As ridiculous as it seems to most rational people, a small group of vocal racists turned to social media recently to express their outrage over the casting of R&B singer Halle Bailey as Ariel in a new live-action version of The Little Mermaid, complete with the hashtag #NotMyAriel. Bailey is Black, and boy does that have these folks up in arms.
The fury goes back to 2019 when Bailey’s casting was first announced. Almost immediately, a vocal contingent of racists began calling out Disney for what they’re calling “blackwashing” fictional characters. In the original film, released in 1989, Ariel was white, with red hair. (She was also a minor under contract with an exploitative sea witch and engaged to marry an adult human man, but those things are okay, apparently.)
First off, it goes without saying that there are no mermaids. Full stop. No mermaids, Black, white, or otherwise, exist on earth. But more importantly, isn’t it about time that little girls and boys of color begin seeing themselves in these made-up characters?
The reaction from parents of Black kids to the social media dust-up has been remarkable, however—and those positive reactions are all but erasing the racist nonsense.
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Black parents turned to TikTok after the trailer was released earlier this month and began posting reaction videos of their kids seeing the Black Ariel for the first time.
One tweet from PeeWee Herman said, “Yes, representation matters!! Watch kids react to Black Ariel!!”
A Disney TV executive tweeted:
“Nothing makes me smile more than watching these precious little girls realizing Ariel is a beautiful black mermaid. I can watch these videos all day long. I cannot wait for the movie!! So precious!”
The bottom line is this: We all need to see ourselves in these fantasy worlds. Fantasy is not exclusive to white people. And after years of Disney movies offering stereotypical and insulting characters, most of which they’ve been forced to apologize for, it’s about damn time the company started to do the right thing.