The other night I just wanted to watch something happy during the midst of the chaos in the world, and I logged in to Disney+. I saw some old Disney cartoons on recommended and started looking through the collection. Soon I found a cover I had not seen in years, an old Donald Duck cartoon from 1955 that I had not seen since I was a small child at my Baba’s house.

Thinking it would bring back innocent feelings of nostalgia I turned it on... It started off with Donald Duck looking after his bees and he noticed a bear stealing honey. Donald got the park ranger to gather up his bears and ask who stole the honey. {At this point my heart started to drop}. Then the ranger had them stand in a line up... the bears ranged from almost completely black to lighter brown. ... {now my stomach was clenching}... Chantel (my wife who happens to be black) calmly said to me, “babe this is extremely racist.” I stopped the movie and started to cry. The rest of the movie and other Humphrey The Bear shorts flooded back into my memory. It is even more horrific than the first 60 seconds as it shows Donald’s bearskin rug he hunted and killed himself. I felt so embarrassed that I had turned it on, that I had watched it over and over as a child, that it even existed in the first place. I am sharing this experience because, as embarrassing as it is for me - these are the uncomfortable things we have to feel in order to make a real change, and we have to talk about it. We cannot keep hiding from our past wrongs, we need to be accountable and act for change.

The world saw George Floyd murdered in front of our eyes by a white cop on Memorial Day and Disney is streaming this disgusting and blatantly racist cartoon and many more like it to your children. This is how we have learned racism. This is only one of the cartoons that Humphrey the Bear is featured in. Let that sink in for a moment... Disney+ just launched last year and they actively chose to include the Humphrey the Bear cartoons... it is 2020, it is time for change. It is time for accountability. It is the time to be honest. It is time to poor turpentine on the white wash that covers up American history.

 I don’t know how I can make a change, but I know I have to try. Disney has come out in support of the black lives matter movement, so why do they still have those cartoons on their platform?

Sign the petition to let Disney know you don’t want their out-dated and racist content!