This
Spring
Break, I’ll be smack, dab in the middle of
one of America’s most combustible cultural
battlegrounds, Disneyland. Now check this
out; it’s going to be an interesting,
evolving, and all-so-telling moment in the
contrasting story of this internally and
eternally conflicted empire.
I
know, that’s a lot more going on at Disneyland than you ever
thought.
Understanding
everyone’s
isn’t a delusional Disney family as we are,
with over two dozen vacations/road trips
from Colorado to Disneyland/World. Let’s
quickly roll and stroll through this
controversy: Splash
Mountain
was, keyword -“was” an iconic water log
ride, based on a 1946 Disney motion picture
that blended animation and real actors set
in the
Land of Dixie,
and it painted and stained the slaves as
happy, content, something more akin to an
idealistic yet fake, false and fabricated
“normality,” rather than human beings
reflecting the horrors and trauma of 200
years of enslavement. Black folks at the
time found it insulting and belittling of
the real, actual, and factual Black
experience.
The
movie
was White-listed,
and
the ride has always maintained some level of
controversy.
Despite the characters being
animals, the racial connections, innuendos,
and slights were embedded, if you were hip
to the racist jive hidden in plain sight.
Nevertheless,
Disney
had an epiphany, came to their 21st-century
senses, regardless of what honestly fueled
them, and decided to
flip the script,
and re-theme the 30-year-old ride. Change
everything. It will now highlight, showcase
and feature a strong, beautiful, and
successful Black woman, along with a
“colorful” accompanying cast. It will be
titled, Tiana’s
Bayou Adventure and will open in
2024.
Everything, and I do mean every damn
thing, Trump and DeSantis’s despicable
disciples despise: Cultural diversity,
racial inclusion, and gender equality.
Now,
what
I deem as progress translates into “wokeism”
in the upside-down world of
Neo-Confederates.
Since
Disney
announced the righting of the ride, along
with the removal of all remnants, the
Southern defenders and sympathizers have had
their Crimson and gray tighties in a bunch,
running around like Chicken Little, whining
about how “the sky is fallin’!” It’s the end
of their fake, fabricated, and ridiculously
concocted fairy tale, in so, so, so many
ways that they’re losing their
tobacco-chewing minds.
Bottled water from the defunct ride
auctioned online for thousands of dollars. A
sit-in protest is planned for the week we’re
there. Good lord, I hope so, I’m launching a
podcast and this will be dynamite material:
interviews stuffed full of authentic
frontier MAGA gibberish articulated by
rednecks and hillbillies masquerading as
“real,” patriotic Americans.
As I mentioned earlier, this is but
one of this American Kingdom’s cultural
battlefields.
The
National
Football League is another place where
color, gender, and culture are clashing; Lamar Jackson, a Black
Quarterback in the National Football League,
is challenging the good ol’ boy system of
pimping and exploiting athletes. He is
demanding a “guaranteed” contract worth
roughly a quarter billion dollars, and the
billionaires are aghast. A Black boy,
demanding more?! How dare he! He ought just
to be grateful and thankful he is now,
today, allowed
to
play
the game, let alone occupy the most exalted
position on the field.
Million dollar gladiator slaves,
trillionaire owners….
Casual
sports
fan, please recognize the Quarterback, i.e.,
field
general,
signal caller, alpha male golden boy position has
historically been “off-limits” to Black
players. Black men were branded as
intellectually inept, unable to grasp
complicated offenses, and unequipped to
decipher complex NFL defenses. We were said
to lack leadership qualities because we are
void of character, grit, and integrity.
Black men didn’t measure up to be
leaders, have White men tell it.
Jackson taking this action,
demanding what he believes the gridiron
marketplace deems he’s worth, is akin to
Sidney Poitier returning the slap in the
face from the White aristocrat back in the
classic flick “In the Heat of the night.”
He’s
another
version of Colin
Kaepernick,
another proud, defiant, and “Uppity Nigger.”
Thank god! I love and revere uppity Black
folks, I’ve strived to be one my entire
life.
God bless you bra’, keep on keepin’
on, demand what you know you’re worth, break
the backs and wallets of those 21st-century
plantation owners who refuse to allow Black
folks into the ownership country club. These
are fat cats who break bread and chew the
fat with Donald Trump and other White
supremacists.
Understand casual sports fan,
Jackson, is exercising “Black Power” on the
cultural battlefield that is American
sports. He’s actually displaying never
really seen before “audacious” power in the
face of racist, sexist, elitist, and
xenophobic White men.
Back
at
Disneyland, the battle will just be
beginning. Next year when they reopen the
ride as Tiana’s ride, this empire will
witness a line drawn in the sand at
Disneyland. People will refuse to ride the
“woke” ride, and will attack and vilify
those who do. And guess what’s next? They’re
lighting their hair on fire because a
Mermaid Princess, Ariel, is being
depicted as Black, and God knows all
mermaids are White, right?
Boy,
this
is going to be something. Hang on!
