Loving Splash Mountain doesn’t make someone a racist

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Many people are upset about the closure of Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World. Of course, the internet is quickly jumping, calling anyone sad about the shutdown “racist.” In my opinion, this is simply absurd.

The idea that enjoying an attraction, made to be enjoyed, makes someone a racist is ridiculous. Disney knew basing an attraction on ‘Song of the South’ was probably a bad idea when they did it, but they would have had a lot of animal animatronics after ‘America Sings’ closed so they found a way to reuse in “Splash”. Mountain.”

Changing the attraction to be Tiana-themed probably wasn’t a choice made because of “racism.” The rumor that a “Princess and the Frog” retheme might happen at Splash Mountain had been going on for years. In Disneyland, Splash Mountain is located near New Orleans Square and the film is set in New Orleans. Disney has been switching attractions and adding attractions to push more IPs for quite some time now. Of course, they had been trying to do this for a long time. Usually, when the rumor surfaces, people demand that they not change it and they don’t.

When the 2020 incidents happened, Disney used current events to push through the changes. It’s no surprise since it’s Hollywood’s “go to” to use “racism” as a shield. If you don’t like something, it’s because you’re a “racist”. And that’s exactly what happened. It’s kind of cheesy to use something like this to push through a revamp they’ve wanted to do for years, but that’s how it goes.

Remember that Disney also replaced the Jungle Cruise natives with chimpanzees and removed Trader Sam to replace him with a Lost and Found from which he would sell items that don’t belong to him. Because it’s such an improvement.

But I digress.

Just liking an attraction that doesn’t actually exhibit “racism” doesn’t make someone a “racist.” Just like not liking a female character in a movie makes them a true “misogynist” (except on social media). Yet here we are. I keep seeing post after post attacking people for liking an attraction that’s been around for 30 years.

For many, it’s simply because they have family memories of the attraction. Or it was exciting for them when they were kids and they still love it. Some people just don’t like change. Others grew up on the stories of bred animals and they remind them of their childhood or a family member. (Guess what a lot of people who are sad about its closure aren’t white.)

Are some people legitimately racist. Yes. There are people who are, but the majority of people really aren’t. Social media tricks us into thinking fanatics and Nazis are around every corner, and most people aren’t.

If someone says they feel bad that the ride is closing, that doesn’t mean they’re “racist” either, it doesn’t mean that someone using a treadmill thinks it’s okay to torture people. prisoners, or that anyone buying products agrees with chemical warfare. Many things that we find without problem today come from a problematic place.

Things change, people change, society too. Many people have never even seen ‘Song of the South’. Many didn’t even know the characters were related to it. In fact, there were comics just about the characters with no connection to the controversial film. So the idea that enjoying a cute and fun attraction (which Disney presented that way) makes someone “racist” is as silly as saying that using a treadmill makes someone pro-torture.

Intention matters.

Calling people “racists” because they’re sad that something they love is being shut down is unfair and it diminishes the meaning of the word. It’s an easy way to fire someone, while pretending you have high character.

At this point, everything is debatable anyway. Disney closed the attraction for the reskin to what they had wanted to do for a decade.

Unfortunately, attractions change all the time, whether for better or for worse. That’s the nature of theme park business. I, for one, am curious to see what Disney creates, but I understand why many are mourning the loss of the old attraction. I won’t stoop to calling someone “racist” because they felt sad about it, because I know that’s dishonest.

Ultimately, I don’t envy Disney, because they’ll have to make the new attraction leagues better than the old ones. I hope they will. However, we are already seeing a lot of cuts from concept art to the D23 model.

Splash Mountain is set to have a new Princess and the Frog theme in Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. [Image: Disney]

But I know that if people don’t like the new version, even if they haven’t said anything about the old one being shut down, they’ll be labeled “racist” too.

It’s ridiculous.

Pirates & Princesses (PNP) is an independent, fan-powered news blog covering Disney and Universal theme parks, themed entertainment and related pop culture from a consumer perspective. The opinions expressed by our contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of PNP, its publishers, affiliates, sponsors or advertisers. PNP is an unofficial source of information and has no connection with The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal or any other company that we can cover.

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