(OPINION) A new episode of the Disney Junior show “Rise Up, Sing Out” reportedly includes a song teaching its target audience — preschoolers — about “micro-aggressions.” The purported scene, shared by the Twitter account Libs of TikTok, features one character expressing surprise over another character having “darker skin” than his mother.
“Hey, Gabriel, I didn’t know that was your mom,” said one child. “Your skin is so much darker than hers.” That’s when the scene pivots to another girl who says, “Hold it, did that comment make you feel uncomfortable? That’s a micro-aggression.” After being asked what that means, she continues, “A micro-aggression is when someone says or does something that makes you feel bad, sometimes just because of your race.
But you know what? He’s wrong. You should be proud of your skin. It’s what makes you, you!” The central theme of the song is encouraging minority kids to “speak up” or “walk away” when others — in the song, only white people — ask questions or make uncomfortable comments.
“Rise Up, Sing Out” airs on Disney Junior, which targets 2- to 7-year-olds. The series is executive produced by Ahmir ”Questlove” Thompson and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter of The Roots, which serves as the house band for NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
They recently told Variety the episodes of the show “touch on a lot of real-world issues, especially for young black kids, that just weren’t talked about when we were growing up. The beautiful thing about these shorts is that not only are they going to provide young kids the proper language to talk to their friends and family about some of the things that might be bothering them, but it’s also going to give parents the tools on how to respond.” READ MORE
