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?
Your post is very interesting in the respect that it highlights white fragility in the sense that the presence of a Black woman playing the role of a fictional creature in a fictional story is cause for pushback and criticism is just staggering. I feel that using a household name like Disney which is also a little bit of a global monopoly is a very effective way of helping understand that deeply rooted racist and Eurocentric values are very prevalent even in the ‘innocent’ children’s movies that we all watched as children. You also hit the nail on the head with unlocking the next door which is that this form of racism is a power struggle and that a lot of the hatefulness lies within white people not being able to fathom BIPOC individuals having any voice at all.
I think that this was an awesome topic for a blog post! Given Disney’s prominence as a powerhouse in entertainment, both in the U.S. and worldwide, the choices they make and the public response to them serve as a reflection of wider society, disheartening as that may be. I believe you raise a number of really interesting questions and nudge the conversation in an important direction.
I was aware about the notion that Disney tends to mainly have movies and representations that solely focuses on the White demographic than others. When I heard about the live action movie of The Little Mermaid would be including a Black Woman as Ariel (who is White) I was surprised. To be honest, I do not know if it was a good surprise or bad surprised. I just confused by it because it was not expected but not I was against it or anything. Because we have it engraved in our minds that Disney depicts princesses as White we kind of expect it to continue since it is a norm. I liked your post a lot and it informed me in more ways than one.
This post is really informative and I liked how you laid it out in the beginning. I also liked how you included specific examples to show your overall main idea and what you are getting across. It is crazy that outrage from an amusement park is rooted in racism! I think your questions at the end were also really good and interesting and important to think about.