Of Race And Bending

While I was away, one controversy caught my eye — and that was the anger some people had at Disney for their live action remake of The Little Mermaid and their decision to have the black actress Halle Bailey play Ariel. Bailey is an actress with a long history both in the music industry and working for Disney, so it makes sense she would be chosen. However, the decision to make this previously white character from a European fairy tale black has led to some conversation on the topic of race.

Over on my YouTube channel, I covered the video a YouTuber named Shady Doorag made criticizing this decision and gave my basic thoughts on this situation. However, Shady was far from the only person to have an odd and nonsensical take. Matt Walsh, the right-wing podcaster, spent time on his show arguing that scientifically it didn’t make any sense for a mermaid to have dark skin. Meanwhile, others were criticizing an Amazon produced series based off of Lord of the Rings for having black and Asian actors to play characters who were only described as white in the original books.

At this point, I think it’s fair to say that everybody is against the practice of whitewashing, or making a character who was originally any race other than white white for the sake of an adaption. When The Last Airbender — a movie based off of the Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender — was released in 2010, one…