A Twitter user’s account was suspended after she tweeted a video of herself tossing a DVD of “The Little Mermaid” into the trash as a comment on Halle Bailey — who is African-American — being cast in Disney’s live-action remake of the beloved animated classic.
As Complex reports, Twitter users responded with fury until Twitter finally stepped in and suspended the account after tweets such as these.
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Meanwhile, another Twitter user made a dodgy scientific argument attempting to prove that lack of sunlight in a deep underwater environment would ensure that mermaids are white.
This tweet was likewise mocked.
However, on the other end of the spectrum, Bailey’s casting has been met with excitement and support throughout social media, including a message of encouragement from Diana Huey, an Asian-American actress who played Ariel in a touring production of “The Little Mermaid” and also experienced her fair share of racist backlash.
As Huey writes, she, “as an actor of colour, was met with a lot of adversity and upset from people. But more importantly, I was showered with an overwhelming outpouring of love, support and messages of hope and inspiration from people across the globe… Halle is going to make a beautiful Ariel, a powerful Ariel and an inspiring Ariel and I am so excited to watch her change the world with her performance.”
On July 6, the Instagram account of the Disney-owned Freeform channel weighed in with a tongue-in-cheek open letter to the “Poor, Unfortunate Souls” who can’t wrap their heads around a black actress playing Ariel.
“Yes. The original author of The Little Mermaid was Danish,” reads the letter. “Ariel… is a mermaid. She lives in an underwater kingdom in international waters and can legit swim wherever she wants (even though that often upsets King Triton, absolute zaddy). But for the sake of argument, let’s say that Ariel, too, is Danish. Danish mermaids can be black because Danish *people* can be black. Ariel can sneak up to the surface at any time with her pals Scuttle and the *ahem* Jamaican crab Sebastian (sorry, Flounder!) and keep that bronze base tight. Black Danish people, and this mer-folk, can also *genetically* (!!!) have red hair.”
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