cooldisneyfacts:

stoprobbers:

Unless you are poor, brown, female, Jewish, or gay.

I’m not gonna tag this Disney cuz that’s rude, but I’m not into the Walt Disney worship I see here on Tumblr, or in real life. The man was a racist and sexist bigot who designed Disney Land as a tribute to a pastoral version of America that never existed. He placed it in Anaheim, where minorities who were too poor and marginalized in Southern California to, by and large, afford cars could not get to it, and instructed admissions employees to discourage them from coming. He refused to hire black or brown people except one woman who was forced to perform in near-minstrel capacity as Aunt Jemima in the Aunt Jemima Pancake House on Orleans Street. He also was a public supporter of some of the most vile anti-Semites in America.

You can talk about modern Disney and all the progress its made from these frankly nauseating beginnings, but holding Walt Disney up as some champion of individuality, self-expression, and self-esteem is a damn lie. He only wanted you to be yourself if you were white and middle class. 

I just want to say that this is absolutely false. I’m not saying it’s an outright lie, but it contains many hurtful misconceptions. First, Walt Disney was not anti-Semetic. This is a common misconception because he was once honored with an award from an organization that was predominately anti-Semetic. This does not mean that Walt hated Jews. Rather, he was very accepting of everyone. Many of his close friends and family were and still are offended by these accusations. Second, Walt would not “only want you to be yourself if you’re white and middle class”. Walt actually grew up in a family that struggled for money in Chicago. He came to California with his entire life savings in his pocket, about $20. Why would he look down on poor people if he grew up understanding what it’s like to not have enough money? Also, Walt was born in Chicago in 1901 to an Irish father and a German mother. I pride myself on knowing a lot about Chicago history, and I can tell you for a fact that minorities in Chicago in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s had a very poor standard of living. Most of them were immigrants and so they got all the jobs no one wanted to do. We can assume that Walt’s early life was very likely filled with him being looked down upon for being a minority. Like I said before, why would Walt look down on minorities when he himself knows how that feels? Third, Walt did not choose Anaheim as the location for Disneyland because there was an excess of minorities living there. Walt originally imagined Disneyland as a small carnival-like area next to the Burbank studios where Disney employees could take their children on the weekend. When he realized that this area would be too small, he hired a consultant who suggested that he purchase land in Anaheim because there was a lot of land and it was very cheap. Everything you are saying is very rude and offensive, and I’d encourage you to check your sources before slandering another person.

THIS^

(Source: helterskelter)