To give some context as to why I ask this question, keep in mind that this is an award bestowed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People -- which isn't necessarily all black (in fact, white and black people founded it together) but historically it's served as an African American civil rights organization -- and these are the other shows that have been nominated for this year's award:
- All In with Cam Newton, Cam Newton being a popular American football player who is 'unapologetically black'. He hosts this Nickelodeon reality show in which he acts as mentor/life coach to helping kids achieve some goal of theirs.
- K.C. Undercover, a Disney Channel sitcom starring Zendaya as part of a [black] family of spies. The show has addressed race issues like workplace discrimination (specifically the intersection of sexism and racism) in a surprisingly non-sugarcoated fashion.
- Doc McStuffins, another Disney Jr. cartoon about a little black girl who wants to be a doctor and 'practices medicine' on her sentient toys. Race isn't specifically addressed in the show, although they have done things like had the titular character meet and receive an award from Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House.
- An American Girl Story - Melody 1963: Love Has to Win, a direct-to-DVD short film about a little black girl growing up in Detroit, Michigan during the height of American Civil Rights Movement. Obviously, facing and overcoming racial adversity is the main theme of the program; the show is dedicated to and has the fictional character reacting to 16th Street Baptist Church bombing as a major plot point for the story. (For those unfamiliar, the Ku Klux Klan bombed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, killing four young girls and injuring 22 other people. Though not an isolated event, it's considered one of the galvanizing highlights of the Civil Rights Movement.)
Against that, I find it interesting that The Lion Guard is in the running for this award, and since this isn't something that the public has any input on, I very much wonder what about the show makes it appealing to enough people in the NAACP (in the relevant position) that it got the nomination, particularly in light of the fact that most of the black voice actors play one-off side characters with few speaking roles (including Gabrielle Union as Nala), save for Fuli and Beshte, both of whom are more ensemble characters and aren't usually the stars of the show. Is it because the show addresses diversity with Kion breaking tradition and picking non-lions for the guard? Is it because the show is set in Africa and uses African-based music and Swahili as its cultural backdrop? I have no problem with the show being nominated for the award (though against the other programs I don't think it'll ultimately win) but I am genuinely curious as to what the NAACP thinks of it.
It's part of a broader query that I have with regards to how The Lion King franchise has, for better and/or worse, been an influence on Western perceptions of Africa, and more specifically how do people of the African diaspora respond to it and its themes. I won't really get into that here, since it's a little beyond the scope of this particular section of the forum and I haven't done much of the research necessary - particularly towards the latter question - to really formulate a concrete thesis.
(An aside: I'm only posting this here because it's specific to The Lion Guard, but if whoever runs the site thinks it would be more appropriate to move it to a different section of the forum, I'd be glad to do it.)
