Someone Accuses Disney Of Whitewashing Their Characters, Gets Shut Down In The Most Epic Way
The subreddit MurderedByWords is described as “a place for well-constructed put-downs, comebacks, and counter-arguments.” These kind of thoughtful, factual, and satisfying responses are increasingly worth their weight in gold in this age of social media hysteria, where the bullies and trolls often get the upper hand.
The latest example of a perfect comeback was uploaded to the forum by Redditor BlackOrre. Somebody had criticized Disney studio’s choice of mixed-race characters in the movie ‘Big Hero 6,’ discounting multiracial Disney characters as not truly ‘diverse’ and suggesting that heroes should be ‘all or nothing.’
The response on Disney movies and racist people was epic, an informative blend of factual realism and personal experience that encouraged other multiracial people to share their own stories on ethnicity and racism. Because, as the word-murderer correctly states, the population of multiracial people in the USA is increasing rapidly and they can often feel marginalized. Sometimes deemed not sufficiently ‘one or the other,’ multiracial people can feel left out by members of their family, and endure crises of identity and belonging that are little talked about in society.
However, this response addressed some of the more positive aspects of a multicultural upbringing. Growing up with experiences from a variety of cultures can only be a good thing, as it increases empathy and understanding with human beings as a whole, to the world beyond your ‘in’ group. The more we understand that people of different ethnicity, culture, and language actually have far more in common with us than differences, the easier it is to embrace each other and live together in peace. Scroll down to see the exchange for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments!
This post about the movie ‘Big Hero 6’ started a discussion about the experiences of multiracial people
Here’s what people had to say
When I watched this movie for the first time, the last thing on my mind was race. The most racist thing that I could think of at the time was: MARSHMALLOW ROBOT and JAPAN IS COOL!!!!
All my life, I've heard terms like "mutt" and Heinz-57", but in most cases, the person is jokingly referring to themselves, as in the comment above. But I'm not comfortable with it, and would not want anyone referring to me as such.
Load More Replies...These experiences are very sad... I hope that one day ALL people accept others for who they are, not for their skin color.
i'm sorry about what i said, i was just saying white people should have more respect, i mean using "Straight White Male" as an insult is just rude, If you continue this hypocritical racist stuff, i will quit this site and just resort to other top ten sites like TheTopTens or DeviantArt's Top 10 Art section
Load More Replies...Not from the US, but a half Japanese who will never not feel terribly ugly for not being white enough nor Asian enough. To top it off I never had any contact with my mom's family nor does she have any kind of contact with Japanese culture, so I don't even have the "good" part of being mixed and nothing at all in common with anyone whatsoever, not even other halfs. I taught myself Japanese and try to study the culture by myself, but it's obviously not the same. I don't even have a Japanese middle name to be called by like all my mixed friends. I'm so out of place that I can't be similar to even other mixed race kids. I'll just never belong anywhere.
Reading that response was heart warming and hit the nail on the head for me. I grew up with the struggle of being mixed race and I feel that I always have to educate people. It's easy to forget that others know how you felt/feel. It's good to know there's a greater level of understanding out there
This kind of junk makes me worry so much about what my son will have to deal with. He's only 6 months and people already make racist comments about him because he is half Indian and we gave him an Indian name, but he looks 100% white. Most of our Indian friends say things like, it's good that he doesn't look Indian, and why didn't we give him an American name (by which they mean "white" because Indian names are American also), and that he is not Indian at all. I'm sure it's coming from a place of feeling discriminated against here, but it makes my husband and I both feel terrible, and I'm sure my son will hear these things when he's older and feel even worse. The white people don't say anything directly to our faces, but they make microaggressions and I'm sure they talk behind our backs. Also everyone says he looks just like me even though he looks like a white skinned version of his dad...I must be naive because it's just shocking to me that people really only do see color.
My friend is half Canadian and half Greek, and I see her thrive. She dances in Greek festivals, while visiting her pepere's in Canada. I think we all should be proud of our cultures we grew up with.
People say that they're for diversity, except only THEIR identity is valid... If you're LGB+ that doesn't make you better than straight people. If you're trans* that doesn't make you better than cis people. If you're nonreligious that doesn't make you better than religious people. If you're a POC that doesn't make you better than white people. Your identity doesn't make others' suddenly not exist.
Agreed 100%. Nobody is better than anyone. Is that not what they're supposed to be fighting for? Equality, not superiority.
Load More Replies...I'm so tired of people calling everything racist when in reality they aren't even using the word correctly. Racist means to feel your race is superior to all other races. Making a movie doesn't display that unless in the movie they say "my race is better". I doubt the movie says that so really people just stop. Being a minority in a white world doesn't mean the world is racist. It just means they're more white people than other races. I don't understand how that's racist.
I''m pretty sure we once had a President who is mixed race. He seemed to turn out okay. He certainly wasn't a mess.
Our three princesses Amalia, Alexia and Ariane are of mixed race. I think Amalia one day will make a great Queen.
Load More Replies...As we say in Peru... "el que no tiene de Inga, la tiene de Mandinga". (If you don´t have it from Inga, you have it from ManInga). We are all different, and we are all the same.
This is one of the bigger reasons racism (and some other bigotry) has a really hard time dying out. Some people just need to see it everywhere so they can make a big stink about it, and thus make themselves feel important. As so many others have pointed out over time, by seeing bigotry everywhere it "cheapens" the genuin instances. Yes real bigotry should be called out, and loudly so, but we have to make sure that it actually is bigotry before we do so, not just something "negative" by some individual's personal definition.
Very Racist to only want Pure races portrayed. Im agiasnt the whole Black actor actress playing a white character, but its a fact that people of mixed race are a thing now. Im fully behind everyone being completely intermingled. Say you have a kid whos parents are Black and White, the kid gets it from both sides. Not white enough and also not black enough
A lot of people now are mixes of a bunch of races. I am German, Irish, Cherokee Indian, White and what ever the heck else is mixed in there somewhere. I have a German last name and a Irish/Scottish first name. This is an awesome movie and people need to stop bring things like race into it.
This brings to my mind how in fantasy a half-human half elf person is always called a half-elf and so on. You never read about a half-human. Take for example Dragonlance saga - you have Tanis Half-Elf. Those horrible attitudes towards mixed radces are everywhere... And should change.
Bored Panda is responsible for stirring the pot as much as the MSM. A couple of years ago this wouldn't have been a topic, an issue, or anything in between. But since it's in style, every other article is race, Trump, and the ugliness of whites. Shameful.
I grew up with my white aunt being married to a man who was half Filipino and half Muckleshoot Indian. He gained the skills of cooking from both cultures and let me tell you...every time my mom said we were going to my uncles house for dinner, I was jumping for joy because I knew we were about to eat some damn fine food. He was also the master disciplinarian without having to raise a finger. If you were misbehaving..he'd give you the stare. It was enough stop you in your tracks and to make you say "Awe c**p..sorry Uncle Mike."
This is that Seren Sensei person who was banned from twitter for inciting racial hatred and who was all pissed off at Bruno Mars' "racial ambiguity" so he could supposedly culturally appropriate other styles of music. Truth: She detests anyone that's not 100% HER COLOR. If that's not racist I really can't tell you what is. She doesn't even like half black people. This woman needs therapy.
Funny how she complains about cultural appropriation while using a Japanese word in her user name.
Load More Replies...I feel ya, even tho I'm full Chinese, I never went to China or any other country in fact. I get teased for being one of the 10% of the school. (btw whenever we (my friends) see another Chinese kid about my age, they ask if I'm his/her sister. AS IF THATS NOT THE MOST RANDOM THING because I've told them 1000000 times that I have 2 bro WAAAAAAAAAAY bigger than me
The irony that their whole complaint is Disney faking their diversity, when their whole argument just screams "Someone called me racist online, probably because I was being racist, so here's me desperate to prove I'm not".
Big Hero 6 is my FAVOURITE Disney movie!!!! I like how they're mixed race. It's a way to show more races in 1 person. I'm hella mixed race. I'm Indigenous Australian, white Australian, Scottish and Kiwi (for thos who don't know, white New Zealand). I've only been taught a bit of my Indigenous Australian side because of the very little culture taught to us in primary school and it's NOT ON THE HIGH SCHOOL ONE! (If you can't tell, it ticks me off). I'm EXTREMELY pale and look NOTHING like an Indigenous woman. Throughout primary school, I was denied of being Indigenous by students millions of times and once by my TEACHER! I'm only now getting to learn my language that were stripped from our grandparents during the stolen generation.
I live across the street from the real house where Hero and his live in San Fransokyo and I feel it presents a very distorted view. In the movie our block is lined with lovely cherry trees rather than the horrible black bark acacias that are actually here. https://hoodline.com/2015/03/big-hero-6-used-masonic-haight-as-inspiration
The vast majority of 'white' people are mixed heritage, just mixes of other 'light skinned' ancestry. My heritage is a crazy mixed bag but I'm aparently 'just' white. People just need to get over this 'race' c**p- it's culture/heritage/society the colour of your skin is inconsequential - the result of UV exposure and epigenetics - correlation does not equal causation. Be who you wanna be.
The vast majority of 'white' people are mixed heritage, just mixes of other 'light skinned' ancestry. My heritage is a crazy mixed bag but I'm aparently 'just' white. People just need to get over this 'race' b******t - it's culture/heritage/society the colour of your skin is inconsequential - the result of UV exposure and epigenetics correlation does not equal causation. Be who you wanna be.
Had a grandmother who was Choctaw/Cherokee/Irish/Scots, she had it rough as a kid, me not so much because I looked German with a dark tan. Two of my grandkids are part Mexican and all the rest of the mix (think there's some Jewish mixed in the German, French, maybe, Polish even) but just can't tell. It's sad mixed kids can't just grow up with all their cultures.
Wish it was just races.... Interethnic children are given s**t on a daily basis as well. Yet somehow we are even more overlooked, because well, "you're white, what you're on about".
Halfbreed, that's all I ever heard. Halfbreed. How I learned to hate that word. Both sides were against me since the day I was born....
I'm a big fat white man who would fit perfectly into big hero's costume. Were a member of another race to fall in love with me I would happily marry them. Our kids would be gorgeous. Within 500 years I believe there will no longer be races, we could all just be the same.
A mature response. Thanks for your input, I do hope to see it go away along with your attitude.
Load More Replies...This is a bunch of people who care about others. While some posts *are* Buzzfeed like, most are really fun and creative.
Load More Replies...When I watched this movie for the first time, the last thing on my mind was race. The most racist thing that I could think of at the time was: MARSHMALLOW ROBOT and JAPAN IS COOL!!!!
All my life, I've heard terms like "mutt" and Heinz-57", but in most cases, the person is jokingly referring to themselves, as in the comment above. But I'm not comfortable with it, and would not want anyone referring to me as such.
Load More Replies...These experiences are very sad... I hope that one day ALL people accept others for who they are, not for their skin color.
i'm sorry about what i said, i was just saying white people should have more respect, i mean using "Straight White Male" as an insult is just rude, If you continue this hypocritical racist stuff, i will quit this site and just resort to other top ten sites like TheTopTens or DeviantArt's Top 10 Art section
Load More Replies...Not from the US, but a half Japanese who will never not feel terribly ugly for not being white enough nor Asian enough. To top it off I never had any contact with my mom's family nor does she have any kind of contact with Japanese culture, so I don't even have the "good" part of being mixed and nothing at all in common with anyone whatsoever, not even other halfs. I taught myself Japanese and try to study the culture by myself, but it's obviously not the same. I don't even have a Japanese middle name to be called by like all my mixed friends. I'm so out of place that I can't be similar to even other mixed race kids. I'll just never belong anywhere.
Reading that response was heart warming and hit the nail on the head for me. I grew up with the struggle of being mixed race and I feel that I always have to educate people. It's easy to forget that others know how you felt/feel. It's good to know there's a greater level of understanding out there
This kind of junk makes me worry so much about what my son will have to deal with. He's only 6 months and people already make racist comments about him because he is half Indian and we gave him an Indian name, but he looks 100% white. Most of our Indian friends say things like, it's good that he doesn't look Indian, and why didn't we give him an American name (by which they mean "white" because Indian names are American also), and that he is not Indian at all. I'm sure it's coming from a place of feeling discriminated against here, but it makes my husband and I both feel terrible, and I'm sure my son will hear these things when he's older and feel even worse. The white people don't say anything directly to our faces, but they make microaggressions and I'm sure they talk behind our backs. Also everyone says he looks just like me even though he looks like a white skinned version of his dad...I must be naive because it's just shocking to me that people really only do see color.
My friend is half Canadian and half Greek, and I see her thrive. She dances in Greek festivals, while visiting her pepere's in Canada. I think we all should be proud of our cultures we grew up with.
People say that they're for diversity, except only THEIR identity is valid... If you're LGB+ that doesn't make you better than straight people. If you're trans* that doesn't make you better than cis people. If you're nonreligious that doesn't make you better than religious people. If you're a POC that doesn't make you better than white people. Your identity doesn't make others' suddenly not exist.
Agreed 100%. Nobody is better than anyone. Is that not what they're supposed to be fighting for? Equality, not superiority.
Load More Replies...I'm so tired of people calling everything racist when in reality they aren't even using the word correctly. Racist means to feel your race is superior to all other races. Making a movie doesn't display that unless in the movie they say "my race is better". I doubt the movie says that so really people just stop. Being a minority in a white world doesn't mean the world is racist. It just means they're more white people than other races. I don't understand how that's racist.
I''m pretty sure we once had a President who is mixed race. He seemed to turn out okay. He certainly wasn't a mess.
Our three princesses Amalia, Alexia and Ariane are of mixed race. I think Amalia one day will make a great Queen.
Load More Replies...As we say in Peru... "el que no tiene de Inga, la tiene de Mandinga". (If you don´t have it from Inga, you have it from ManInga). We are all different, and we are all the same.
This is one of the bigger reasons racism (and some other bigotry) has a really hard time dying out. Some people just need to see it everywhere so they can make a big stink about it, and thus make themselves feel important. As so many others have pointed out over time, by seeing bigotry everywhere it "cheapens" the genuin instances. Yes real bigotry should be called out, and loudly so, but we have to make sure that it actually is bigotry before we do so, not just something "negative" by some individual's personal definition.
Very Racist to only want Pure races portrayed. Im agiasnt the whole Black actor actress playing a white character, but its a fact that people of mixed race are a thing now. Im fully behind everyone being completely intermingled. Say you have a kid whos parents are Black and White, the kid gets it from both sides. Not white enough and also not black enough
A lot of people now are mixes of a bunch of races. I am German, Irish, Cherokee Indian, White and what ever the heck else is mixed in there somewhere. I have a German last name and a Irish/Scottish first name. This is an awesome movie and people need to stop bring things like race into it.
This brings to my mind how in fantasy a half-human half elf person is always called a half-elf and so on. You never read about a half-human. Take for example Dragonlance saga - you have Tanis Half-Elf. Those horrible attitudes towards mixed radces are everywhere... And should change.
Bored Panda is responsible for stirring the pot as much as the MSM. A couple of years ago this wouldn't have been a topic, an issue, or anything in between. But since it's in style, every other article is race, Trump, and the ugliness of whites. Shameful.
I grew up with my white aunt being married to a man who was half Filipino and half Muckleshoot Indian. He gained the skills of cooking from both cultures and let me tell you...every time my mom said we were going to my uncles house for dinner, I was jumping for joy because I knew we were about to eat some damn fine food. He was also the master disciplinarian without having to raise a finger. If you were misbehaving..he'd give you the stare. It was enough stop you in your tracks and to make you say "Awe c**p..sorry Uncle Mike."
This is that Seren Sensei person who was banned from twitter for inciting racial hatred and who was all pissed off at Bruno Mars' "racial ambiguity" so he could supposedly culturally appropriate other styles of music. Truth: She detests anyone that's not 100% HER COLOR. If that's not racist I really can't tell you what is. She doesn't even like half black people. This woman needs therapy.
Funny how she complains about cultural appropriation while using a Japanese word in her user name.
Load More Replies...I feel ya, even tho I'm full Chinese, I never went to China or any other country in fact. I get teased for being one of the 10% of the school. (btw whenever we (my friends) see another Chinese kid about my age, they ask if I'm his/her sister. AS IF THATS NOT THE MOST RANDOM THING because I've told them 1000000 times that I have 2 bro WAAAAAAAAAAY bigger than me
The irony that their whole complaint is Disney faking their diversity, when their whole argument just screams "Someone called me racist online, probably because I was being racist, so here's me desperate to prove I'm not".
Big Hero 6 is my FAVOURITE Disney movie!!!! I like how they're mixed race. It's a way to show more races in 1 person. I'm hella mixed race. I'm Indigenous Australian, white Australian, Scottish and Kiwi (for thos who don't know, white New Zealand). I've only been taught a bit of my Indigenous Australian side because of the very little culture taught to us in primary school and it's NOT ON THE HIGH SCHOOL ONE! (If you can't tell, it ticks me off). I'm EXTREMELY pale and look NOTHING like an Indigenous woman. Throughout primary school, I was denied of being Indigenous by students millions of times and once by my TEACHER! I'm only now getting to learn my language that were stripped from our grandparents during the stolen generation.
I live across the street from the real house where Hero and his live in San Fransokyo and I feel it presents a very distorted view. In the movie our block is lined with lovely cherry trees rather than the horrible black bark acacias that are actually here. https://hoodline.com/2015/03/big-hero-6-used-masonic-haight-as-inspiration
The vast majority of 'white' people are mixed heritage, just mixes of other 'light skinned' ancestry. My heritage is a crazy mixed bag but I'm aparently 'just' white. People just need to get over this 'race' c**p- it's culture/heritage/society the colour of your skin is inconsequential - the result of UV exposure and epigenetics - correlation does not equal causation. Be who you wanna be.
The vast majority of 'white' people are mixed heritage, just mixes of other 'light skinned' ancestry. My heritage is a crazy mixed bag but I'm aparently 'just' white. People just need to get over this 'race' b******t - it's culture/heritage/society the colour of your skin is inconsequential - the result of UV exposure and epigenetics correlation does not equal causation. Be who you wanna be.
Had a grandmother who was Choctaw/Cherokee/Irish/Scots, she had it rough as a kid, me not so much because I looked German with a dark tan. Two of my grandkids are part Mexican and all the rest of the mix (think there's some Jewish mixed in the German, French, maybe, Polish even) but just can't tell. It's sad mixed kids can't just grow up with all their cultures.
Wish it was just races.... Interethnic children are given s**t on a daily basis as well. Yet somehow we are even more overlooked, because well, "you're white, what you're on about".
Halfbreed, that's all I ever heard. Halfbreed. How I learned to hate that word. Both sides were against me since the day I was born....
I'm a big fat white man who would fit perfectly into big hero's costume. Were a member of another race to fall in love with me I would happily marry them. Our kids would be gorgeous. Within 500 years I believe there will no longer be races, we could all just be the same.
A mature response. Thanks for your input, I do hope to see it go away along with your attitude.
Load More Replies...This is a bunch of people who care about others. While some posts *are* Buzzfeed like, most are really fun and creative.
Load More Replies...
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