Student Opinion – Disney is teaching children about reparations, and it isn’t good

A recent episode of the Disney Channel children’s show “The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” featured a “reparations rap.” It included five of the characters performing a rap regarding how slaves built America and how their descendants should receive reparations for doing so. The episode received both praise for its teaching technique and criticism for its inaccurate depiction of history. 

The New York Post discussed the many different reactions and shared how some people feel that the rap is divisive and destructive while others wholeheartedly agreed with and praised the show. The rap discussed the theory that Abraham Lincoln never really freed the slaves and highlighted several abolitionists, such as Harriet Tubman, who helped free slaves. The rap also called for white people to pay reparations for the damage caused by their ancestors, claiming that “We made your families rich.”

The call for reparations in a kids show caused most of the controversy surrounding the rap. Within the context of the episode, the children learned that their town was built by slaves and proceeded to perform the rap in front of their classmates to teach them about America’s dark past and how they wanted it fixed today. 

Some conservatives claimed the episode as “pure critical race theory.” It’s unfair to be expected to pay reparations when white people themselves were not enslaving anyone and were even more upset that the idea was shared in a kids show.

Recognizing the rise of a woke agenda within the show, Fox News contributor Rob Smith said, “Rebooted by Disney+ in the Woke Era, now it’s this. The reboot also features an interracial gay couple with a child. … Why?”

Kids should be taught age-appropriate lessons about our country’s history, but could a lesson like this stir up contempt among young classmates and friends and cause a further divide? Lessons about white and black students being negatively different — putting one race down in the favor of another — could raise a generation of instinctively racist children. 

The teachings for today’s children about this nation’s past should be equality of opportunity for everyone, not putting any race or skin color above another. The show manifests desire to remove any credit to the white people of the time who fought for equality and freedom. While there were obviously many white people who were wrongly in favor of slavery, there were still others who gave their lives for the fight for freedom.

This in no way is to dim the light and honor of the African Americans who did the same, but it is unfair to remove the honorable white people when we teach today’s children about the time period. If the goal is truly equality, we should proudly teach them about everyone who fought so hard for the freedom we get to experience today. 

Critics are slamming the show for promoting critical race theory, according to Fox News. Critical race theory has been banned from being taught in several states with many others in the process of banning it.

Critical race theory has a goal to divide, promoting one segment of our country against the other. While the past of America should be remembered so we don’t repeat it, turning today’s children against each other and creating a deeper divide are not the ways to go about it.  

Carter is an opinion writer for the Liberty Champion. And James DuVall is the Opinion Editor.