Hello Meltingpot Readers,
If any of you have children in the age range of 7 – 17 like I do, then you may be aware of a new film coming out called Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet. Let me be clear though, while my children know all about this movie and want to see it, I have only a vague idea of what it’s about and I never saw the first movie.
So, why are we talking about this movie then, you ask? Good question. The reason, is colorism. (cue the dramatic music). Lawd have mercy here we are again talking about colorism. Yes, dear readers, colorism has reared its ugly head again, and this time it’s in a Disney movie.
WHITEWASH
The news broke on Twitter, well, at least that’s where I heard about it. Apparently, in Wreck-It Ralph 2, there is a scene where all of the Disney princesses – think Cinderella, Snow White as well as women like Moana and Rapunzel – are having a slumber party or some sort of gathering. The fun part is, many of them are wearing modern clothing instead of their usual fairytale gear, so it’s kind of fun to see how the Disney artists visualized these women operating in modern times. Unfortunately, modernizing Princess Tiana, seemed to mean that she had to have her skin lightened and her features whitened.
Truth be told, 2018 Tiana looks like a brown-skinned biracial girl with loosely curled hair. She looks absolutely beautiful, but she doesn’t look like the original Princess Tiana. Why come, Disney? Why come?
In my opinion, the issue here isn’t so much the change in skin tone, it’s Tiana’s features that require questioning. First, the hair. New Tiana’s hair is a texture and color that is completely different from the original. And it’s not only different, it looks more like European hair than African hair. Now, I wrote the book on Black hair so there’s no need to remind me that Black hair comes in every single texture and shade. I’m not arguing that a Black girl can’t have brown, loosely curled hair, I’m just saying this Black girl – Tiana – never had that hair before, so how’s she going to have it now? I mean, if you wanted to update Tiana’s look, how about a big, beautiful Afro? Some braids or twists? Dreadlocks would be cool too. Team natural is all the rage right now so she’d be right on trend rocking a natural style.
Tiana’s other features, the shape of her eyes, her nose and lips all just look like someone was using a Eurocentric standard of beauty to create an African American princess. A princess, who already had a face and features that didn’t need improvement. So, again, why the change Disney?
WHAT’S DISNEY GOING TO DO?
As of this writing, Disney hasn’t made a public statement to explain the differences in Tiana’s appearance. They also haven’t addressed why Pocahontas lost all of her melanin in this movie as well. (And FYI, colorism in the Native American community is definitely a thing.) And really, the only explanation I can think of is that there weren’t enough artists of color at the table to look at these renderings and sound an alarm. Instead, whoever’s job it was to draw the new Tiana, probably thought there were doing a great job making a Black princess even more beautiful. They didn’t realize that their own bias was guiding their hand and effectively sending the message that darker skinned Black girls, with kinky hair and wide noses, aren’t as beautiful as lighter skinned ones with thin, perky features. *sigh*
CALLING FOR A DO-OVER
Still, I’ll be waiting to see how Disney addresses this issue, if they do at all. The fact is, Wreck-It Ralph doesn’t hit theaters until November. I’m not an artist nor a movie executive, so I don’t know what’s possible, but I wonder if they could just redo Tiana in all of her scenes. It’s my understanding that the princesses are not a major part of the film, so maybe. That would be amazing if Disney chose to listen to Black Twitter and made a real effort, despite the costs, to restore Tiana to her original hue. I’m sure they’d score major points with the Blacks. (Ka-ching, Disney).
Don’t worry, dear readers. I’ll be keeping track of this story and keep you updated as things develop. I know you want to stay in the know. Here’s the trailer so you can see Tiana in action.
What do you think Disney should do to fix this situation? Any ideas? Even if Disney isn’t listening, I am.
Peace!
