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Own Conclusions

My one and only trip to Disney was when J was about nine years old. Splash Mountain had been one of our favorite rides. Reading that is had been a controversial ride and needed replacement was quite puzzling. I had no idea of the history of the ride and don't think would care to learn about it either. There seems to be no point in taking an amusement park so seriously - families bring kids there to have a fun time and go on with their lives. All around the park I am sure a person could pick on things to get offended over. 

The whole thing is very Euro-centric so a person like me could take umbrage that my land and culture as ancient as it is does not have a place in Disney. Perhaps, my poor kid will not find a thing to anchor to that speaks to her roots and will come out forever damaged from the experience. And even if India got a spot in Disneyland, I am sure it will not be satisfactory to most Indians. This process of replacing things that have been around historically for good and bad reason with something new and unoffensive has no end. No matter what the replacement is, it is bound to get some set of people feeling upset and excluded. 

Disney has been criticized for racist tropes in films made in earlier decades. The crow characters from the 1941 film “Dumbo” and the King Louie character from 1967’s “The Jungle Book” were viewed as African American caricatures. The depiction of Native Americans in the 1953 movie “Peter Pan” and the Siamese cats — often deemed as Asian stereotypes — from the 1955 film “Lady and the Tramp” also have been derided.

Back home in India, lot of folks were offended by Kipling's Jungle Book because it was deeply disparaging of the natives and made the British out to be the ones to save our heathen souls - a pretty popular opinion outside India too. Notwithstanding, I remember quite fondly how we put up a Jungle Book production for our annual school play when I was about twelve years old. The whole school was involved from set design to costume making, setting up lighting and sound to auditioning for the multitude of roles. At the time, we were too young to have an opinion about Kipling or his racist tendencies - we just had a great time preparing for and putting on the show that allowed us to be creative. It would be great shame if the powers that be had decided Jungle Book need to be canceled and removed from our lives. We had plenty of time left to grow up and come to our own conclusions on the issue - why hurry the process. 

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