Black Castings: Disney’s Past Vs. Its Future
Has Disney finally broken the spell of its racist past? The new Little Mermaid trailer is just one example of Disney’s step in the right direction.
The star of the new live-action version of The Little Mermaid’s trailer makes a groundbreaking appearance in the last twenty seconds of the clip: Ms. Halle Bailey. Halle–one half of the R&B sister duo ChloexHalle who have three recent Grammy nominations under their belt—was cast as Ariel in Disney’s newest live-action movie coming out in May 2023.
But the backlash to this casting has been especially severe because Bailey is a Black woman. Racist insults about how Ariel is meant to be white or how Bailey’s red locs weren’t in the animated movie have flooded comment sections. Racking up over 1 million dislikes on YouTube within two days, it’s safe to say that the public is not a fan of a Black Ariel.
Unfortunately, Disney’s history quite literally set them up for these reactions. After all, their racist past is what so many people have grown up on—just look at the derogatory quotes in scripts of Disney children’s films like Peter Pan and the Jungle Book.
Oh yeah, and did I mention the fact that there’s only one Black Disney princess who gets to spend the majority of her movie as a frog? Since Disney media has become such a fundamental part of Western childhood, it’s hard for many to let go of the stereotypical white characters that frequent lead roles on the big screen. So Disney’s casting for Bailey as Ariel is quite progressive—considering it’s Disney—and a step in the right direction. In fact, Disney has pushed past the backlash and continued to incorporate more diverse castings into their newer movies.
The red-headed mermaid is not the only example of recent progressive casting on Disney’s part. Yara Shahidi, of African American and Iranian descent, has been selected for the role of Tinker Bell in Disney’s live-action version of Peter Pan and Wendy coming out in 2023.
Shahidi is best known for her role as teenager Zoey Johnson in the popular TV series Black-ish and Grown-ish. On numerous occasions, she has used her platform to make appearances on shows like TEDxTeen in order to speak about harmful Black stereotypes in the media.
Another well-known white Disney princess that was cast as a woman of color is Snow White. Latina actress Rachel Zegler will star in this live-action movie coming out in 2024. Zegler has previously starred as Maria Vasquez in the musical West Side Story and is also very vocal about Latine xenophobia and racism in Hollywood.
So although Disney may never be able to erase its racist past, we can only hope that their recent streak of inclusivity in these new movies will continue in the future. Because Disney is such an integral part of many’s childhoods, the least we can do for the younger generation is have characters with more diverse ethnicities than what we grew up on.
And whether Halle Bailey playing Ariel is considered reparations for Disney’s racist history, we are excited to hear her beautiful voice and watch her swim around with all the fish under the sea.