Twitter users are applauding a Disney World employee for making sure Black children weren’t snubbed during a recent parade.
According to TMZ, the now-viral moment was captured by a father who recently accompanied his children to the Orlando theme park. The clip shows a parade in which a worker dressed as Toy Story’s Woody notices two Black kids cheering from the side and trying to get the attention of Jessie, a staple character in the Disney-Pixar franchise. Woody is seen motioning to his colleague and pointing directly to the young ones, prompting Jessie to rush over from the other side and give one of them a big hug.
“Woody for the win,” the dad captioned the video that was posted on TikTok.
The moment took place following a series of controversies centered on alleged racism and discrimination by costumed workers. Earlier this week, a New Jersey mom accused a Chuck E. Cheese mascot of ignoring her 2-year-old Black daughter during a recent trip to the pizza/entertainment chain. The mother, Natyana Muhammad, posted video of the snub on social media.
“On July 30 at Chuck E Cheese in Wayne, NJ, my 2yo was racially discriminated against,” she captioned the footage. “As you can see, he gives all of the yt kids hi-5s & PURPOSELY ignored my black baby. When confronted, he ignored me as well. The manager, Angie Valasquez, made excuses for him. Saying she’s ‘sorry I feel that way’ but he didn’t see her, even after showing her the PROOF in the video.”
Just prior, a family publicly slammed Sesame Place for alleged racial bias. Mother Jodi Brown shared video of a theme park parade in which an actor portraying Sesame Street’s Rosita appeared to ignore her Black daughter and niece. A representative for the Sea World-owned park apologized for the incident and insisted the worker didn’t intentionally ignore the children. Another family came forward shortly after with similar allegations and went on to file a $25 million discrimination lawsuit against Sesame Place.
Twitter users were quick to applaud the Woody actor for not only acknowledging the Black children but also dodging another potential scandal. Read some of the reactions below.
