Lawsuit seeks $25 million in damages from SeaWorld Entertainment for alleged racial discrimination

Is not greeting a non-white kid automatically racist? If there are videos out there showing white kids not getting greeted/being skipped and of non-white kids being greeted, does that negate the claims of racism? Does there need to be a statistical analysis of all parades conducted at the parks to determine how many kids and of what races/colors were greeted/skipped, looking at the numbers of each that attends the park/parades to see if there are statistical differences?

If this continues, it will be interesting to see who is first to eliminate costumed characters completely. My guess would be Chuck E. Cheese.

GoBucks89:

Is not greeting a non-white kid automatically racist?

In our entitled Karen culture, wouldn't their be a lot more videos of white kids being slighted if it was happening? I don't know the answer, just playing devil's advocate. The immediate response of white people tends to be to look for reasons there isn't any racism going on, which is kind of the problem in the first place.

World has a lot of actual problems. Adding more to the list that are not actual problems makes it significantly more difficult to address the actual ones. Limited resources/capital/attention. And you give opening to people to argue some of the actual problems aren't actual problems based on efforts to address non-actual problems. Fighting the non-actual problems (though noble in intent) is counterproductive.

I am not a parade person. Watched one Disney parade in my life (other than 2 high school marching band parades and there were no character greets at issue there). Was so crowded we were not within 25 yards of any characters. But overall my kids have never really be aggressive/assertive enough to be picked out of a crowd, given chance to drive the boat, lead a group, etc. so they would likely be skipped even in from the front row. But it seems to me that it will often be the case that there is less character greeting capacity than there is being greeted demand. As such, there will often be unmet being greeted demand.

Without question, you don't want there to be bias in how that unmet demand is distributed. Conscious bias is easier to address; unconscious (by definition) is not. With the number of video cameras in many public venues at this point, I would not be surprised if the park has recordings of at least parts of various parades. If that exists, would expect it to be part of any trial/discovery process. Parks could also use it as part of training process (expect that many decisions in terms of cutting off greeting are made in split second with possible limited sight lines -- and you are focused on not running people over, getting hit by parade floats, etc. -- presumably often why they have escorts with costumed characters?). Some parks may elect to reduce/stop character greets (will depend, I would expect, at least to an extent on how any lawsuits are resolved).

Gender pay gap is an example of the difference between actual and apparent issues.

GoBucks89:

World has a lot of actual problems. Adding more to the list that are not actual problems makes it significantly more difficult to address the actual ones... Gender pay gap is an example of the difference between actual and apparent issues.

Not sure what you mean to imply about gender pay, but I challenge you to look at everything you just said from the experience of a woman of color.

Jeff:

In our entitled Karen culture, wouldn't their be a lot more videos of white kids being slighted if it was happening?

It would be all over Tucker Carlson.

Jeff:

In our entitled Karen culture, wouldn't their be a lot more videos of white kids being slighted if it was happening? I don't know the answer, just playing devil's advocate. The immediate response of white people tends to be to look for reasons there isn't any racism going on, which is kind of the problem in the first place.

do we know yet what race the actors under these character costumes are? Would that change the situation and perception? I mean, we are all just assuming they are white, myself included.

Not sure what you mean to imply about gender pay, but I challenge you to look at everything you just said from the experience of a woman of color.

Are you "challenging" me to look even at the parts of what I said that you don't understand? If so, on what basis? And I disagree with the rest of your statement above (and I understand what you are implying and reject it as something that is borderline offensive and overall just a weak statement).

If you aren't comfortable with ambiguity, why don't you just say what you mean? What is a problem, and what is not, in your view?

First day of law school, a professor drew 2 vertical lines on the board and to the outside of one wrote "Black" and to the outside of the other wrote "White." He shaded in the middle and wrote "Gray" and pointing to the gray area said If you are not comfortable here, get out. The idea that I am uncomfortable with ambiguity is a headscratcher. My job is to reduce/eliminate ambiguity so its something I literally deal with every day. Big challenge on a site like this because attention spans are limited (a long while back there was support from some for character limits on posts) and the stakes aren't serious enough to matter.

The rest seems like a "tarp" so I will pass.

But clearly you have some opinion about what a real problem is, and when it comes to the broader context of racism, suggesting that it is or isn't is worth discussion.

I have a lot of opinions about a lot of issues. Doesn't mean I want to discuss them on a coaster forum or with you though.