Of course not but do you really think that they are making a stand by changing theme park rides? The fact still remains that just because things have changed, does not in any way mean that things didn't exist in the past. Making a big deal because the natives look...well, native to their area and the explorers at that time were probably pretty light skinned is just trying too hard to pick out problems. I mean they can change it all they want, it really means nothing to me. I'm all for updates, I'm looking forward to the Tiana make over, but I'm not a fan of the politics behind it all because if they keep changing and pretending that time never existed beyond the year 2000, then we're going to have nothing left of the Disney we grew up loving. I just think it's helping to divide us, not bring us together.
Could someone say the same thing about people of color having separate public bathrooms. It's just a bathroom, right? Couldn't someone say the same about gay marriage. It's just a wedding, who cares, right? Are we only allowed to change the "big" things? Why can't the "small" things change, too?
If they didn't change Splash Mountain, would the world end? No. Will there suddenly be no more racism in the world? Of course not.
But everything we do, everything we say, and everything we create in our life culminates into one thing -- perception of intent. As people, we have a responsibility to be clear with our messages. What we say, what we wear, what we create, and what we do sends everybody a message about our intentions. Sometimes our intentions are aligned with reality. And sometimes they aren't. When people claim they are being mistaken for as racist, instead of defending themselves over and over again that they aren't racist, they should simply ask, "Why are people viewing me this way? Is it something I'm saying or doing that's causing this?" Because it doesn't matter what the real intent is. What matters is the perceived intent. If we want to be perceived as ourselves, we must be clear with our words and actions. And that takes work, because there are a lot of perceptions out there in the world.
Disney wants to be clear in its intent and so the perception aligns with it. There is no room for any sort of ties to anything that might have been racist. How is that bad? We do it as individuals all the time. I don't want any of my BIPOC students to think I'm a racist. I love them no matter what they look like, where they come from, what language they speak, or what they believe. So my actions and words must be in line with that. 100%. And when it isn't, I need to look inward and reflect on how my words or actions may have hurt someone, no matter how small and no matter what my intentions were. That's how we take care of each other. That's how we show respect for each other.
Perception is reality. And our intent must be deliberate and clear if we want to be perceived in the light we wish to be. No matter how small the changes are, Disney has made it clear that they are beginning to change antiquated rides based on (or tied to) racist ideas and content. They haven't done this for all of them, but these types of changes are slow and steady, not swift and quick.
My question is, why can we just let Disney take this stance and make these changes the parks? If it's such a small change, why make a big fuss about it at all? It's not about erasing the past or pretending it didn't exist. It's actually acknowledging the past and saying, "Nope, we don't want this in our parks anymore. We understand it may have been fine back then, but we know better now. It's not going to fix everything, but it shows people where we stand on the matter. So we are changing it."
I very much appreciate that we are allowed to have this conversation in a civil manner over the internet. Thank you for making me think more deeply about this! I'm always trying to learn and understand other people's perspectives.
