The Little Mermaid

I woke up this morning and stumbled through Facebook posts and their comment sections, something I don’t recommend doing, and came across a post about The Little Mermaid. It is set to star Halle Bailey… and the fact that she is black has some people losing their minds. I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not, as this isn’t the first time people have lost their minds over a traditionally white character being played by a non-white actor… And every time this argument comes up, my blood boils, because any way you slice it, this argument is seeped in ignorance, both regarding race and the history of media.

I’ll start with the argument I see the most… “The author wrote her as white…” We are talking about a book by Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen from 1837… I’d be very surprised to learn there were many white writers writing about protagonists of other races, so this argument holds little weight with me. White was the default then, and still is now, so it doesn’t add anything to the character.

This brings me to the next argument… “What if (insert Black fictional or REAL person) was played by a white actor?!?” This is a disturbing argument, because why would anyone think it is ok for a REAL person to be played by someone of another ethnicity… (not to say it hasn’t happened, because it has.) But, that brings me back to the topic of white as default. Typically, and I’m sure someone can find an exception, a character’s whiteness doesn’t add or take away from the character, it is just a default setting. When a character is of a certain religion, ethnicity, race, etc. it typically influences that character. I’ll give an example using two of my favorite X-Men characters, Emma Frost and Storm aka Ororo Munroe.

What makes Emma Frost special isn’t the fact that she’s white. Her powers and personality traits make her special. You could tell the same story whether she was white or not. You can’t tell the same story w/ Storm not being black. For anyone about to argue, I mean, the SAME exact story, without making any changes to fit the change of race. A lot of Storm’s backstory is about being a descendant of African goddesses. Her race is as much a part of her character as her powers and personality.

The next argument is… “Why don’t YOU PEOPLE make your own characters/shows/movies”… Well, there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to things like art and stories… and despite evidence to the contrary, it is still widely believed that if a film doesn’t have a white lead, it will not do well, and Hollywood is a business (which is why we see so many remakes and reboots right now. Those entities have a built in audience, so they are less of a risk than brand new IPs.)

In the year of 2022, it just baffles me that people can be so upset about a fictional character not being white… while still trying to say our society doesn’t have a race problem…