I’m the Only Black Resident of Disney Dreamlight Valley

And I doubt that will change anytime soon

My Dreamlight Valley avatar has a chat with the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella.

As a 1970 baby, I grew up during a time when classic Disney films were only available to watch in movie theaters on a rotating seven-year basis. There was no option to rent these movies for home viewing, much less stream them on demand. Video games where you could actually interact with these iconic characters were a very long way off.

So when I read about the early access release of Disney Dreamlight Valley in September 2022, I was intrigued enough to get a copy for my Switch. While I am an avid gamer, I very rarely pay for early access games. But the promise of being able to interact not only with Disney heroes, but with Pixar characters like WALL-E (one of my favorite films), sold me.

I’ve enjoyed this game for the most part. The play style is close to Animal Crossing, with enough differences to keep it interesting. When the first expansion was released in December 2023, I bought it even though I hadn’t yet unlocked all of the main characters.

But as Dreamlight Valley continued to receive updates — the ninth will be released this week — I couldn’t help but notice the complete absence of Black characters. Not just African Americans, but Black people from the African continent or from anywhere in the…