(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Representation matters: Watch ecstatic Black girls react to the new Little Mermaid trailer [1]
['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags']
Date: 2022-09-14
Parents of young Black girls are posting videos across social media of their children's reactions to the newly released trailer of Disney's live-action "Little Mermaid" starring Halle Bailey as Ariel.
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.
RELATED STORY: It’s official: Trump won’t be invited to the queen’s funeral
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/14/2122885/-Representation-matters-Watch-ecstatic-Black-girls-react-to-the-new-Little-Mermaid-trailer
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
