augh.

[kuangning]

I know it's a small thing in the scheme of things, but I just saw the trailer for Disney's latest, and I'm still sputtering with rage.

Here you go, have a look.

Now, my first reaction was "ooh, she's not white." Sadly, that doesn't last.

* Apparently, Fairytale Magic isn't allowed to work on black people, at least not the first time. (See what happens when we let you people in? You break it!)

* What happened to the princess' intrinsic honesty in keeping her promise overcoming her delicate nature? Apparently, honesty *and* delicacy aren't allowed for black princesses, huh? Black chicks are allowed Attitude and tough-mindedness, 'cause they're all untamable and shit, but that's all.

* WTF voodoo? Did we drag out every stereotype ever? I bet we did!

* OMFG those accents.

* I bet somebody, somewhere, is going to drag his/her tired [white?] ass out of the woodwork to tell me all about how they deigned to do a story about a black princess and now I'm not grateful enough. That somebody had better watch how s/he phrases it today, and that's all I have to say about that. This is ... beyond tripe, and I was already fed up with the world. I'm starting to believe that we should manage things like this like we do certain forests -- sometimes, you just have to burn the shit to the ground and start over, to have a chance of ending up with something healthy.

Comments

[avahgdu.livejournal.com]

After Pocahontas, I have not trusted the Mouse-House.

I can't believe this is what they are handing the black community.

[kuangning]

Oh, it gets better. She's not a real princess either, turns out! At least, not until she marries the prince. Silly me, expecting that the princess in the story would still be a princess in the movie. Why does he want a kiss from her to break the spell if she's not a real princess at all?

[hardvice.livejournal.com]

Wow. That is... yikes.

As a friend of mine once said of Queer Eye, "sometimes, invisibility is better than the shit they churn out in the name of inclusiveness."

What's particularly entertaining about this is that Disney's banking on it. And then of course, if and when it fails, it will be because they "took a risk" by making her black, and not because they did everything so epically wrong.

And then there's the whole tone to the trailer (and all the other marketing I've seen on it): "you think you know the story, but guess what? SHE'S BLACK! BOOM! IS YOUR MIND BLOWN?" I mean, really, they can stop giving themselves a reach-around any time now.

[laura.livejournal.com]

It won't fail, though. It will be seen by scores of white families, whose parents send them and won't even notice the stereotypes, and will applaud themselves for having no problem with showing their children what black girls can be princesses too. After all, all we white people are colorblind!

[i.livejournal.com]

after all, Disney was a Nazi...

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

He's also been dead for half a century. We don't need to diffuse blame with the whole "sins of the father" thing when the descendants have been acting on their own quite "capably" for a couple of generations.

[envoy.livejournal.com]

I'm confused, I didn't think Disney did theatrical releases of sequels.

[aris-tgd.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my enthusiasm for this project basically went,

"Hey, Disney's finally going to have a black princess! About fucking time!"

*sees trailer*

"... Check, please."

[rosefox]

Did I see glimpses of New Orleans and jazz musicians? Did I really?

[kuangning]

Sadly, you really did. Goes along with all the voodoo and the witch doctor.

[rosefox]

I'm waiting for Kanye West to pop up and declare that Walt Disney just doesn't care about black people.

[kuangning]

... what, the "Disney was a Nazi" comment didn't cover that? ;)

[rosefox]

True, those do generally seem to be congruent sets.