Starting with snow white

Snow White 
tale, it 
is
significant for Clampett, for it offers him another means to 
present his interpretation of African American entertainment. Clampett’s intent was not 
to attend to the veracity of the 
Snow White 
tradition but to his own vision portrayed 
through animation. However, even as this perception primarily exemplified his own self-
interest and that of the dominant American culture, it was likewise inextricably tied to 
Disney’s exemplary animated feature film. 
As an audience is introduced to So White (Snow White), again one views an 
adaptation of Disney’s version of the character. Although white, black, and red are 
evident in her appearance, even more so are the nation’s red, white, and blue. In 
Coal 
Black, 
Clampett morphed Disney’s image of Snow White, generating a character 
opposite. Her skin is not white, but black, and her attire is comprised of a white, short-
sleeved top, and a 
short 
skirt of blue with a red patch on the back. Where Disney’s Snow 
White is conservatively dressed, in a long skirt with a bodice and top of capped sleeves, 

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So White is dressed provocatively, deliberately meant to entice an audience. Her skirt is 
very short; her blouse, also with capped sleeves, is cut with a deliberately deep V.
Fig. 13 So White, Clampett 
So White’s shoes are also red high heels, where Disney’s Snow White’s are a more 
conservative style in muted beige. Gone is the black cape with the white collar which 
reminds a viewer of the Grimms’ earlier version of Snow White. White, red, and black 
are deliberately less significant than the American red, white, and blue that So White’s 
appearance screams. Where Disney inserted hints of this, it remained hidden under the 
cover of or within the white, red, and black of the Grimms’ and earlier American 
versions. In 
Coal Black
, Disney’s earlier character image had not been replaced, but re-
formed by Clampett, embellished on account of the American culture and animator’s 
vision it bespoke. The resultant image of So White attributes an American precedence to 
the tale, and while it discards any link to the tale’s past, it significantly recalls the Disney 
version. 

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Beyond the visual appearance of this character, one again recalls Disney’s initial 
scene engaging Snow White in a position of servitude, scrubbing the steps, only here So 
White is doing laundry. This scene becomes all the more reminiscent when the parodic 
So White gazes into the water of her washtub, just as Disney’s Snow White had once 
gazed into a wishing well. Both scenes offer the American enhancement of the tale 
which anticipates the romance to come, only, Disney’s Snow White, aligned with 
character representation of earlier tales can only imagine what it 
might
be to fall in love.
She is yet innocent, and the verbs she utilizes in song mark this quality. Snow White is 
“wishing,” “hoping,” and “dreaming” for her love to discover her (Disney). In contrast, 
So White, recognizing the prowess of her sexuality, is confident—“Some folks think I’s 
kinda dumb, but I know someday my prince will come” (Clampett). Contrary to those 
other “folks” opinions, So White knows that she is not “kinda dumb” when it comes to 
finding a suitor. She “
know[s]
[her] prince will come,” having a greater awareness of her 
sexual body (Clampett, emphasis added). Again, So White is reductively sexualized. 
This figuration persists throughout the course of 
Coal Black.
As such, loose and 
flippant expressions of So White’s sexuality are not only confused with the romance of 
this initial scene, but later with the more traditionally referenced compassion of the 
huntsman. In this version of