Another Removal At WDW

[fbb]

Someone used Orwellian words. What's happened is that one person finally pushed enough people to SEE what that flag means. What it has always meant. For decades the people who like the flag have convinced enough people that it was innocent so they could keep using it. But it's not innocent. Never has been. And now we see it.

If you choose to display it you go for it. But those who see it, now that the wool has been pulled from our eyes at long last, will end up seeing it as a sign of who you are. And there might be pushback about it.

And that doesn't mean it's groupthink. (Actually, convincing people that it's ok to fly at a Capitol is more of an example of that lol). Means we all finally see it for what it is.

Do you think that when Disney put it up in 1982 they were unaware of what it represented?

 

[WEDWDW]

Looking back now,it is shocking to remember that Disney actually had a resort named DIXIE Landings with Colonel's Cotton Mill food court!

I wonder if Splash Mountain will eventually have to be rethemed.

 

[Kalliope]

They might very well. Do you think they don't feel that way? My MIL grew up in occupied Korea and has some strong feelings still.

Or do you mean that they might have that feeling and get things changed at Epcot? Seems unlikely. Now if she went home to visit her sisters and found that a whole swath of Korea was waving some hybrid Japanese flag, her sisters (citizens of Korea unlike MIL) might get that changed.

Someone used Orwellian words. What's happened is that one person finally pushed enough people to SEE what that flag means. What it has always meant. For decades the people who like the flag have convinced enough people that it was innocent so they could keep using it. But it's not innocent. Never has been. And now we see it.

If you choose to display it you go for it. But those who see it, now that the wool has been pulled from our eyes at long last, will end up seeing it as a sign of who you are. And there might be pushback about it.

And that doesn't mean it's groupthink. (Actually, convincing people that it's ok to fly at a Capitol is more of an example of that lol). Means we all finally see it for what it is.

Speak only for yourself.

 

[Kalliope]

But the flag is real, and it's been used to hurt people.

The American flag has also been used to hurt people, should we remove that, too?

 

[nilla]

I am all for Disney being no less progressive than the governor of Alabama

 

[nilla]

I wonder if Splash Mountain will eventually have to be rethemed.

I doubt it, since SM doesn't cover any of the controversial parts of "Song of the South".

 

[Magpie]

Do you think that when Disney put it up in 1982 they were unaware of what it represented?

The Dukes of Hazzard was on TV in 1982. Just five years earlier viewers guffawed at Starsky and Hutch donning blackface in an episode titled 'Murder on Voodoo Island'. The only people bothered by the battle flag were either black or former activists like my mom. To the majority of Americans it symbolized the deep south, and specifically rednecks (which is why it ended up on the Duke boys car - it was a joke, a caricature, like Boss Hogg caricatured fat corrupt Southern lawmen).

Meanwhile, Disney imagineers (at the time, middle class, predominantly male and white) simply hung all the flags they could find pertaining to the history of the US. And the flag they hung was legitimately historical. But now it bears far too close a resemblance to the one waved by evil people, and so Disney is removing it.

Symbols change, just as times change.

 

[BlackMagicWoman]

Funny you bring up Japan as I have been thinking a lot of my grandfather lately and his time in Indonesia during the Japanese occupation of the East Indies. My grandfather's family was very wealthy and had all of their assests taken from them and placed in sweat camps where they were slaves for years.

That being said-- if Japan had a specific flag that they used during that time, specifically for the Occupation of the West Indies, and I saw it at Epcot's Japan I may not be happy and would bring it up. Otherwise, every country has done something they may not be proud of so you can't take that against the country's flag.

Great point. I think many visitors would be highly upset to see the Japanese Rising Sun Flag displayed. I think cultural ignorance is no excuse to display something highly offensive for no educational purpose. That being said in a fan of historical accuracy and would have no problem with its use in an historical context.

I also have no problem with people displaying it as part of their constitutional right. Of course I'm now free to make assumptions based on that much as I would someone walking around proudly displaying a swastika.

Oddly enough were someone to display an historically accurate flag, I would just assume that they were a history buff.

 

[Magpie]

The American flag has also been used to hurt people, should we remove that, too?

The American flag represents a country. The battle flag does not, and never did. It is, by its very nature, a divisive symbol. Perhaps, had it not been enthusiastically adopted by racists, it could have become a symbol of Southern pride. But there's no pride to be found in a symbol that excludes a good chunk of the Southern population.

And this is why we can't have nice things.

 

[nilla]

Perhaps, had it not been enthusiastically adopted by racists, it could have become a symbol of Southern pride.

And here is the main point.

 

[fbb]

And this is why we can't have nice things.

Disco Yeti would make a fine symbol for any number of hate groups

 

[boBQuincy]

Looking back now,it is shocking to remember that Disney actually had a resort named DIXIE Landings with Colonel's Cotton Mill food court!

I wonder if Splash Mountain will eventually have to be rethemed.

All the paperware in the DVC studios is "Dixie" brand.
Coronado was pretty bad, have to rename that resort too.

 

[Magpie]

Looking back now,it is shocking to remember that Disney actually had a resort named DIXIE Landings with Colonel's Cotton Mill food court!

You want shocking? Aunt Jemima was once a fixture at Disneyland:

http://davelandblog.blogspot.ca/2012/07/frontierland-rarities-pt-1.html

 

[Goddesstree]

The American flag represents a country. The battle flag does not, and never did. It is, by its very nature, a divisive symbol. Perhaps, had it not been enthusiastically adopted by racists, it could have become a symbol of Southern pride. But there's no pride to be found in a symbol that excludes a good chunk of the Southern population.

And this is why we can't have nice things.

At the time it was first used, it represented racism as well. The Kansas Nebraska Act, Bleeding Kansas, etc, the causes of the Civil War were based on the south wanting to extend slavery into the new territories, and the new Republican party trying to stop slavery from expanding. The only Southerners with that 'Southern Pride' were the white landowners. I don't think it could ever become the symbol of pride for an entire region.

Then, there's what one of the kids at school said, "That's the flag for the losers of the war, right?"