Disneyland is the latest amusement park to be criticized for an employee seemingly choosing to ignore a Black child.
A family visiting the park located in Anaheim, California managed to capture the debatable moment a little Black girl appeared to be ignored by an employee dressed as Princess Rapunzel. The little girl’s father posted the viral moment on Instagram on Saturday (July 30).
“Please repost this racist ass shit. Kids shouldn’t have to go thru this in 2022. Our money spends just like there’s just for them to treat our kids like they don’t belong,” he wrote while tagging popular blog sites, the Black Lives Matter movement and civil rights attorney Ben Crump.
In the video, a girl named Lauren is seen gleefully running towards Rapunzel. A woman not seen on camera is heard saying, “You gotta get in line, Lauren.” As the woman approaches Rapunzel’s attendant, she is heard inquiring about where the line starts.
The employee responded, “We don’t really have a line. We’re just walking around.” All the while, Rapunzel is seen interacting with other children who happen to be white. Just as Lauren approaches Rapunzel, the costumed employee and her attendant begin to walk to another area of the park.
“Wait, what about us? Wait! Rapunzel!” yelled Lauren while trailing behind the employees. The woman accompanying Lauren is then heard saying, “She walked off when she saw y’all just like the Elmo.” She goes on to confront Rapunzel. “Excuse me, ma’am. You waved at everybody except for them.” Reactions to the video range from outrage to at least one person giving Rapunzel the benefit of the doubt.
I’m so tired of little black children being disrespected by racist adults! #disneyland #Rapunzel
— Tori (@misstori34) July 31, 2022
@Disneyland @DisneyStudios @disney im sure ur aware of your racist cast memeber who plays repunzel. Like do DISNEY as a brand love sparking controversy??? Cus yall have been more than just racist, theres also pedophilia that always seemd to be overlooked. pic.twitter.com/DqjnqehuWb
— ♎️ALEXANDER♎️ (@DaThingsIwanna) July 31, 2022
I’ve recently been tagged in a video where a woman at Disneyland claimed rapunzel was being racist and ignoring her child and if I’m completely honest, I had a feeling more people were going to start doing things like this.
— Official Snack of HHN 🍫🍿 (@hecallsmePP) July 30, 2022
As previously reported by REVOLT, Sesame Place theme park in Philadelphia is at the center of a $25 million racial discrimination lawsuit. A Baltimore family is suing the Sesame Street-themed amusement park after a five-year-old Black girl was allegedly ignored by multiple costumed employees.
In a separate incident, the park was criticized when an employee dressed as the character Rosita seemingly ignored two Black girls. Viral footage of the incident showed Rosita waving at and high-fiving white children and an adult before bypassing the two girls.
Sesame Place attempted to smooth things over with the little girls’ family by issuing a statement and inviting them back to the park. Their efforts were met with more outrage from the family and people on social media.
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