Why is it that white people seem to be so threatened by the idea of representation and equity? White people seem to believe that they are entitled to being represented through the media, even in spaces where Black individuals are requesting more POC (people of color) characters and stories. For example, Disney has recently been under some backlash from audiences about choices for their theme parks and movies. Simply because of people attempting to keep white power. People who are angry about the situations try their best to disguise their disgust with other variables, but ultimately, their anger comes from racism. This is because, for some reason, white people view black liberation as a threat to their power.
The Disney parks recently announced and reopened a ride formerly called “Splash Mountain.” The ride was formerly themed around a movie from the year 1946 entitled “The Song of The South.” This movie takes place on a plantation and follows the story of a former slave who daydreams about the days when he was still a slave. The movie is severely racist and pushes damaging stereotypes about Black people, while also glorifying slavery. This ride, which was very overdue for a re-theme, is now entitled “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure”, inspired by the movie “The Princess and The Frog,” which stars Disney’s first Black princess. Fans of the parks were outraged at this change, claiming that tradition and originality were on the line. In reality, when looking at other changes made to the parks, opening-day rides have closed down in the past with not nearly the same level of outrage. So the question then is why are people particularly passionate about this change?
In 2023 the live action Little Mermaid movie came to theaters, starring Halle Bailey as Ariel. The story follows the same as the original animated movie, one of the main differences being that Bailey is a Black woman. The representation in this movie for little Black girls seeing their favorite princess, who now looks like them, was impactful in so many ways. In no way does this movie take away from the original story or the princess that older generations grew up with. It was an addition to an already very loved story. This, however, is not how many audiences took the news. People proclaimed that it made no sense for Ariel to have black skin, listing off reasons such as the fact that mermaids can’t have melanin in their skin and that Ariel is culturally White. Both being reasons not based on logic or truth, but seeded in racism. At the end of the day, people will come up with many reasons as to why representation should not happen. But in both of these cases, the claims as to why are based on racist ideals, and not significant facts.
A racist agenda is surprisingly easy to hide. In both of these examples there are plenty of claims people made about their frustrations that are easily counterclaimed with simple logic. Why are you so passionate about this particular ride and not other changes to the theme parks? It went as far as people making a memorial for the ride on its closing day. It is rooted in racism. Why are you so angry about the actor playing Ariel being Black, when they also changed the storyline and relationship of Ariel and Prince Eric? It is rooted in racism. How many more examples do we need to bring into the spotlight for people to realize that racism is the driving force for so many of the strong opinions that Americans seem to uphold? Is the blame for these horrible scenarios to be put onto the company, or the consumers? Do we think that these types of reactions from the consumer prompts large corporations such as Disney to continue representing racist ideals?