You Don't Care That The Little Mermaid Is Black, You Care That Black People Are Happy
Last weekend, the first trailer for The Little Mermaid was revealed at Disney’s D23 expo, before being released to the public a few days later. Headlines and social media were dominated by one hot topic - in this version, Ariel is Black. This is nothing new to those of us who have been following the film, given that Halle Bailey was cast as Ariel and publicly announced last year. Of course, it is new information to those most angry over the decision, because they don’t really care about The Little Mermaid. They just like being racist.
We see this outrage frequently, as reactionary interlopers wade into these issues to score cheap points. Before Ariel, it was the elves in Lord of the Rings. It goes back endlessly, to any character who was originally depicted as white, implied to be white, or even just headcanoned as white with no real substance. We don’t see this outrage the other way, like when Elizabeth Olsen is cast as Romani, Tilda Swinton as Tibetan, Emma Stone as Chinese-Hawaiian, Ben Affleck as Mexican, Angelina Jolie as Afro-Caribbean, Johnny Depp as Native American, Carey Mulligan as Latina, Christian Bale as Middle Eastern, or Liam Neeson as Arabic. Those are all real examples featuring A-list stars, and I bet you can’t even name half the movies involved because so few people cared.
Related: Are We Witnessing The Rise Of African Cinema?
Most of the people getting annoyed are angry men making angry podcasts in their basement. Why are we giving their opinion on The Little Mermaid any value whatsoever? I know that by writing this I’m falling into the trap, but it’s bizarre to watch from the sidelines and see these people being taken seriously. They do not like The Little Mermaid. They do not like anything. They
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