My Thoughts on the Ariel Casting

MegaSoulhero I wasn’t originally gonna talk about this, but this whole thing has gotten so out of hand in such a short amount of time that I needed to give my thoughts.

In case you didn’t know, Disney recently announced who will play Ariel in the live action Little Mermaid. The girl’s name is Halle Bailey, not to be confused with Halle Berry. She’s a young actress as well as a singer and she definitely looks very pretty. So she definitely has the right qualities to play the main character. But unfortunately, a lot of people are upset about this casting. Why? Because she’s black. That’s literally the only reason. Look, I’ve made it very clear that I am not a fan of the live action Disney remakes, but I personally have no problem with this casting and I don’t understand why other people DO have a problem. I mean, it’s not like her race is essential to the story. People often try to say that making Ariel black would be like making Tiana white. Um, did anyone actually watch Princess and the Frog? It takes place during the Jim Crow era. African Americans were discriminated against. Which is why she had trouble getting her own restaurant. People even try to compare it to the idea of whitewashing Mulan (which they didn’t, this is just hypothetical). Mulan takes place in China. Of course she HAS to be Chinese. With the Little Mermaid, you can make Ariel any kind of ethnicity and it wouldn’t change a single thing.

People also try to argue that it actually is important to the story because it takes place in Denmark so she has to be Danish. Um... she’s a mermaid. And she lives underwater. Unless mermaids are real, I don’t think we can actually determine what ethnicity a mermaid should be. Even in the TV series, there was an episode that introduced a dark skinned Latina mermaid. So that alone makes this criticism invalid. And finally, a more simple argument is that “it’s not the Ariel I grew up with”. Um... so? This remake is made for the kids of THIS generation. Not for grown up cry babies who want everything to match with their childhood. The animated film still exists. Also, I’m sorry that the character has to be white for you to enjoy her. If you’re against a black actress playing Ariel, you’re racist. There’s no way around it. There’s no reason why a black girl shouldn’t play Ariel.

I really think people should just accept that they went with a POC for the main character. And I doubt they specifically cast her because of her racist. Like I said, she’s very talented. It’s better to cast someone based on talent rather than finding someone who looks like they character but has no talent. They tried that with Belle and we all saw how that turned out. Halle Bailey doesn’t deserve the hate she’s getting (for now). I think she will do great. I’m sure the movie will suck either way.

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