“The Little Mermaid” is one of Disney’s most beloved movies that many of us grew up watching, and a live-action version is set to bring the story to a whole new generation. Halle Bailey, best known for being 1/2 of the singing duo Chloe x Halle, is taking on the role of Ariel and from the looks of the trailer, she’s done an incredible job. However, not everyone is thrilled with the casting.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, many racists have claimed that Ariel — a totally fictional MERMAID, we should clarify — was white. Bailey is black, so casting her is the result of “woke culture” taking things too far, apparently. We won’t go into why that’s backward and ridiculous.
However, now that the first full-length trailer for “The Little Mermaid” starring Halle Bailey has hit YouTube, the trolls have come out in full force. They’ve not only flooded the trailer with a ton of dislikes on YouTube, but they’ve also been leaving some vile comments across social media.
“The Little Mermaid is a Danish fairy tale,” one person wrote on Twitter. “The Danish people are, historically speaking, white. Why make Ariel black? Just because it’s 2023? It’s not racism, it’s simply wondering why the need to change it in the first place? Would you accept a white live-action Pocahontas?”
Ignoring the fact that Pocahontas was a REAL LIVE PERSON WHO ACTUALLY EXISTED, this guy needs a grip.
And while Bailey has sadly learned to expect racist backlash to pretty much everything she does, she still feels fortunate that she’s able to do give little black girls something to look up to.
“The fact that now it’s getting to be played by me, a person who looks like me, a woman of color, I’m just like, wow, I’m so grateful for what it will do for all the other little Black and brown boys and girls who will see themselves in me,” she told People. “Because I know if I had seen myself when I was younger, I think my whole perspective would’ve changed.”
