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As racists collectively pull their hair out in anger after Disney named a Black woman, singer and actress Halle Bailey, as Ariel in the upcoming Little Mermaid, a flood of support has been streaming in backing their casting choice.
—Halle Bailey will play Ariel in Disney’s live-action remake of ‘The Little Mermaid’—
Disney announced that one half of the Chloe x Halle singing duo would be cast in their live-action remake, which sent the internet in a frenzy praising the pick of Black woman, while others slammed the company for opting for a woman of color and promised to protest the movie.
Bailey assumes a role which originally featured a white red-headed character from the 1989 animated film, which has caused people to boil in anger about a fictional cartoon about a fictional creature.
The ridiculous outrage even promoted a petition #NotMyAriel and several racist Facebook groups even popped up, posting memes criticizing Black people with repulsive comments like “why would a Black person be given a role to swim when Black people can’t swim.”
Disney’s Freeform channel which airs the hit show Grown-ish, starring Bailey, her sister Chloe and Yara Shahidi, posted a response to her haters titled: “An open letter to the Poor, Unfortunate Souls” to explain how silly the angry reaction to the casting is, PEOPLE reports.
“Yes. The original author of The Little Mermaid was Danish. 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),” the post read. “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,” the letter continued. “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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And to boot, Freeform had to take it there to remind folks that after all, this is all based on a fake concept of a mermaid.
“But spoiler alert – bring it back to the top – the character of Ariel is a work of fiction,” the network continued. “So after all this is said and done, and you still cannot get past the idea that choosing the incredible, sensational, highly-talented, gorgeous Halle Bailey is anything other than the INSPIRED casting that it is because she ‘doesn’t look like the cartoon one,’ oh boy, do I have some news for you…about you.”
Bailey on the other had hasn’t said anything about the hateful comments but on Wednesday when Disney made the initial announcement, she did post about the joy of being cast in the role.
“Dream come true…,” she tweeted.
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