Ugh, I've been avoiding this commentary ever since Halle's role was introduced way back when. I knew it was coming, but I didn't want to acknowledge it. I was hoping we could at least make it to the theater before the racist trolls piped up, but that's my own fault for being an optimist.
My faith in humanity drops ever lower...
I've been rallying against racist internet ignorance for years now and I really should not be surprised that people are still persistently petty when it comes to fictional characters being played by real people of color.
Back in college, I wrote a speech about representation in the comic book medium and the need for more diverse superheroes. I still vividly recall being at one tournament, practicing my speech before going on next round, when one of my teammates mentioned the Fantastic Four casting drama going on. While I did see how casting a Black man and a White woman as siblings was a bit sus, it stood to show that people will bash a casting choice if their earliest representation of that role does not match the actor's appearance... even if no actor alive has firey superpowers. But Michael B. Jordan comes pretty damn close to being a meta human, you have to admit.
I mean come on, the man is too damn jacked for his own damn good.
The timing was too perfect. I literally grabbed their smartphone (I was still rocking a quote unquote "dumb phone" at the time), found a reputable online news source to cite, and wrote it into my speech for the next round. And now here we are, years later, and my speech is still relevant. Matter of fact, if I had anything but the opening line still lingering in my brain, I'd recite the whole speech to you right now. But until I find those old note cards, you're safe... for now.
I don't want to hear any arguments that 'this isn't about racism, it's about science.'
Fam, she's a mermaid. Science says she's fake, and science also says you're an asshole.
Claiming that a fictional being can't be black because 'they live so deep underwater that sunlight hardly reaches them so they wouldn't have much melanin' is such a weird argument to me because, like... they can move? Ariel's whole shtick is that she doesn't want to live under the sea. She wants to journey out on land. She frequently swims up above the water to scavenge thingamabobs and ogle sailors. Not saying that she should be black because of this, but it's feasible that some mermaids might not spend their entire time on the ocean floor. We only saw King Triton's kingdom. Who's to say there weren't other mermaids out there in the tropics rocking some melanin? I'm sure Sebastian knows what's up.
I'm guessing they stopped talking to him cuz he can't dance.
There have actually been some people out there using science to defend the casting choice of Halle Bailey, which is cool but it still rubs me the wrong way.
Marine biologist Karen Osborn spoke to Buzzfeed about the likelihood of having Black mermaids, comparing the evolutionary traits of fish to mermaids. By her logic, a mermaid being Halle's skin color would be totally plausible because brown-skinned mermaids would be like brown and red-toned fish in the deep. Even though a half-human, half-fish hybrid would likely not spend very much time in the briny depths due to probably having lungs or something, they could still reside on the ocean floor like Sebastian sings.
Osborn points out that as you dive deeper into the ocean, "you see animals that are pigmented or deep red [because] there's hardly any red light in the deep sea, so being red is effectively being black. Then you see lots of brown fish and lots of black fish and lots of ultra-black fish." I, for one, am only interested in if there are any vanta-black fish and if Anish Kapoor has already gone fishing for them.
Osborn goes on to state that it would be more beneficial and more logical for a sea creature who lives at the depths of the ocean to have darker pigmentation in order to pose as both better predators and clever prey.
Osborn is particularly interested by ultra-black fish, and shared that being black in color is advantageous for both predators and prey in the deep sea because the color absorbs light.
My issue with this is that whenever Black/Brown people are brought into a scientific debate as subjects rather than experts, it doesn't end well. Time and time again, someone has to point out that comparing a human being (who has been historically depicted as beastly savages) to actual beasts is not okay. And while human beings are part of this great big circle of life, there's still a better way to say this without coming off as cringey.
I really wanted to use the gif of Rafiki yeeting baby Simba off of the cliff here, but this quote was more poignant and profound... Ah who am I kidding, here it is anyway!
YEET
Another issue I have with taking the scientific approach is that BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) aren't exactly huge fans of scientists commenting on our ethnical differences. There were (and probably still are) medical textbooks circulating that claimed Black people have physically thicker skin and are stronger than most, which becomes an even bigger issue when you consider how often medical professionals ignore the pained cries of Black people, women, Black women, etc. And when you factor in how often other... 'professionals' tend to use excessive force on Black and Brown individuals, it's perpetuating this dangerous falsehood that BIPOC need to be analyzed under a different scope and therefore treated differently. Though I do also feel compelled to bring up the idea that redheads are more tolerant to pain, becuase if we're gonna talk about some strong meta humans, a red-headed Black woman has got to be the absolute juggernaut, am I right?
No wonder they're scared of her! Can you say new Marvel movie?
But honestly, the biggest issue that I have with bringing science into this Black mermaid realism debate... is that she's a goddamn mermaid! Y'all can pose hypotheticals all you want, but at the end of the day, unless scientists are willing to create an actual living, sorta-breathing mermaid (not gonna ask how amphibious she'd be), there's no scientific evidence that she can't be black.
I truly do love how many TikTok users have stepped in to comment on this, though, because there are some straight facts brought into the equation.
TikTok user @discountbokatan demonstrated how red hair will appear darker – somewhat brown, even – when wet. Based on this, the fact that Halle's locs are not the bold, bright, fire-engine red that one can only get from being an animated character is not unrealistic. And I'm sure there's some people out there claiming that Black people can't be ginger too, but that's a whole other debate that I'm not getting into and quite frankly, this article already did the work for me.
Credentials: she is a ginger
Whereas Instagram user @tonyweaverjr demonstrated how Hollywood has been casting White people to play fictional BIPOC for decades with no apologies:
The argument that making Pocahontas white or Tiana white is already gross without even considering that Tiana and Pocahontas were introduced years after their real world representative groups had to have civil rights movements just to fight for the right to... ya know, exist? Ignoring the fact that Tiana and Pocahontas are not the spokespersons for a racial and/or ethnic group, the fact that Ariel is white is not actually relevant to her character, her storyline, or her plot arc. The driving forces behind Tiana and Pocahontas are them fighting for their voices to be heard and to shoot down the societal expectations for them. Oh and also, both of their enemies are white dudes, so... [and no, I do not mean Dr. Facilier because A.) he's more Prince Naveen's enemy than Tiana's and B.) the two realtors are the real villains here]. @tonyweaverjr explains it better than I do, so please add this reel to your viewing homework.
When I was little, my favorite Disney princess was Ariel. And to this day, I never got over how much I wished my hair was like hers, when 'realistically,' thanks to the magic of water physics and Disney physics, her hair wouldn't even be like hers. And if you've been to my blog before, you know how big of an impact Eurocentric beauty standards and a lack of BIPOC representation has had on my relationship with my hair and my self image. Even after receiving the albeit questionable representation in The Princess and the Frog (which is another topic I have blogged about), I still have to say that I align myself more with Ariel. Not because I want to be part of a world that wouldn't have me, but because I too enjoy having brightly colored hair, collecting worthless crap, talking to animals, and married a soft brunette. If I ever learn how to swim, you might mistake Ariel and I for twins.
Shut up, Flounder. Ain't nobody ask you.
And if you're still going to be bent out of shape about a black Ariel ruining your childhood, may I present to you exhibits A and B:
Exhibit A: There already was a brown-skinned mermaid – Gabriella.
Gabriella appeared in the 1992 Little Mermaid animated series. She was a Latina mermaid who was also deaf/mute and spoke American Sign Language. She was a recurring character in the series, along with her interpreter Ollie the octopus, who was based on a young fan who died of leukemia. So fun fact: not only was a brown mermaid was already part of somebody's childhood and the world didn't burn, a brown mermaid was the eternal symbol of someone's childhood cut too short. Don't you look like an even bigger asshole now, huh? Not only is Gabriella a double whammy of representation (but this ain't diversity bingo, okay – that's next week), but nobody questioned the logistics of a non-existent mythical brown mermaid then. Or if they did, nobody cared.
Exhibit B: Anybody remember The Little Mermaid Live?
Yeah, I didn't remember it either. It wasn't great. But I did watch it, or at least parts of it, when it happened. It was a weird flex, and Disney apparently is determined to try it again but not live because that just sounds too complicated. I also didn't hear anybody argue about Queen Latifah playing Ursula.
"But Ursula was purple, and there's no purple people, so that doesn't count!" Well, actually Ursula was in fact based off of a real person. Ursula was inspired by Divine, a drag performer and not-fictional white male named Harris Glenn Milstead. So by logic, Queen Latifah should not have played Ursula. Right? That's what the argument is, right? So, are we gonna argue that Ursula shouldn't have been played by Queen Latifah?
Or do y'all just not have a problem when the villain is black?
I am so excited to go see the film when it comes out. I love Halle and Chloe Bailey, and while Disney's track record for live action films isn't the best, my inner child is so geeked to see it. And I'm sure someone's actual child is also geeked to see it. Because guess what, this is a kid's movie! Not saying you can't watch it too – but just know that you are not the target audience. As a matter of fact, I think the biggest issue here is that none of us who are commenting on the film that nobody's even seen yet are the target audience. This is a kid's movie. If the kids like it, great. If the Black and Brown kids like it, even better.
Because at the end of the day, this is a fictional character, in a fictional narrative, that has been retold for years and years and was co-opted by a company who really doesn't care what color you think a character should be as long as the money you spend on them is green. Or I guess whatever color currency is outside of the US. You get what I was aiming for.
Consider the tea to be piping hot and properly black cuz we don't drink white tea in this house, you feel me?
I'd like to end this post with some choice words from Thomas Lecaque, twitter user @tlecaque:
Mermaids can be Black. Hobbits can be Black. Elves can be Black. Dwarves can be Black. Jedi can be Black. None of these things are real, so, any of them can be Black, and you can stop being racist.
Art credit: Passing the Torch by @thecrownedheartlove
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