My daughter is taking ballet lessons from a Russian teacher who uses many Russian children's songs in her lessons. Recently she sent me a link to one of my daughter's favorite songs, from a 1970 cartoon called Chunga Changa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbpkfzDE2Wk
The song is charming, but the animation and subject matter may seem racist to modern sensibilities. I am wondering how the USSR at this time viewed Black people, and/or Pacific islanders as I assume this was meant to be, and are those views reflected in media like this? (To clarify, I am not calling the cartoon racist, but it does reflect the views of a different time and culture, and I am interested in learning more about these.)
Also, if anyone can give any background information on this cartoon in particular, I would love to hear it, as I gather it was very popular.
This thread has several excellent responses which should be of interest to you, from /u/RevAndroid, /u/tickledonions, and /u/mikitacurve.