I can’t seem to get to a blank home screen when I open Edge, so I sometimes get to see headlines I wouldn’t normally see. I usually ignore them, but this one by Alex Miller in Newsweek caught my eye: “Making White Characters Black Isn’t Progress—It’s Pandering. And It Insults Black Fans Like Me.”
It was an interesting perspective, and I could see what he was saying. One passage of a few paragraphs in particular struck a chord with me:
“Yet after that massive milestone [the release of two Black Panther movies], Disney decided that what we needed was the token representation of palette switching, announcing a Black Ariel in their live action remake of ‘The Little Mermaid,’ out in May of this year.
We are told our little sisters are jumping for joy across the nation because of this, that Black moms are telling their children it’s so great that Disney gave us this amazing bounty of mana from on high. Videos across the internet show little Black kids celebrating that ‘a princess looks like me’ as if that’s some kind of gift.
Yet there are hundreds of stories of real Black princesses Disney isn’t making films about. One of my favorite characters is Mami Wata, a water spirit well-known in West, Central, and South African folklore. She’s like Ariel, but better: She can possess people, she has kinky, curly hair, and sometimes abducts her followers.
She would make an amazing Disney heroine! Why choose to race swap an existing story about a historically white character from Danish folklore instead of investing in a real Black one from African lore?”
I think this is a good question. You could almost call it a form of racism to constantly go to the well of white, European fairy tales and fables for your stories in this day and age when it’s so painfully obvious that other cultures are just bursting with material. As I read Miller’s article I thought, “Wow, I’d love to see a movie with this Mami Wata character.” We’ve spent so much time (especially lately) retreading the same old, tired stuff, and here we have a treasure trove of stories that have barely been touched – and all because the studios think we all want more of the same garbage. But a water spirit that possesses people and abducts her followers? It sounds interesting. And to think – we could actually do it right this time. Get back to the true telling of these stories instead of the Disneyfied, toned-down versions. More toward Guillermo del Toro’s version of Pinocchio and less toward Disney’s live-action remake…which I didn’t even know existed until I saw del Toro’s version. The success of the movie Parasite just a few years ago should have served as a sign to moviemakers that we can actually look outside of the same old tropes (and the same old cultures) for fascinating stories. We can say the same, too, for the wide variety of material you see now on streaming platforms that come from other cultures. It’s definitely there if moviemakers would only explore a bit more.
Let’s move past this outdated mode of thinking that the only way to make up for past prejudices against people of color on the screen is to shoehorn them into white stories. No – let’s go to the well of black (and other) cultures around the world and start telling those stories, honestly and beautifully. I guarantee you; this is a can’t miss proposition. Until then though, Hollywood’s apparent lack of confidence and courage could be telling us something.
Ariel is a mermaid. She should be green and silver.