The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid and Lord of The Rings is exhausting and extremely predicta

Well, for you, as you have clearly stated multiple times, your anger is entirely about race. I bet that’s the case for almost the “dislikes” the trailer has received. I mean, almost no one admits they are a racist, and come up other reasons to justify it, the civil war and the segregation that followed was only about states rights, anti race mixing laws were justified by Christianity, flying the confederate flag is about “heritage”, you are angry because hiring black actors is “virtue signaling” and “preaching to you”….

 

I will have to research that I read the story in middle school and it says it was authored by Hans Christian Anderson. I don’t remember that stuff. It is also possible somebody heavily edited the story.

 

A great many more are pissed off at Disney for completely wasting a character with such an intriguing origin in favor of pushing a generic Mary Sue who undergoes very little failure or real difficulty over the course of the trilogy.

 

Almost all of those sparked media and social media outrage over racism and minority "erasure." Not all of them, especially the older ones, but most of them.

Now that it's a Black person acting in a White role, we're supposed to believe that the most race-obsessed people, including regarding casting, suddenly don't care about race and that race doesn't matter.

 

Meh... you seem more interested in calling me racist or insinuating that I'm racist than listening to what I have to say. Par for the course I guess.

Oh well. Can't say I didn't try.

 

Yeah, a lot of movie-writing these days involves writing every important male character as a supporting role, comedic relief, buffoonish, and incompetent... while simultaneously writing important female characters as flawless leads with really no character arc or hero's journey. That was probably seen most blatantly in the Star Wars sequels with Rey.

Casting diversity for diversity's sake is a little obnoxious in my opinion but at the end of the day, writing and character development are supreme. Diverse casting that looks natural, realistic, and doesn't break immersion is good. When each member of the Magnificent 7 is a member of a different race/ethnicity, everybody in the audience knows that was intentional and is distracted, either in a way they like or value... or in a way where they kind of roll their eyes.

 

Are mermaids white?

 

No, not necessarily, but the character Ariel has traditionally and iconically been portrayed as White.

 

You mean they haven't yet?

 

Just weird that being inclusive is so painful to people. Ariel.. a fish woman... played by a black girl who can sing... it seems low level controversial. But based on negative reviews and comments its a big insult to, what I'll assume is, a section of white folks.

 

I wouldn't say the recasting of White roles and turning them Black is racist, nor is the desire to cast traditionally White roles with White actors and Black roles with Black characters.

What IS racist is the double standard we're being conditioned to accept. And that's:

When a White role is recasted with a Black actor, it's virtuous and a good thing. When anyone criticizes this, people tell you things like "it's just a movie, race doesn't matter, why do you care so much about race."

But when a minority role is recasted with a White actor, it's a terrible thing, it's White washing, it's minority replacement. The same people I mentioned above will talk about how racist America is and why we need to have minorities play minorities in movies.

THAT is a racial double standard, and another word for a "racial double standard" is "racism."

 

Welcome to 2022 where race is an issue in basically everything. She was selected by Disney for the role because they believe race is an issue. We see all sorts of recasting in favor of minority roles these days because race is an issue. But when people complain when this happens only one way these days, the playbook says to just suddenly act like race isn't an issue. "It's just a children's movie about mermaids, what does it matter?" If it didn't matter, they wouldn't have bothered to do it in the first place, and Disney wouldn't be telling us that it matters.

You're right, the only people who should be leaving reviews are Black folks. Good for you for being anti-racist.

 

Most Danish mermaids are.

 

Where crabs traditionally and iconically portrayed as having Jamaican accents?

 

It depends on how you're experiencing your beach vacation

 

But they were all white, right?

 

I won't dispute that there is a bit of a double standard here which may seem unfair in isolation. But IMO, there are obvious distinctions based upon history, context, and intent.

Hollywood had a long history of being under-inclusive. Maybe the public wasn't ready for that yet, but apparently it is now or else the movies will lose money. Yes, there is an affirmative effort towards inclusion these days - perhaps some driven by sincere effort to right wrongs while some driven by profit. That's true in workplaces across the country as well as in other parts of society, to include movies and television. And it's not just about race but also gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and even body size and disabilities.

To me, anyone who is truly upset about this (not saying you fall into that group) reminds me of those who would organize a Straight Pride event and ask why that's any different from a Gay Pride event. "If we're going to be equal, then let's be equal right now!" Perhaps they have not considered that gay and lesbian folks may need or appreciate fairly-recent social support that the rest of us never needed. Or maybe they understand all that and don't care and just want everyone to see the double standard that irritates them because they think if we're going to be inclusive, then it means ignoring history and context entirely. I've even heard people suggest that Black Americans are getting special treatment because they have their own history month and Historically Black Colleges. I wonder if they've thought about how and why those things came about in the first place. We men could also complain about Title IX since that has helped girls/women, but I think there are good reasons we decided to do that.

 

As always, well-reasoned post.

My big issue with this logic is "to what end?" In other words, how long and to what degree are we going to have special "social support" and movements that are meant to specifically benefit historically marginalized communities at the expense of historically privileged communities?

The shorter in time and smaller the scope, the more it looks like equity, which even that is not necessarily a desirable goal. Equality is a worthwhile goal, which looks more like everyone plays under the same set of rules, today, rather than manipulate the rules today so that everyone starts off on somewhat equal footing.

The longer in time and greater the scope, the more it looks like unfairly prejudicial rules.