Disney World is under fire after allowing a high school cheer group to march during a parade at the theme park with both chants and uniforms featuring racist Native American stereotypes.
A video of the performance spread quickly on social media Thursday featuring dozens of students from The Port Neches-Groves “Indianettes” High School drill team, a group out of Texas. Each member is dressed in fringed outfits, danced with moves similar to those seen in Native American cultures and chanted, "I-N-D-I-A-N-S scalp 'em, Indians, scalp 'em."
Of course, people were outraged, calling the incident racist and tagging the school's Twitter page -- which has seemingly since been deleted.
In a statement Friday, a Disney spokesperson said, "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.”
In case you're wondering, here are some of the animatronic figures being removed from Disneyland's JUNGLE CRUISE for being racist. pic.twitter.com/XB9r71FVaz
— Hollywood Horror Museum (@horrormuseum) January 25, 2021
In a somewhat parallel incident, it was last summer when the theme park removed all "native" characters from its Jungle Cruise attraction.
The incident comes on the heels of Disney CEO Bob Chapek getting a ton of heat for refusing to publicly condemn Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill ... with Disney employees planning a walkout next week.