It’s A Small Minded World After All…
Alex Yarde & family only travels five star to Disney, it insures a better class of bigot.
My wife and I are big fans of DisneyWorld. Not a huge surprise for people our ages. We both fondly remembered the Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights back in the day. Families gathered ‘round and watched fatherly old Walt in his comfy sweater welcome us and spin original tales concocted by him and his army of “imagineers” or lifted from hundred year old Grimm fairy tales. (intellectual property rights long open to the public) Benign, fanciful magically realistic stories about underdog race cars with human emotions, alien siblings on the run with special powers or proper English nannies that flew over rooftops and hobnobed with chimney sweeps. Interspersed by pitchman extraordinaire Walt Disney himself as he laid out plans for his grand amusement parks, upcoming feature films and technological innovations of the future. We were mesmerized by Disney’s vast media & entertainment empire that all started with an ancient short featuring a little black mouse. That Mickey, the black mouse, was clearly the hero and, his nemesis was typically the half crazed white duck Donald, I took subversive, metaphoric delight in.
Like many parents of our era, raised on a steady diet of Disney’s universally appealing feel good propaganda and annual trips to the Magic Kingdom and later EPCOT Center, looked forward to share the tradition of the bi-annual family pilgrimage. Our kids reached that sweet spot of being old enough not to be terrified of beloved characters in their animation accurate, heat stroke inducing, costumes and young enough not to shrug off the whole experience engaged with other cybernetic tween cynics. We ONLY book the five star on-property Disney resorts. My reasoning in a minute. From the second you check in, a concierge in the plush lobby with tv monitors playing old cartoon favorites surrounded by child sized couches, tables & crayons will bend over backwards to appease. Disney makes a science of catering to needs of Disney guests and are uncanny in their routines, a parade every 30 minutes, characters and their handlers in mapped kiosks for autographs (autograph books available in gift shops every 20 yards) It’s a well oiled machine of commerce and capitalism with a smile! The highest Disney executive and newest vendor all attend the same training. Always smile, never say “no” to a guest, pick up any piece of refuse in your vicinity. A family friendly “Westworld” staffed with kindly human hosts, all wearing uniform name tags and where they’re from. You are always on a first name basis in “The Happiest Place on Earth”!
Getting back to the why of staying at the upscale Disney resorts. Our proven, time tested theory, going five star keeps you among the rarefied air of white people who, though they may harbor the same prejudice and biases of Floridian locals or the economically challenged “white working class”, at least have the restraint not to engage my family in a way that is decidedly not “Disneylike”. “The bubble” that high end Disney guests enjoy is what we pay for. I want my family treated with due respect and in a way that doesn’t break the illusion that they are full citizens and recognizes their franchise. Disney Resorts are “safe zones” in a way that increasingly plane rides, trips to Starbucks or waiting in line at random checkouts in Trumps America are not. The lack of decorum and just plain blatant racism on display is off the charts. You may ask yourself, “Why are you so paranoid? Surely not every white person you encounter is a closet Trump supporter!” Well, 49 percent voted for Trump, while 45 percent voted for Clinton. 54 percent of college-educated white men voted Trump. 45 percent of college-educated white women chose Trump, while 51 percent chose Clinton. This is the only white demographic tracked by the exit poll that Trump didn’t win. So odds are pretty good half of them did. Sorry white folks, you are a demographic just like everyone else. My tolerance for white nonsense around my children is nil. My wife, who is white, grew up in Iowa and after a lifetime of navigating all white spaces is very familiar how clueless white peolpe can be. As the mother of black children she’s more “Hotep” than I am, you Do. Not. want to mess with her babies. Atlanta artist Cory Thomas illustrates the strange new reality of everyday life after Trump’s victory. Comic:Being Black in White Spaces After The Election. Though frankly, I’m immune to your bullshit. I’ve been called everything but a Child of God. But, my kids don’t need to hear some racist nonsense while on vacation at Disney World because you don’t have the common sense to keep that shit to yourselves.
My kids know what time it is. They are empowered and they are very aware that mommy & daddy are different colors, grew up differently and they have a diversity of family members that love and cherish them that have roots in Barbados, Hawaii, Germany, Ireland, Italy and China. And they appreciate those differences. My fear that in Trumps America, they will be exposed to blatant, unfiltered hatred in public is hard to shake. “The talk” that black and bi-racial families have about how the world works outside their protective family bubble we’ve already doled out in age appropriate installments.
Because it’s tough for children of color in all white spaces my wife and I encourage our kids to find kinship, positivity, love and mentorship within all black spaces. Newark, though 20 minutes away, a huge gulf lies between the “Renaissance City” & Maplewood, the setting they’ve become accustomed to, and because we make it a point to have extra curricilar activities in and around Newark they don’t trip when outside our idyllic little hamlet. That many white friends and neighbors of ours don’t understand why this modality is nessiary, only underlines the need for my kids to explore and embrace their unique “blackness” which is different than mine, but just as valid. Black people in America are amphibious. We can survive and even thrive under the right conditions, in all white spaces. We have little choice. White people for the most part at a certain socioeconomic level don’t have to deal with black people at all. We MUST deal with white spaces because this country is white supremacist. Turn on the TV. Watch a film. Read a book. Particularly a children’s book. Who gets the lion share or representation? Who’s views and culture are validated overwhelmingly? Who’s Historical triumphs are celebrated? Who makes the news, positively? Who gets to be an “A Student” smiling class picture vs. who’s “A Thug” with mugshot all other things being equal outliers aside? Who’s views are dissected, explored and validated? Even the insane ones like the “Are Jews People?” gem CNN gave airtime to recently. Who gets to be “Working Class” and who gets to be “Working Poor?”
I’ve said it many times, Media is both a mirror that shows who is valuable in society and a window into others lives that underlines their value. The “Black Lives Matter” movement didn’t arise from a wellspring and abundance of justice and equality that Black Americans have experienced for 400 years in the Americas. Even idyllic Disney in my day totally catered to White Christian Americans. Less so today, but it’s painfully slow going. Marvel Studios, owned by Disney, recently found itself in controversy surrounding casting of Tilda Swanson in the role of “The Ancient One” a Tibetan Monk. The role was whitewashed and Tibet itself was erased to appease Chinese markets. So my wife and I are challenged as parents to teach our kids to have pride in their unique heritage and to survive & thrive in both black spaces and white spaces. To make connections in the spaces of others that are non white and vet white friends carefully. We consciously ensure they are part of all black or POC activities and spaces so they can navigate and find comfort. Today, it’s a Small Minded World. Made ever smaller by the encroaching tide of both normalized bigotry of the trailer trash & buffoons empowered by Trump and indifference of those that travel five star, speak like allies and may be as privately bigoted, but at the very least they have enough class not to harass my family in public.
