Why can we imagine a world with singing fishes, but not one where a mermaid can be Black?
That's the question that many people, myself included, asked after witnessing the racist backlash to Disney's recent live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid. In 2019, the media conglomerate announced that singer and actress Halle Bailey had secured the role of Ariel. But despite her being Grammy-nominated, many people could focus only on the color of Bailey's skin. As I've previously reported:
Right-wing commentators, including Matt Walsh, tried to “scientifically” explain why a mermaid, a fictional sea creature, couldn’t be Black. Others denounced the casting decision as “woke pandering” from Disney. Racist illustrations depicting Bailey with fried chickens circulated—one Twitter user even edited the film’s trailer footage to make Bailey appear white.
And this isn't even the first time we've seen this response. From Star Wars to Harry Potter to several Marvel movies, whenever an actor of color plays a character widely viewed as white, some fans go totally berserk. But why?
My colleague Sam Van Pykeren and I had the pleasure of speaking with Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, the award-winning author of The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination From Harry Potter to the Hunger Games, to unpack the racism lurking in fantastical spaces and how the culture can resist racist gatekeeping. You can check out the full interview here!
—Arianna Coghill