The Hateration of Halle Bailey for Being Cast as ‘The Little Mermaid’ Is Racist Pure & Simple

Disney’s The Little Mermaid holds a very special place in my heart. It was of (if not the first) movie I saw in theaters – and I got to experience it with one of my most favorite people on the planet, my Grams.  It was a beautiful experience, and to this day, thirty years later, I continue to have a deep and undying love for the film. 

I am going to be honest, I hadn’t heard of Halle Bailey until it was announced that she would be playing Ariel in the live action version of the film, so I did some research. What I discovered was that not only could she act, but she could sing – beautifully.  For a character I have loved for basically as long as I can remember, those were my only two requirements. 

“If you can have a white Jesus, we can have a black little mermaid.” Comedian Sampson McCormick

The amount of hate I am seeing about this casting, because of the color of the actress’ skin is disgusting.  Ariel, as lovely and wonderful and beautiful as she is, is a fish – little things like race have nothing to do with anything because, let’s be real – she doesn’t exist. 

In the 82 years of Disney’s animated films history there have been exactly 4 princesses of color.  Four (And it should be noted that Jasmine, who is middle eastern, was voiced by Linda Larkin, who is white). Four.  It should also be noted that Esmerelda, is not a princess, but still technically a person of color, who was voiced by Demi Moore – who is also white.

A lot of the hate I’m seeing is from gay men. Shouldn’t we be beyond this? As a group of people who have managed to over come a shit-ton or prejudice rhetoric ourselves, shouldn’t we be lifting up others instead of trying to rip them down?  But I guess I still see a lot of no blacks, no Asians, no fats, no femmes on Grindr profiles – so maybe we haven’t.

But we should. 

Fairy Tales are supposed to inspire – everyone. Not just white kids. Everyone. Yes, the little mermaid is based off of a Nordic fairy tale, but if you want to stay true to that, then it needs to follow the original story, which means, she needs to die in the end, and not just die, she needs to commit suicide.  If you don’t want her to do that, than your concerns have nothing to do with keeping true to the original story and are based solely on the color of someone’s skin – and that makes you a racist. There’s no arguing. It’s a fact and I recommend you deal with it. 

To Halle, you deserve this. You’re going to be great. I am so excited for you!