Disney Needs A New Diversity Chief, Disastrous Former Chief Departs
Disney needs a new chief of diversity.
Latondra Newton is leaving the company, Disney announced in an internal company note obtained by FOX Business:
"I'm writing to share the news that Latondra Newton has decided to leave The Walt Disney Company to pursue other endeavors. Latondra has led the company’s strategic diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, including partnering with stakeholders across the enterprise to amplify stories of the world by people around the world."
Newton has led brand's diversity, equity, and inclusion programs for six years. Newton is best known for her opposition to words like "princess."
“We want to create that magical moment with our cast members, with our guests,” Newton said. “And we don’t want to just assume because someone might be in, our interpretation, may be presenting as female that they may not want to be ‘princess.'”
The list of changes does not stop there. Disney changed Minnie Mouse's traditional red and white polka-dot dress to a pantsuit.
According to the New York Post, Disney also ditched "fairy godmothers” for more inclusive, gender-neutral titles under Newton's watch.
Disney whacked the words "boys and girls" from their theme parks because people like Newton don't think boys and girls cover all the genders that attend the park.
Speaking of the many, many genders Disney thinks exist, the studio introduced its first non-binary characters in theaters over the weekend.
And the film, Elemental, opened to the second-lowest box office total of any wide-released Pixar film in the studio’s history.
At least it was inclusive, right?

Members of the Writers Guild of America picket in front of Disney Studios. The WGA is the union representing most writers for film and TV in the U.S., strike in Los Angeles. The strike comes after weeks of negotiations failed to generate a contract between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which bargains on behalf of the nine largest studios.
The seven dwarves in the Snow White films? Also offensive.
Disney rid itself of the little creatures in its live-action remake after random people claimed the characters were denigrating to the dwarfism community.
Most memorable, Disney led the opposition to the Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, a bill inaccurately dubbed "Don't Say Gay." The bill protected students in third grade and younger from discussing sexual topics with their teachers.
Disney considered such protections "exclusive."
For those reasons, Disney ranked as the 5th most polarizing brand in America in 2023. The Axios poll attributed Disney's precipitously declining reputation to its self-inflicted “polarizing political drama."
Executives like Latondra Newton are to blame for that. As is CEO Bob Iger.
And as long as Iger's in charge, and he's back in charge, Disney will continue to permit slimy schmucks like its former DEI chief to tarnish a once cherished brand.