Small World Diversity Training

A Poem

It truly is my favorite ride, cool boats, cool water, cool dark — no drops, no dips, no surprises —

an escape from the sun, the walking, the crowds sure, there’s a torture element to it — that song, over and over, and over and

over, but it is in different languages, it is cute, the dolls do so much, dancing, playing drums, wearing wooden shoes here, no shoes

there, different countries represented in, let’s face it, quick, fast stereotypes, to grasp what we are seeing as we click- click- click by on the track,

floating, sure, but, again, not naturally, not sincerely

we are pulled through the world on a machine we look, we talk, we point, we laugh, then finally —

dark, cool, water, music, loud, looking — the last room, the one where every doll is wearing white,

the ones we just saw from Hawaii, boom, in white now, dark hair, dark eyes beautiful brown doll skin, the ones we just saw from Germany, boom,

in white now, blue eyes, blond hair, glowing white skin, the African dolls little tight Afro curls, boom, wearing white,

the gang’s all here, the doll’s are all here, and I admit, we admit, wow it is moving —

Disney does not mess around at pulling heart strings — separate countries doing their

separate cultural things, singing the same song, in the cool dark, in the break from the heat, in the smooth fake boat

united at the end, together at the end, singing in one English speaking voice at the end,

diversity represented, yes, but still white-washed at the end.

Jenny Justice is a poet mom who longs to bring poetry to life in ways that spark empathy, connection, joy, and feeling. She loves writing love poems, climate change awareness poems, poems for kids, and of course, poems about poetry and poets. You can follow her on Medium and at Jenny Justice, Writer. You can follow her poetry at Justice Poetic.