Walt Disney World Denounces High School Drill Team Guests After They Chant, 'Scalp 'Em!'

(AP Photo/Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian)

Are you often offended by half-time marching band routines? If so, be thankful you missed a recent performance by Port Neches-Groves High School.

The incendiary incident occurred, of all places, at Walt Disney World.

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On March 15th, the school’s drill team got down at the Orlando amusement part, but there was a profound problem: The girls shouted, “Scalp ’em, Indians! Scalp ’em!”

As now made clear by the Mouse, the slogan supported racist stereotypes.

There might’ve been reason to find out beforehand what the team was going to chant — after all, they’re called the “Indianettes.”

And presumably, the mantra’s message was that American Indians are winners.

Still, Disney couldn’t in good conscience Let It Go.

Deadline reports:

What’s been a bad stretch for Disney Parks’ self-declared “Inclusion” initiative got a little worse this week as video surfaced online of a high school cheer team from Texas performing a routine at Walt Disney World that contained racist stereotypes of Native Americans.

The gals donned “fringed costumes and did dance moves reminiscent of those seen in Native American cultures on the park’s Main Street this week.”

Tara Houska — a tribal attorney for the Ojibwe tribe as well as former Bernie Sanders advisor, tweeted in protest:

Cuz a bunch of kids in fringe chanting “scalp ‘em Indians, scalp ‘em” is honor, right?

And any Natives who attend [Port Neches-Groves Independent School District] should prolly just accept their classmates dehumanizing them cuz “tradition,” right?

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Say no to nostalgia:

Shame on @DisneyParks hosting this. Nostalgic racism is RACISM.

He’s surely right that in past times, such a mantra would’ve been viewed as tribute.

In fact, so far as I can tell, over 90% of what we’re presently informed is “harmful” would’ve ruffled few (if any) feathers just mere decades ago.

But social evolution means nothing stays the same.

Kelly Lynne D’Angelo — a writer for television comedy series Miracle Workers — posted disapproval as well.

Listed by IMDB as a “Native Haudenosaunee,” Kelly decried a dearth of broader disdain:

99% percent of the people sharing their outrage about this are Native people. Can’t you see that’s the problem too?

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Back to Deadline, at least the Indianettes didn’t go full Jim Crow:

Some online noted that the performance by the Port Neches-Groves cheer team did not include one thing: Their headdresses, which they have worn in past performances. Such a costume is considered cultural appropriation, according to the Jim Crow Museum and Ferris State University. Some speculated that their absence was evidence of Disney assessing the performance before it hit Main Street. If so, they wondered, how did the rest of the routine get okay’d?

In response to the uproar, Disney released an official statement via Jacquee Wahler:

“The live performance in our park did not reflect our core values, and we regret it took place. It was not consistent with the audition tape the school provided and we have immediately put measures in place so this is not repeated.”

Judging from headlines over the past few years, “core values,” defines an ever-narrowing standard.

Given our current climate, will groups like the Indianettes — and the school’s football team, the Indians — last much longer?

Eventually, perhaps, all mascots will make their way to a similar state as that of New York City’s The New School:

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So goes the new school of America.

-ALEX

 

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