflects a few different types of racism throughout the movie. The separation of predator and prey is one example of biological racism in this movie. Similar to white privilege in Zootopia there was prey privilege. The secretly evil mayor Bellwether said at the end of the movie, “we are on the same team Judy” because Judy was standing up for ending the bad things that were happening to predators. By Bellwether saying, “we are on the same team Judy” she is showing how society expects you to be apart of a group and only clique with those who are similar to you.

Bellwether was on a team with other small prey to turn good predators into vicious animals. At the end of Zootopia, they found out prey were utilizing a gun with a secret formula on the inside to make predators fit the stereotype of a dangerous predator. Society made prey believe predators were a lot bigger and more violent than them this made it harder for predators to live life to the fullest and have equal opportunities without being discriminated. In Zootopia the fox said, “As you said in your dumb stage play us predators used to eat prey and those killer instincts still in our duhna” this is the belief that the things you do are not apart of your character, but it is apart of your DNA. Zootopia also shows cultural racism. According to the class lecture, Sociological Theories of Race cultural racism is, “behavior and culture inhibit success.” in Zootopia, they had the belief prey cannot do hard jobs because they are not big enough. Judy’s first job after being hired as a police officer was a traffic warden. They did not trust Judy enough to do harder work like allowing her to find missing animals. The first thing Judy said was, “one hundred tickets? I’m not going to write one hundred tickets I’m going to write two hundred tickets before noon’. Judy is an overachiever, and it shows her dedication to her job as a police officer.

The head police officer only assigned Judy this role because she is a small prey and he did not believe she could handle a big job. These different types of racisms help individuals create social constructions. In the United States, there is an equal rights act to protect individuals against discrimination. The equal rights act was made to “provide for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.” definition from History.com. As stated in class lectures discrimination is, “the unfair treatment of individuals based on some social characteristic such as race or ethnicity” which causes racial inequality and gives reasons to put this kind of law in place. The predator and prey dichotomy in Zootopia reflects the construction of race in the U.S. because it allows individuals to see racism from a different perspective. In the united states, whites and blacks are opposite and experience different obstacles. This is similar to Zootopia, but instead of basing it on the color they utilize other biological traits to differentiate predators and prey.

The most visual difference in predator and prey is their body size.  The scene at the beginning of the movie when Judy Hopps was training to become a police she had to master all twelve ecosystems before entering the streets as a police officer. Since she was the smallest animal training, she failed many times. She had to work extremely hard to succeed and in the process of failing she was called degrading names such as carrot face and bunny bumpkin. This scene of Zootopia is similar to the model minority readings we read in class because no matter how hard a black African American tried they we were put down by Whites. In the united states, it is hard getting ahead if you are black because you are the minority. In Zootopia, the minority is the prey, but they are breaking down the predators to get ahead. The problem with the Zootopia dichotomy of predator and prey is, Zootopia is supposed to be where all animals can have equal opportunity and be whatever they want to be, and it was still impossible.

The dichotomy in Zootopia makes us aware of the social issues we are facing in the United States. Sexism is one topic the movie makes us aware of because not only is Judy Hopps a small prey, but she is also a woman. The challenges Judy faced shows us how hard you have to work being a woman especially if you are a minority, and she shows us it is not impossible. Government misconduct is another social issue Zootopia is displaying. Mayor Lionheart was a Mayor in Zootopia, but he was behind all of the bad things that were happening to predators in Zootopia. The leaders of your city or state could be the reason everything is falling apart. Mayor Lionheart showcases how too much power could make you turn evil. Zootopia and the United States have the same equal rights act, but social constructions make it hard to live by it. Judy Hopps speech at the end of Zootopia caused mass incarceration for predators. She made a mistake by telling prey they are in danger against predators.

This speech caused Zootopia to pass stricter laws and target only a certain group of animals. After her speech someone asked, “have you considered a mandatory quarantine on predators?” and from that point on they had a target of their back. The number of predators that were getting locked up was similar to the War on Drugs. Predators were treated poorly and put in mussels. According to the lecture slides Race and The Criminal Justice System, “the War on Drugs is responsible for the rise in incarceration rates since 1980”. The War on Drugs and Zootopia happened in two different time frames, but the amount of incarceration went up for minorities in both. In the United States, the War on Drugs affected many African Americans because they were committing violent crimes. Why were the predators being locked up? Because they are accused of being violent as well. The War on Drugs caused a lot of institutional racism. Institutional racism was utilized a lot throughout Zootopia.

In Zootopia they were racial profiling and only accusing those who were predators of being unsafe for the city. Zootopia reflects issues surrounding race and the criminal justice system because the government was changing laws which made an increase in the incarceration. The changes of these laws also affected harmless predators. Overall, Disney is showing the reality of life to help children understand race matters. Disney is also portraying the people in the government system is not always doing their job to help the rest of society. Does Zootopia make children think all mayors are bad? That could be a concern. Zootopia utilizes specific scenes and characters to display how race is a social construction and reflect issues surrounding race and the criminal justice system such as the War on Drugs. Zootopia portrays social problems from a cartooning standpoint. The main idea of Zootopia is not allowing the type of animal you are to determine the job you get.

Judy Hopps wants to help us understand that no matter who you are and what size you are, you can be whatever you want in life. A famous quote from Zootopia is, “Life’s a little bit messy. We all make mistakes. No matter what type of animal you are, change starts with you”. Judy did not allow her parents or anyone else to discourage her to stop her from being what she wanted. Judy’s friendship with Nick helped her see no matter what type of animal you are and where you come from does not mean you are like the rest. Judy’s speech against predators that caused something similar to War on Drugs helped her realize how important it is to judge people based on characteristics and not looks. By Judy being a small rabbit she helped us understand that big things could come in small packages. Even when things were not working out for Judy, and she gave up for a little while she came back to prove her point. Judy wanted everyone to understand one another and the only way for everyone to do that is to try. All of the challenges Judy faced impacted the final product because she allowed change to start with herself.