Disney thinks that inclusion and diversity will translate into profits for the company by favoring representation over quality. That’s the only thing I thought of when Disney re-launched their Reimagine Tomorrow campaign with the promise of ensuring 50% of their regular and recurring characters represent 50% of underrepresented groups by 2022. Back in May, journalist Christopher F Rufo reported on Disney’s original Re-Imagine Tomorrow training campaign, which included a training section entitled ‘Allyship for Race Consciousness’. You can read the documents for yourself and conclude that the training course, which included training on “Anti-racism”, “white fragility”, “white privilege”, “white saviors”, and “micro aggressions”, is racist in and of itself. It is Critical Race Theory on steroids and teaches Disney employees to hate white people. That doesn’t sound very inclusionary of Disney at all. As a result of Rufo’s revelation of the training program, multiple sources told Rufo that the diversity and inclusion training had been scrubbed from the Disney company’s website. Well, fast forward to September 1st, and you will see that Disney has relaunched the Reimagine Tomorrow campaign with a new video. In the video you see a black kid asking if people will see him as he sees himself and not as a criminal, a middle eastern man asking if he would be seen not as a foreigner but a father, and a woman asks if she would be seen not as bossy but a boss. Is Disney serious? I worked for this company and never thought any of those things. Disney has always been representative of other races and cultures…just go to Disney World and you’ll find all different races and cultures of people working there. Even towards the end of the video you see a kid watching old Disney movies and programing that have now been deemed racist, be enlightened by Disney’s new content with shots of ‘Moana’, ‘Soul’, and ‘Princess and the Frog’. Disney is systematically erasing its own history instead of saying that that was a part of our history and we have learned from that and moved forward. Those cartoons and movies that Disney find racist need to be remembered and not forcefully forgotten and wiped from existence. It is a shame but the more important question is why is Disney doing this?
Disney Favors Representation Over Quality
Disney is doing this to appease a vocal minority in hopes that it translates to sales and profits. What they are doing is producing mediocre content in favor of representation that is turning off the fans. In addition, what you are going to see is Disney hiring people based on their cultural background, race, or color instead of who is the most qualified. That seems to me like Disney just doesn’t care about quality content anymore. On the first page of the Reimagine Tomorrow website it even states “At Disney, inclusion is for everyone” and is followed by what that means.
“Reimagine Tomorrow is our way of amplifying underrepresented voices and untold stories as well as championing the importance of accurate representation in media and entertainment. Because we are all greater than a single story and we all deserve to feel seen, heard and understood.”
Representation Does Not Translate Into Box Office Success
If you just look at some of the movies that have come out over the last several months you will see that hiring based on representation does not equal success or quality content. ‘Mulan’ was directed by Niki Caro who is an Indie film director with no big budget movie experience. Mulan was a box office bomb doing only $66.8 million in total. Not to mention the fact that some of this film was filmed near slavery encampments in China…not exactly a shining example of tolerance and inclusivity on Disney’s part. ‘Soul’ was directed by Kemp Powers and only did $119,273, 208 million worldwide. Kemp Powers only has two directing credits to his name. ‘Black Widow’ is directed by Cate Shortland and has only made $371,298,639 million worldwide. With a total budget near $500,000 million that is an abysmal failure. Cate Shortland also has no big budget movie experience only directing three indie movies and some TV shows. ‘Shang-Chi’ is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and he, as well, doesn’t have any big budget movie experience with only four indie movie credits and some TV shows on his resume. ‘The Eternals’ is being directed by Chloe Zhao and she only has two indie movie credits to her name and no big budget experience. I am not taking anything away from these directors. They might indeed be very talented but were they the right pic for such big budget movies? Probably not based on the lack of fan interest and the overall box office sales. But these directors were, in part, picked in Disney’s goal to represent certain groups. In addition to that, Disney is messing with established characters such as Snow White, Little Mermaid, and the Rocketeer, to name a few, and race or gender swapping them. For Disney, they will say it looks good on their resume…but is translating to sales? It is not. And when you include what’s going on over at Marvel and Kevin Feige’s obsession with representation, Disney has a recipe for a string of financial fails ahead of them.
Quality Content From Disney Will be a Thing of the Past
Disney’s goal, as stated on their intentions page of the Reimagine Tomorrow website is to make sure that all of their content is 50% represented by under represented groups.
Our Intentions are: “To establish inclusion standards across all Disney General Entertainment content. By 2022, 50% of regular and recurring characters across Disney General Entertainment scripted content will come from underrepresented groups.”
Is this really a way to run a company like Disney, that was founded on bringing great content to life through great quality talent and character? Disney used to pride itself on hiring people that were qualified and not based on the color of their skin. But now it’s all based on equity of outcome instead of equality of opportunity. It would seem that Disney’s focus on making sure they have every group represented is going to make them very unfocused on producing quality content and that is going to hurt them at the box office. Disney has come along way since being the king of storytelling and original ideas…or is it that politically incorrect? Should I have said being the him/her, thing/it, people/person of storytelling and original ideas instead. As a fan, I have lost any interest in Disney’s content and have turned elsewhere for my entertainment. Their forced identity politics have become boring, exhaustive, and repetitive, and it’s just sad to see a company, that I once idolized, be a part of the false narrative of systemic racism in our country. Walt Disney once said, “I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.” Entertain us Disney and stop trying to teach us how racist we are.
Related: Disney World Requiring vaccine mandates
