Racist Disney Fan Site Exposed

[schoolofsoul]

Popular Disney fan site MiceChat.com likes to think of itself as tolerant, particularly in light of the fact that it's run by two gay white men, but it has a secret history of hypocrisy and racism at its core, and a tremendous intolerance of Black and other non-white perspectives, especially when those perspectives come into conflict with white

Comments

[tamburlaine]

OOOH. Thanks for posting this. I think it was with you that I had a conversation with a little while ago about how, though we loved the Tia Dalma character, the whole "magical negro" aspect and colonialism clichés were such a turn-off and borderline motherfuckin' offensive.

But I'm not gonna go join that site, because I don't need anymore internet fights under my belt. But if people start talking about the characterization of Tia Dalma, let me know, cause I'll get in on that.

[deepseasiren]

I also thought there was the aspect that she was seen not only as magical/voodoo queen but as overtly sexual...something which black women have been portrayed as since the days of slavery.

[schoolofsoul]

Nah, actually most of the folks there were cool with the Tia Dalma character; some were saying she was their favorite and all - although when the rumor that Tia Dalma might be added to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland (in the Blue Bayou section at the start of the ride) was mentioned in one of their sister sites' articles (MiceAge.com), many thought it would ruin the ride and make a lot of noise, where it's currently very quiet. I thought that type of knee-jerk reaction was a bit telling, and probably not a little bit racially tinged

[schoolofsoul]

You make a very good point. As it is, I've been banned from MiceChat (even though my popularity was increasing, going from the positive rep I was getting), which is a bit of a shame, because it's an otherwise good board that can be very entertaining and informative. There are decent people on the site who, for whatever reason, are just reticent to discuss more serious issues. The ones who are willing to discuss mature subjects are either 1. smart alecks who don't know anything but think they do, or 2. more secure people who are willing to address it but tend to be in agreement or don't often elaborate enough on an issue to make it worth pursuing.

[schoolofsoul]

I know exactly what you mean about kids (and others) thinking forums are places to be all chirpy (I like that phrase, too, it's perfect).

The fact that it was a Disney forum - that had been asked of me by one moderator early on - "you're aware that this is a DISNEY forum, right?" - but considering that they're willing to talk about plenty of other non-Disney-related topics pretty much rendered that argument moot. As for the age range on the site, it's all over the place, from teenagers to people in their 50s and 60s. Some of my critics were younger, some were older, a few were around the same age (I'm in my early 40s). Some of the arguments in rebuttal were reasoned (even if I disagreed with them), others were clearly emotional. Much of it was of the "tit-for-tat" variety of argument (which I'm well-versed in myself), others were just heckling and mocking. Thread hijacking happened more than once. Mods only stepped in when I'd request that a thread be closed. Just not a good way to run a board.