News Disney plans to include a black Santa Claus at Walt Disney World this year as the company continues its diversity and inclusion program

comics101

comics101

Well-Known Member
I just want to point out that Disney has been doing a great job at representing the various Santa Clauses/holidays of different cultures and nations over at EPCOT, and as such this announcement/headline seems rather silly.

Are the Santas there racially diverse? Maybe not. A new pavilion or two could fix that, however. That's what I'd call REAL inclusion...
 
Dear Prudence

Dear Prudence

Well-Known Member
HauntedPirate said:
They are already changing the main characters in adaptations of several movies. There’s been a black Cinderella. Ariel is going to be black. So Disney has already shot down your argument of “character integrity”.

This thread has gone exactly where I thought it would go. So now…

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They cast Halle Bailey as Ariel because she is a stunningly beautiful girl who looks like a literal princess with an achingly beautiful voice that had hit the sustained G#6 like it's nothing. Casting anyone else as live-action Ariel would have been a disservice to the character. Halle has the same face shape and everything.
 
Gringrinngghost

Gringrinngghost

Well-Known Member
This is from Twitter. I have cropped the photo to show just Santa. Considering this is from Epcot Cast Services and has the photographer in it ( face is covered by emoji). I was uncertain on how much to share here, hence the crop.

EEAEEB3E-FA29-4058-840B-8A501C93E1BB.jpeg
 
Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
castlecake2.0 said:
If a character is THE character from the movie, then character integrity states they have to look like that character.

Santa in the parks is just “Santa”, and not from a specific film, so he doesn’t have to fit a specific look.
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But wouldn't it be a natural progression in their inclusion efforts to dispense with the traditional notions of character integrity in favor of color blind face character casting?
 
S

seascape

Well-Known Member
I dont get the problem anyone would have with this. Santa can look anyway he or she wants. Remember just last year a Disney movie said a women can be Santa. I have no problem of a White, Black, Brown, Yellow or Red skinned Santa. Plus Santa should speak all languages.
 
comics101

comics101

Well-Known Member
doctornick said:
If I may...

Many people have experience with already seeing Black Santas and would tend to view this as "not a big deal" or "Disney is behind the curve".

Other perhaps have not had that experience and are used to seeing only White Santas so encountering this in a theme park could be jarring and an adjustment.

My biggest question is how Disney will handle the inevitable complaints at the parks from the later group that will happen. Or perhaps how they will present this in general - do they try to provide some "warning" so that people who will care/complain can avoid or do they just roll him out and let the chips fall where they may? I'm not saying there's a "right" way to do it but I could see pros and cons for each option.

Eventually this will be something that will just be accepted by everyone and the "shock" for seeing something different won't be around anymore.
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I really wish Guest Relations complaints were available to the general public. I'd love to know how many people actually complain about the race of Santa Claus. My guess would be that the number of complaints regarding this topic is relatively small--and likely always has been. I very much doubt that 99% of guests have even given Santa's race a second thought, regardless of their own ethnicity.
 
correcaminos

correcaminos

Well-Known Member
DisneyCane said:
Santa wasn't based on St. Nicholas for appearance. The gift giving part was. The character being discussed here was a character that was created in Europe.

Things like this create more division than they do inclusion. I would fully support Disney coming up with a new character for a Christmas special who is Black or Hispanic and then including that character at WDW. That would be inclusive.
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Your Santa was not...

And sorry your comments are creating the division here. As an FYI Hispanics can be Black or mixed (married to one) and they also grew up with non-white Santas. That was my point. My house is a mix of a lot including Indigenous (but not of mainland NA tribes) and what some grew up seeing as Santa was never white as white Santa's didn't exist for them. It was whoever was able to portray Santa is how they looked. So again your experiences and background will shape you - that's reality. Asking to bring in another character is unnecessary since your version of Santa isn't the only one. Los Reyes Majos is big for many Latino cultures but they aren't Latinos - they were from across the ocean. They were not sought out to be of other countries, again who was there played them. This is a Puerto Rican Santa to prove my point - this person isn't white and those living on PR would never see one who is.

LKndOG4.jpg


As a Catholic my St. Nick is what I linked. I celebrate on actual St. Nick's day too.
 
Demarke

Demarke

Have I told you lately that I 👍 you?
Premium Member
My take is if they are trying to make real change and not score points with PR and press releases, just cast whoever you want (black, white, or otherwise) as Santa (or whatever other character), but don’t make a huge deal out of it. If a customer notices and asks, just say, “Well, that’s who we hired this year.”

Treating something as trivial as in-park casting decisions as something abnormal that requires major PR announcements keeps people from seeing things like this as normal, which is where I hope we are all trying to get to.
 
JohnD

JohnD

Well-Known Member
helenabear said:
Your Santa was not...

And sorry your comments are creating the division here. As an FYI Hispanics can be Black or mixed (married to one) and they also grew up with non-white Santas. That was my point. My house is a mix of a lot including Indigenous (but not of mainland NA tribes) and what some grew up seeing as Santa was never white as white Santa's didn't exist for them. It was whoever was able to portray Santa is how they looked. So again your experiences and background will shape you - that's reality. Asking to bring in another character is unnecessary since your version of Santa isn't the only one. Los Reyes Majos is big for many Latino cultures but they aren't Latinos - they were from across the ocean. They were not sought out to be of other countries, again who was there played them. This is a Puerto Rican Santa to prove my point - this person isn't white and those living on PR would never see one who is.

LKndOG4.jpg


As a Catholic my St. Nick is what I linked. I celebrate on actual St. Nick's day too.
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On St. Nick's Day (December 6), my church wouldn't portray St. Nicholas as the Coca Cola Santa but as a real bishop with a mitre (the funny looking pointing hat). But I digress. . .
 
Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
PrincessNelly_NJ said:
why do you think it has to be all or nothing?
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I don't think that... Frankly, if I had it my way, Santa would be portrayed by overweight older white men and Tiana would be portrayed by petite younger black women. That's how they are traditionally portrayed in their various media. Personally, I think it would be jarring to see characters in the parks we know to be a certain appearance portrayed differently than what we're used to.

I'm wondering what other people's thoughts are. I try to explore worldviews beyond my own. Too much of public discourse as of late occurs in echo chambers.

comics101 said:
I really wish Guest Relations complaints were available to the general public.
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Trust me, you absolutely do not want to see them. It would suck the humanity right out of you.
 
PrincessNelly_NJ

PrincessNelly_NJ

Well-Known Member
Brian said:
I don't think that... Frankly, if I had it my way, Santa would be portrayed by overweight older white men and Tiana would be portrayed by petite younger black women. Personally, I think it would be jarring to see characters in the parks we know to be a certain appearance portrayed differently than what we're used to.

I'm wondering what other people's thoughts are. I try to explore worldviews beyond my own. Too much of public discourse as of late occurs in echo chambers.


Trust me, you absolutely do not want to see them. It would suck the humanity right out of you.
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So characters must always be portrayed how you were taught to see them?
If we want to get technical, St. Nicholas was from modern day Turkey. He wasn't a white man.

Just as Jesus wasn't white either.
 
Gringrinngghost

Gringrinngghost

Well-Known Member
Disney Analyst said:
Well, I wish I was just as succesful and overrated. My goodness, he's a lucky guy for being so overrated! No talent at all. :rolleyes:
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Since it seems that I need to clarify myself because of my stance towards him. I think Lin-Manuel Miranda is over rated as much as so do James Corden.

Just because something you’ve done is acclaimed, doesn’t mean everything you do is gold.

When Lin-Manuel Miranda can write a show that he doesn’t cast himself as the lead, and the day James Corden isn’t thrown into a musical adaptation because of a TV skit. Then my opinions can change on those two.

I’m an equal opportunist to what I find is overrated.
 
nickys

nickys

Premium Member
castlecake2.0 said:
If a character is THE character from the movie, then character integrity states they have to look like that character.

Santa in the parks is just “Santa”, and not from a specific film, so he doesn’t have to fit a specific look.
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So why does that not apply outside of the parks? Why is this rule sacrosanct at Disney parks?
 

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