You can't believe everything you see....

Our Huhndorf reading and class discussion made me think about my first time on the ‘It’s a Small World’ ride at Disneyland. I think this ride can be compared to the World Fair chapter in our reading and in particular the idea of a “symbolic universe” This is an example of how people in power and more specifically white society creates a discourse for the citizens to justify their nations or the individual behavior. What I mean by this is that these two events, ‘It’s a Small World’ and The World’s Fair, are ways to send a message to large groups of people about the historical past and the unfair treatment of people and in particular Native Americans. It sort of simplifies a very complicated history of the treatment of Native Americans by white people and then projects this new very manipulated and “clean” image back to the citizens. Then this new portrayal of the past becomes the current discourse and people simply brush the past under the rug if you will and don’t address the real issue. It is the idea of “otherizing” people to distance them from ourselves and justify behavior. When one takes a boat ride through the ‘It’s a Small World” they can leave feeling happy about the world and unity etc. The benefit of these complacent audiences both at the World Fair and the ride at Disneyland is that then there is no desire to change things or revolt against the leadership. No one questions what is really going on.

The question I could pose is how often does this happen today with racial issues? Are we really that stupid that we can watch a TV show or news clip or music video and believe what we see and not look any further into the message?