Only Some Disney Workers Can Partake in the Magic Kingdom

It’s no secret that corporate wokeness has grown by leaps and bounds since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May. Much of the brand-name posturing has been widely noted, but in certain cases there seems to be almost an element of meanness toward employees. The Walt Disney Corporation is a prime example.

The Manhattan Institute’s Christopher Rufo, writing at City Journal, has laid out an exposé of Walt’s Magic Kingdom that is in the thrall of a leftist cultural-conditioning agenda that affects its movies and other entertainment offerings. Based on Rufo’s findings, the Disney workplace itself is a veritable hothouse for what some may characterize as a toxic social pursuit.

Understand What Is Beneath You

Here is an excerpt from Rufo’s article:

“The core of Disney’s racial program is a series of training modules on ‘antiracism.’ In one, called ‘Allyship for Race Consciousness,’ the company tells employees that they must ‘take ownership of educating [themselves] about structural anti-Black racism’ and that they should ‘not rely on [their] Black colleagues to educate [them],’ because it is ‘emotionally taxing.’

“The United States, the document claims, has a ‘long history of systemic racism and transphobia,’ and white employees, in particular, must ‘work through feelings of guilt, shame, and defensiveness to understand what is beneath them and what needs to be healed.’ Disney recommends that employees atone by ‘challeng[ing] colorblind ideologies and rhetoric’ such as ‘All Lives Matter’ and ‘I don’t see color’; they must ‘listen with empathy [to] Black colleagues’ and must ‘not question or debate Black colleagues’ lived experience.’”

“Take ownership.” “Work through.” “Understand what is beneath them.” Is this language designed to debase a particular class of worker at Disney?

Rufo further illustrated who these employees are:

“Multiple Disney employees told me the political environment at the company has intensified in recent months. There are ‘almost daily memos, suggested readings, panels, and seminars that [are] all centered around antiracism,’ said one employee. The company is ‘completely ideologically one-sided’ and actively discourages conservative and Christian employees from expressing their views.”

Such a carefully crafted policy of targeting just a portion of workers in order to improve society for all could be described as Maoist at its core. Disney’s in-house anti-racism crusade puts an entirely new shine on another infamous incident that occurred within the company’s ranks just a few years ago.

‘It Was So Humiliating’

In the summer of 2015, Disney drew widespread condemnation after former employees revealed that they had been laid off by the entertainment giant and ordered to train the cheap foreign laborers that were replacing them via the H-1B visa system or lose part of their severance packages.

"I just couldn’t believe they could fly people in to sit at our desks and take over our jobs exactly," one laid-off worker told The New York Times, which first broke the story. "It was so humiliating to train somebody else to take over your job. I still can’t grasp it."

Rufo’s article made enough of a splash that Disney was forced to issue a statement on its anti-racism workplace social engineering. “These internal documents are being deliberately distorted as reflective of company policy, when in fact their purpose was to allow diversity of thought and discussion on the incredibly complex and challenging issues of race and discrimination that we as a society and companies nationwide are facing," the release read.

Even when seeking to defend itself, the big-brand behemoth seemed ahead of the curve on the corporate wokeness to come.

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Read more from Joe Schaeffer.