Family claims white rabbit refused to touch kids (Disneyland)

[Gabe1]

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013...eyland-character-refused-to-touch-their-kids/ (corrected link)

Disneyland....but I thought it was worthy of discussion

Don't make this a racial discussion please - I just think its another way for someone to get money from Disney and unfortunately they are using this as the issue. what do you think

I think it is difficult not to make it a racial discussion as the family tossed out the race card to Disney and the Media, the court suit and delineated between treatment received between two races. A money grab likely with the cherry on top 'fire the White Rabbit.' I would love the irony if the character wasn't white under that costume.

I know through the years characters treated my two kids differently, when my DD was smaller and shy they didn't touch her, as my son aged he didn't think it was cool to touch or be touched with the characters, these CM's are reading a lot of body language on the fly. Look at the boy in the photo, is he reaching out to the Character, no he has his arms folded tightly in front of him. If the character grabbed him in the boys stance that would be awkward. It also shows Rabbit's hands moving, so you don't really know what Rabbit was doing to entertain. Leaving Disney out of it, that stance doesn't say come hug me if he was a friends kid, or a nephew. Bet Disney Legal will be consulting with a body language expert.

$500 is more or less a refund for 4 people and expenses for the day. VIP pass, makes your day more enjoyable for the disappointment. Kiss'n on 'em, as the boy seems to say, sounds like the other family could sue for assault. Geesh.

 

[Witchy Chick]

Jason and Annelia Black of San Diego County said the person in the rabbit costume also acted impatiently as their young kids posed for a picture at the Anaheim theme park.

Oh good grief. How did he act impatiently? By maybe........oh I don't know......looking at his watch a lot??

He's the White Rabbit -- he's in character as being "late for a very important date."

 

[HatboxGhost]

So, what is going to happen when, in court, the CM who is in the White Rabbit costume, takes off their headpiece and it is revealed that it a black man or woman? That is NOT a joke......it COULD happen. Then does the family suddenly change their tune? What does it become then?

 

[bsiev1977]

I just looked at the photos of this story. I'm now pretty confident in believing that this family is full of crap. The parents have been waiting their whole lives to sue someone for racism, so they took this opportunity. As i've said before, Disney makes themselves look bad by immediately offering the Blacks anything. It makes them look guilty.

 

[ReganA]

I think I remember this episode from Curb Your Enthusiasm.

 

[thomas998]

Characters will typical give children the cold shoulder if they have either cut a line or abused the character, I'd love to see these "tapes"...

Looks like the family wanting to sue doesn't have any tapes to back up their claim. I would love it if some other person there happens to have a tape of the horrible event and could shed light on it. I wouldn't be surprised if the kid was one of those notorious line jumpers that got brushed off as quickly as possible... Of course what I would really love to happen is to find out that it was a disabled gay black guy in the rabbit suit.

 

[thomas998]

I'm not even saying it was necessarily a set up. Just at maybe this family misconstrued how the rabbit was interacting with the kids.

By jumping to pay them off, Disney makes themselves look guilty regardless of what really happened.

Sadly I've known my share of blacks and gays that walk around looking for discrimination. I've found in life that you find what you are looking for whether it really exists or not.

 

[thomas998]

I agree, people will sue for anything, but honestly, I'd say they have a legit complaint.

Really? You think they have a legit complaint? Well then by those standards any guy that ever asks a girl out and gets turned down has a legit complaint about being discriminated against, right? I mean there would be as much evidence there as in this case.

 

[Zman-ks]

I think I remember this episode from Curb Your Enthusiasm.

lol...totally sounds like it.

 

[EOD K9]

Perhaps it has to do with the month of February

What IS racist is that the month celebrating a culture's heritage is the shortest month of the year. To feel less slighted, the shortest month of the year should never celebrate a culture. My two cents!

People will sue for anything nowadays.

In fact, I'm going to sue Disney because Mickey Mouse looked at me funny.

I'm suing because Mickey DIDN'T look at me. I feel unwanted. Can I get some VIP passes?

 

[bsiev1977]

What IS racist is that the month celebrating a culture's heritage is the shortest month of the year. To feel less slighted, the shortest month of the year should never celebrate a culture. My two cents!


I'm suing because Mickey DIDN'T look at me. I feel unwanted. Can I get some VIP passes?

Before I visit WDW in December, I guess I need to research my genealogy so I can find out what aggrieved group I can claim membership in so I can get some kind of freebie for no good reason.

 

[Aulani_Princess]

My first reaction when I saw the pictures was "look at the age difference!" I'm seven years older than my brother. When he was four and we went to Disney we took separate pictures. Mine are all either the characters with arms behind me in a weird pose or a couple (cause I liked to kiss Tigger and a couple villains) hugging me. But, my brother was always hugged and played with. Last time we went, about a month ago, I could have been invisible because they were focused to interacting with my 18 month old son. Do I get to sue for being ignored? Many of the older kids put off this vibe of "I don't wanna be touched" so they don't. Even looking at the pictures, the white kids look younger, which could explain it.

They are also standing IN FRONT of the character. They can't see out of the sides of their masks, as my son learned the hard way when I went up first show him Sulley wouldn't hurt him. He ran FROM THE SIDE to grab him and reached the poor guy before my husband caught him. You could tell it startled him a bit to suddenly have something grab his leg but we picked up our son and brought him in front of the mask to make it easier for him to see, plus I was able to tell him my son was running over (all be it second before contact was made). Even then, there were a couple times my son really wanted to hug a character or something and the next kid started walking up while we were putting him down next to the character. He couldn't be seen and I believe that the character thought we'd left. We just asked the CM running the line, "Hey, we were putting him down but (blank) thought we were leaving. Our son really wants to hug him good-bye. Can he sneak up real fast after this one?" Most of the time they understood, that A. we were next to the character out of their vision and B. our son is only three feet tall anyway. Most of the time they let him run up and hug them, after telling them what happened, and then let the next person go. Plus, the next person in line often understood as well.

I wonder why they didn't just speak up when they were there instead of being quiet. I mean, we've asked stupid questions ("Can the Beast please sign!" being one my brother asked) and the CMs were really nice in explaining the answers. (One even said she was his personal scribe and could sign for him because his paws were having trouble with pens).Without video it's hard to tell. I know one article said that the White Rabbit twirled his finger as if trying to hurry them up. My reaction, if I saw that, would be "Ok. He can't talk... It's not exactly cold out... we're in the sun... he probably is trying to signal the CM he needs to go inside for a minute to cool off." Not "Why is he rushing my kids!" When they can't talk, hand gestures are the only way the communicate. I think there was a massive misunderstanding going on.

 

[bsiev1977]

My first reaction when I saw the pictures was "look at the age difference!" I'm seven years older than my brother. When he was four and we went to Disney we took separate pictures. Mine are all either the characters with arms behind me in a weird pose or a couple (cause I liked to kiss Tigger and a couple villains) hugging me. But, my brother was always hugged and played with. Last time we went, about a month ago, I could have been invisible because they were focused to interacting with my 18 month old son. Do I get to sue for being ignored? Many of the older kids put off this vibe of "I don't wanna be touched" so they don't. Even looking at the pictures, the white kids look younger, which could explain it.

They are also standing IN FRONT of the character. They can't see out of the sides of their masks, as my son learned the hard way when I went up first show him Sulley wouldn't hurt him. He ran FROM THE SIDE to grab him and reached the poor guy before my husband caught him. You could tell it startled him a bit to suddenly have something grab his leg but we picked up our son and brought him in front of the mask to make it easier for him to see, plus I was able to tell him my son was running over (all be it second before contact was made). Even then, there were a couple times my son really wanted to hug a character or something and the next kid started walking up while we were putting him down next to the character. He couldn't be seen and I believe that the character thought we'd left. We just asked the CM running the line, "Hey, we were putting him down but (blank) thought we were leaving. Our son really wants to hug him good-bye. Can he sneak up real fast after this one?" Most of the time they understood, that A. we were next to the character out of their vision and B. our son is only three feet tall anyway. Most of the time they let him run up and hug them, after telling them what happened, and then let the next person go. Plus, the next person in line often understood as well.

I wonder why they didn't just speak up when they were there instead of being quiet. I mean, we've asked stupid questions ("Can the Beast please sign!" being one my brother asked) and the CMs were really nice in explaining the answers. (One even said she was his personal scribe and could sign for him because his paws were having trouble with pens).Without video it's hard to tell. I know one article said that the White Rabbit twirled his finger as if trying to hurry them up. My reaction, if I saw that, would be "Ok. He can't talk... It's not exactly cold out... we're in the sun... he probably is trying to signal the CM he needs to go inside for a minute to cool off." Not "Why is he rushing my kids!" When they can't talk, hand gestures are the only way the communicate. I think there was a massive misunderstanding going on.

That is a perfectly logical way to look at this. Unfortunately, not all people think logically. There is a segment of our population that goes day to day waiting to be "discriminated" against. They want it to happen, so they can confirm what they've always believed. They want it to happen so they can sue and get some easy money.

Like a lot of you all have said, just looking at the photo, that kid is not putting out the vibe of wanting to be hugged at all.
But at least now Al Sharpton has something to do again.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Before I visit WDW in December, I guess I need to research my genealogy so I can find out what aggrieved group I can claim membership in so I can get some kind of freebie for no good reason.

Before you go and say something ignorant like this again, you should know many people, mainly minorities are targeted, have experienced racism and have been pre-judged before. Treatment like this is unfair and if people want to speak up about it, let them. I'm black and I remember one day going to the mall with my two friends, one was black, the other white. My white friend stole something from every single store we went to. Shirts, pants, jewelry, you name it. In the last shop we went to, she had stolen a cell phone accessory. As we were walking out, with bags mind you, an employee stopped me and my black friend and asked us to open our bags and show her our receipts, while she let our other friend, the one who was actually stealing, walk out the door. I was in middle school, and I was scared to say something. Now, I wish I would have said something and I still regret it to this day. Crap like this happens everyday.

I don't know what happened to the family, as I wasn't there. If they feel they were mistreated in any way, they shouldn't be scared to say something.

 

[captainkidd]

Really? You think they have a legit complaint? Well then by those standards any guy that ever asks a girl out and gets turned down has a legit complaint about being discriminated against, right? I mean there would be as much evidence there as in this case.

Worst analogy ever.

 

[bsiev1977]

Before you go and say something ignorant like this again, you should know many people, mainly minorities are targeted, have experienced racism and have been pre-judged before. Treatment like this is unfair and if people want to speak up about it, let them. I'm black and I remember one day going to the mall with my two friends, one was black, the other white. My white friend stole something from every single store we went to. Shirts, pants, jewelry, you name it. In the last shop we went to, she had stolen a cell phone accessory. As we were walking out, with bags mind you, an employee stopped me and my black friend and asked us to open our bags and show her our receipts, while she let our other friend, the one who was actually stealing, walk out the door. I was in middle school, and I was scared to say something. Now, I wish I would have said something and I still regret it to this day. Crap like this happens everyday.

I don't know what happened to the family, as I wasn't there. If they feel they were mistreated in any way, they shouldn't be scared to say something.

I'm sorry things like that happened to you. Fact is, there are some people who claim to have been discriminated against falsely. Just because this family feels they were mistreated, doesn't mean that they were actually mistreated in any way.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I'm sorry things like that happened to you. Fact is, there are some people who claim to have been discriminated against falsely. Just because this family feels they were mistreated, doesn't mean that they were actually mistreated in any way.

So if you felt someone mistreated you, but they claimed they didn't, you wouldn't say anything?

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I'm going to sue Disney for not letting me in free! lol I don't know whats worse, these people or the news agency reporting it. I would have taken the $500 and the VIP pass.

Me too!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I know you don't want the discussion going to an uncomfortable place, but there is no way to avoid the racial aspect here. Like I said previously, unless there is video of the incident in question, this looks like another case of a minority group overreacting to something innocent. Others have said, the characters goof around with guests all the time. This African-American family decided to cry racism because a giant rabbit didn't hug their kids enough to suit them. It is a racial issue because only minority groups can make claims like this.

I agree in full with you.

 

[bsiev1977]

So if you felt someone mistreated you, but they claimed they didn't, you wouldn't say anything?

Of course a person should speak up if they feel wronged.
Again, just because I or anyone else claims to have been mistreated in some way, doesn't mean that any mistreatment actually happened. In the case of the Black family that we are all talking about, the description of the incident and the photos we saw lead me to believe that nothing wrong really happened.