A concerned father has shared a video of his children’s recent visit to Disneyland with their grandmother. In the video, Rapunzel seemingly ignores the only Black children in a crowd of guests.
The children run over to Rapunzel as soon as they spot her, and their grandmother tells them they need to get in line. The character attendant can be heard clearly advising the grandmother that there is no line and they are just “walking around.” Still, the princess is taking photos with another guest, so the children patiently wait at the side.
Rapunzel then walks off but continues to stop and visit with other children along the way. Roaming characters usually try to keep moving, especially if a crowd is starting to form. After a while of following her and the grandmother drawing attention to the children having been ignored, she appears to finally look at them at the end of the video.
You can watch the Instagram video below.
This comes on the heels of a similar incident at Sesame Park, which is now the subject of a racial discrimination lawsuit.
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The little girl says: “Wait! What about us?” To hear that little innocent voice ask that question to Rapunzel and Rapunzel simply ignore her, walk away, and greet another set of non-black children, is truly heartbreaking! :-( The video needs to go viral and put Disney on notice! Moreover, the CM handler was ineffective! Awful optics indeed! All families need to record these interactions.
This is a no-win situation for anyone. Once the adult starts making comparisons to the other park aloud the Princess is not going to stop just to be dragged into an argument about race. As I understand it when it’s time to go the characters face or fur can’t just wait until people stop coming up to her. There is a set time for her to be there and she may have hit that time just as those people walked up. Rapunzel did acknowledge the child’s comment about her long hair while giving an autograph. What I find distressing is that the child is being taught to recognize that the event at the parade the other day was racism and what happened to this girl and that girl is the same and call it racism. No child her age should be looking for anything like that.
My thoughts exactly!! The parent is making her children feel less than with comments like tht
My thoughts exactly! She acknowledged the children immediately when they cut in front of the others and made the comment about her hair. This woman/parent is making her children feel less than with remarks/accusations such as those
Playing the race card!
The child CUT in line and then continued to get in front of other guests who waited in line.
STOP with the fake outrage.
No story here other than people trying to make something out of nothing.
This is what I saw too…
There was NO line. There were walking around the park! Even the employee that was walking with the “princess” said so.
In the video they said there was no line
From what it looks like in the video, Rapunzel was already greeting other guests when the IG poster’s children arrived. She stopped to take one last photo with a guest who was already standing and waiting before the poster’s children were there.
There’s also no context in the video of how long Rapunzel had already been greeting guests before they arrived, and if the character was due to head backstage at that point, Disney does not mess around with that.
Unfortunately, disappointments sometimes do happen at Disney, and it’s probably better to prepare for them when they happen. What’s troubling is that the repeated mentioning of the Elmo incident by both the mother and the children make it seem like the mother has been coaching her children (or at the very least it’s been a topic of discussion at home), and the tagging of a civil rights attorney makes it seem like the mother was more interested in taking advantage of an unfortunate situation instead of looking for another opportunity for her child to meet the character at a different time.
Exactly. Those characters have to keep moving. They can’t stop and stand in one place for a long time to take photos with every kid that runs up. The crowd gathering would be too large and it would start to block others trying to get through. Part of their job is to keep moving through the park. The last young girl that had her picture taken with Rapunzel before she moved locations had already been standing there waiting for her turn. The black children in question just ran up at the last second. The Elmo incident started the trend of suing parks for racism. I saw another incident just earlier today where a mother claimed Chuck E. Cheese did the same thing and the manager tried to explain that the person in the costume probably didn’t see her daughter due to the head piece of the costume, but she wasn’t hearing it. If judges start allowing these kinds of frivolous lawsuit then it will set a dangerous precedent.
Well then they should keep moving when it’s Caucasian kids as well.
I would have agreed with you if she hadn’t stopped for other kids after walking away. It is odd that she did that and not kept walking.
The children cut in front of those that were already taking photos/being greeted and proceeded to do so even after the mother instructed them to wait their turn. The character very much acknowledged the children when one of them commented on her hair. The mother, within seconds made it about race and made her children feel less than in the process…are we really questioning why this woman did not respond to these children while this woman was carrying on like this?!
They do. But Caucasian people cannot play the race card, so you’ll never hear about it. They just move along and explain that not every child can be given personal attention by these characters. It only becomes a big deal (and “racist”) when you’re out looking for lawsuit opportunities.
And they do the same for spanish,asian,indian etc. I have never had an issue with Disney characters and my BLACK family.
For crying out loud. surely this copycat scam can’t be getting any coverage on this site. seriously? all of a sudden there’s going to be a rash at every theme park of it characters who have almost no visibility and a costume intentionally ignoring black children?? after a parent sues for $25M??? everybody wanting their piece of the action.
Come on wdwnt, be better than this.
We are just providing the news, there’s nothing to “be better” at in this situation. The video was getting a lot of attention, so we posted it. The story has both sides, you as the reader can decide what you want to believe.
No Tom, They’re right. Be better than this. it’s OBVIOUS there’s NO racism here and you’re reporting on it like there’s legs to this story…
It’s our job to present both sides, not to “be better”.
This is getting ridiculous now…
Aside from the fact that face characters have a handler and the fact that they can only be out and about for a certain time and the fact that they have a defined route to ram in that time…sure. Could be racially motivated….
There is nothing racist about this video. I noticed the mom mentions “just like the Elmo” as if she knows she can get a rise out of people by doing so. When characters are walking around they pick and choose a few children to stop and visit with, usually one or two, they don’t visit with a whole line of children. This mom saw the Sesame Street Place incident with Rosita, which was racist, and now is trying to get her fifteen minutes of fame and $25 million dollars.
One of those kids cut between guests and Rapunzel twice. I feel sorry for those kids because it will be the last time Disney allows them in the parks. Too bad the video was cut off when it was their turn to meet Rapunzel, because logic tells you she interacted with them. Call Ben Crump and see if he takes the case. This is really a bad example to set for those kids.
There is a lot of racism in this country but the Sesame Place event was NOT racism. Until you work in these jobs, dancing in a parade in 100° heat in a costume, minimal visibility, understanding blocking in the parade, and the safety guidelines that not only keep the Character safe but also the guest, please stop judging.
The mother shouldn’t let her kids skipping the line point- they came in from the “exit” part of the line basically interrupting other kids that were waiting and were in the middle of their “conversation” with the character- Bringing the racism card is ridiculous – Just wait in line for your turn
Oh my friggin God. I’m Black. This is a WDW newbie calling race. RAPUNZEL WAS OVER. IT WAS DONE. It was BYE for EVERYBODY.
This is something not unique to Disne. I think it’s systemic (although denied)in our country. It’s just more visible at Disney.
We were waiting for the evening parade on Main Street, in front of the plaza, a prime spot for photos. An Asian family with a young child asked the Disney photographer to do their photograph. She responded “sure”, not very enthusiastically. She took three photos and said “done”.
The next group (Caucasian with two young children came up. The same photographer responded with enthusiasm, had the family do at least a dozen poses, and sent 5hem off with a nice farewell.
It’s hard not to think there is some level of preferential treatment going on.
PAYDAY!!!!
She is waving to the people IN FRONT OF HER! You’re yelling at her from behind. I wouldn’t turn around either. Also you can clearly see at the very end she looks at your child and says hi. WHY DID YOU CUT THE VIDEO OFF THERE. Let’s see what happened next.
Ariel did this to my daughter at Disneyland last time we were there. My daughter isn’t black. I think they have some weird rules about how long they can be in one location before moving on. It’s also very noteworthy that it wasn’t just “white kids” that she was waving at. She also stopped near the end of the video to say hi to some kids that aren’t white. Then she turned to the black girls at the end, I assume to say hi, and the video cut off. What happened after this?
She’s not the only one this has happened to and is not the only race that this has happened to. It’s frustrating for everyone that experiences this and sad for all the little kids that want to meet the princesses that don’t get to. But I’ve seen this happen for years and years where characters will leave no matter how big the line is. It happened back in 2001 when I went for Christmas and my aunt chased Pluto down as he was leaving. It’s just how it is.
All I’m gonna say is this – WDWNT is here to present the story and leave a gap for people’s opinions. It’s not something that can be targeted toward them, not that at all. Recently, things have been hard to process. Too much for me, at least.