Second family suing Disneyland: Claims Donald Duck is racist

[Disney_Princess83]

Here is another one...

http:// www. examiner. com/article/second-family-suing-disneyland-claims-donald-duck-is-racist

Disneyland is being sued for the second time in a week by a family accusing its characters of being racist. First, it was a family that said the White Rabbit was being racist toward their children. Now, it was revealed on Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, that a different family has said they were discriminated against by Donald Duck because they are black.

Nastastia White has said that her husband took their son, Ryder, to Disneyland back in December to celebrate his birthday. They were having a great time in the park until five-year-old Razzi White walked up to Donald Duck to get a picture taken.

SEE: Family suing Disneyland claiming the White Rabbit is racist

It was then that, according to the family, Donald Duck snubbed Razzi and played with some other children, that were white.

Nastasia White told ABC 10 News that the person in the Donald Duck costume repeatedly ignored their requests to take a picture with Razzi and two-year-old Ryder. The family says that Donald just kept on playing with white children.

White said: "He was sitting there with his arms open, saying, 'Donald, Donald!'" But when Razzi went up to him he walked away to play with a white baby in a stroller.

White said they waited for a few minutes until Razzi's turn to be with Donald Duck came up, but the character continued to snub the kid. Nastasia White even said that the parents of a white baby noticed and told Donald to play with Razzi, but Donald still didn't want to do so.

After repeated attempts, the family moved on.

Nastasia said: "I was upset and hurt. He was very sad."

She told ABC 10 that Razzi asked her: "Why didn't Donald want to take a picture with me?" Nastasia said she could not answer her son because she felt so humiliated that "Inside, I wanted to cry. This was discrimination."

She claims that Donald's behavior was so brazen that it was impossible that the family misread the situation. She said: "I didn't [misread the situation] because it was done in a blatant and ugly way."

Dan Gilleon, the attorney representing the family, says that the Whites are suing Disney for violating "California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, and other qualities."

Gilleon is the same attorney representing the Black family that claims the White Rabbit ignored their children at Disneyland.

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[Mrs Eeyore]

I haven't had coffee yet so am compelled to make the following silly remarks. Forgive me. I promise to regret it after caffeine.

1. Note that the two perpetrators are white-skinned/furred/feathered. Coincidence?

2. Wasn't Donald also involved in a groping incident recently? He's obviously a problem duck.

3. How odd that the two families happen to be named Black and White.

Seriously, I am fairly sure that these characters have positive interactions with hundreds of people bearing the full spectrum of skin tones every day. I have a hard time believing that anyone could be singled out because of race in an international, multi-ethnic crowd like we see at the parks. I'd like to hear Donald's side of the story but unfortunately I've never been able to understand him. I suspect he'd quack something about the family not observing meet and greet protocol.

 

[ChoppityChops]

As an astute expert in people-watching, I've concluded that the vast majority of character "rudeness" (ignoring or mere cursory attention to particular children) is due not to their appearance or ethnicity, but to the way they (or unfortunately their parents) are behaving. I know. It's shocking.

 

[smiths02]

As an astute expert in people-watching, I've concluded that the vast majority of character "rudeness" (ignoring or mere cursory attention to particular children) is due not to their appearance or ethnicity, but to the way they (or unfortunately their parents) are behaving. I know. It's shocking.

Actually, the majority of ignoring I have seen is because the CMs in costume can't see or hear well.

Why don't these stories mention the handlers? Aren't there handlers with every character?

 

[RoyalMom]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this family may not have been waiting in line, perhaps walked right up? It may well be protocol for costumed characters to not react to line jumpers.

i don't know. not enough information.

 

[Disneykidsdad]

I haven't had coffee yet so am compelled to make the following silly remarks. Forgive me. I promise to regret it after caffeine.

1. Note that the two perpetrators are white-skinned/furred/feathered. Coincidence?

2. Wasn't Donald also involved in a groping incident recently? He's obviously a problem duck.3. How odd that the two families happen to be named Black and White.

Seriously, I am fairly sure that these characters have positive interactions with hundreds of people bearing the full spectrum of skin tones every day. I have a hard time believing that anyone could be singled out because of race in an international, multi-ethnic crowd like we see at the parks. I'd like to hear Donald's side of the story but unfortunately I've never been able to understand him. I suspect he'd quack something about the family not observing meet and greet protocol.

That's what happens when you let him run around with no pants on!

 

[11290]

Why don't these stories mention the handlers? Aren't there handlers with every character?

You seldom ever see a Character Attendant at Disneyland like you do at The World. Was really surprised the first time (2010) I went to DLR and Mickey & Minnie were just roaming free in Town Sq., not a Character Att. in sight.

Was back there a couple of months ago and characters just walking around alone throughout the park.

If we didn't have CA's at WDW the guests would rip the costumes off the characters.

Best I ever saw though, was the small boy, maybe 4, that brought some nuts in a sandwich bag to feed to Chip & Dale. Priceless.

 

[Ginny Favers]

That's not the families' real last name, is it? White? The other family's last name was Black.

 

[wdwmom3]

While it is very unfortunate that there are plenty of racist people out there so the story is possible. I find it interesting that there is no mention of them trying to contact disney management first to resolve the situation. I know that would be my first stop. The fact that they go right to suing Disney makes me very suspicious.

 

[disneyworld1977]

Weird coincidences with the last names. I haven't read this stories word for word but does seem suspect.


Oh by the way, Superman didn't hug me the other day at Six Flags, only the kids. I might sue him. And get this...my last name is Clark. Really!! That's a weird coincidence also!

 

[monorailrabbit]

This whole thing seems silly. I would bet it is either a case of
A. Characters honestly didn't see them (has happened to me and I am 5'3!)
B. Kids were line jumping, in which case the characters are supposed to not interact with them

Another thought I had. How do you know who is in the costume? I mean, how silly are they going to feel if it turns out it wasn't some white guy?

 

[jmartinez1895]

White said: "He was sitting there with his arms open, saying, 'Donald, Donald!'" But when Razzi went up to him he walked away to play with a white baby in a stroller.

White said they waited for a few minutes until Razzi's turn to be with Donald Duck came up, but the character continued to snub the kid. Nastasia White even said that the parents of a white baby noticed and told Donald to play with Razzi, but Donald still didn't want to do so.

After repeated attempts, the family moved on.

Sounds like line jumping to me. It looks like ( based only what is quoted above) that Razzi ran up to Donald before it was his turn because they said that they waied for his turn and the character "continued" to snub them.

 

[matthewclabaugh]

This whole thing seems silly. I would bet it is either a case of
A. Characters honestly didn't see them (has happened to me and I am 5'3!)
B. Kids were line jumping, in which case the characters are supposed to not interact with them

Another thought I had. How do you know who is in the costume? I mean, how silly are they going to feel if it turns out it wasn't some white guy?

It probably will turn out in both cases that a black guy was inside the costumes... then how will they claim racism?

 

[meowmarie]

You seldom ever see a Character Attendant at Disneyland like you do at The World. Was really surprised the first time (2010) I went to DLR and Mickey & Minnie were just roaming free in Town Sq., not a Character Att. in sight.

Was back there a couple of months ago and characters just walking around alone throughout the park.

We noticed the same thing as well, and it's what I remembered as a kid! I always thought I must have been remembering wrong, it was actually kind of cool to see them walking around, it really feels like you're in a fairytale land. At any rate, I want to see how this story plays out. I find the name coincidence really odd, I would say it's either a misunderstanding or they are flat out lying.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

We noticed the same thing as well, and it's what I remembered as a kid! I always thought I must have been remembering wrong, it was actually kind of cool to see them walking around, it really feels like you're in a fairytale land. At any rate, I want to see how this story plays out. I find the name coincidence really odd, I would say it's either a misunderstanding or they are flat out lying.

That's one of the things I find so magical at Disneyland. You're just walking around and suddenly Peter Pan is beside you, or any of the characters!

 

[Pandora5]

Something that always bothers me about situation likes this is that it's almost always the accusers assumptions without direct racial discrimination. They are suing because they "felt" or "assumed" that whoever was in the costume was a racist. They are pushing their beliefs on the character and suing because they feel wronged by those beliefs. In both stories, no words were exchanged and there is no way to know the reason the characters walked away. *The stories did not mention any conversation or explanation so I will not assume to know the reasons, however, the plaintiff clearly stated that they waited a few minutes and walked away.

Anyway, maybe it's because I work as a paralegal, I hear this stuff quite frequently from all races and/or I see so many people that are screwed out of justice because of the perceptions the general public has thanks to frivolous lawsuits, but I honestly get sick of stories like this. Yes, racial discrimination does take place and when it does it is usually pretty obvious with actual monetary damages but, without knowing the full details and ONLY basing my opinions on what has been reported, this suit seems to fall into the frivolous category quite clearly.

 

[Tinker1972]

That's one of the things I find so magical at Disneyland. You're just walking around and suddenly Peter Pan is beside you, or any of the characters!

This is one of my very favorite things about Disneyland! On our last trip, my 5 yr old son and I were walking out of the Pooh Corner store in Critter Country and suddenly Eeyore appeared, he waved at my son, then took him by the hand and they went for a walk around Critter Country. It absolutely made his entire trip! definately one of the best moments ever

 

[mm1971]

OK, so I read both articles and the "family attorney" for both says the only difference between who the character interacted with was race. I am betting Disney has the whole incident on camera and since we have yet to hear their side that both of these go away without much to do.

I'm trying to figure out what damages they are suing for. Maybe an autographed picture, a free vacation (to a place that is racist), life time passes (again to the same place), money. What are the damages or how do you prove intent here? Just another way to job the system. I do remember my DS when he was young kind of getting excited and running up to Goofy and not realizing there was a line (he was 4 people) and Goofy did not acknowledge him. Maybe I should have complained? or looked for a family attorney to complain for me?

Some things just don't add up to me. First, every line I have ever seen has been more than a "few" minutes to see Donald Duck. Second, with the monitoring and attitude Disney officials have about CM's being overly polite the CM would have a record of this behavior, right? And last, if you want to sue or raise a concern with Disney does it have to be in the media? I'm pretty sure you could get the story straight just by working it out in private and not going to the media and accusing a cartoon character of being racist.

How much is being ignored by a duck worth these days?

 

[going/again]

Sounds like line jumping to me. It looks like ( based only what is quoted above) that Razzi ran up to Donald before it was his turn because they said that they waied for his turn and the character "continued" to snub them.

Thats how I read it also

 

[EagleScout]

While I acknowledge it is likely there may be an innocent explanation for the two characters' interactions (the kid was cutting in line, or the character was literally oblivious to the situation due to wearing a bulky costume, etc.), there is also at least the possibility it was not so innocent. I had a very unpleasant interaction with a ticket-taker at MK with my family last year - it was not racially motivated (we are both white), but I assure you it was not very magical. As it was, I was motivated enough to send in a complaint and I did get a nice response from some high-ranking executive at Disney, which is all I wanted, but I have to admit that if I believed I was racially discriminated against, I might be very mad and out for my "pound of flesh".