Girls of color grew fins, and then wings: a chat about race-swapping

Hello to all my readers here at Takeaway, hope everyone is doing well. Today, we are going to be talking about race-swapping in live action Disney movies, and movies overall. With the upcoming film releases of the Little Mermaid & Peter Pan and Wendy, there has been some controversy surrounding the actresses who now are reimagining the characters of Ariel and Tinker Bell from people who are outraged at this race-swap and others who praise Disney for providing this representation. But first, what is race-swapping?

                             

Race-swapping is when a character's original race is swapped in another adaptation of the character's story. Some examples of race swapping are: A Wrinkle In Time with Meg, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (the live action adaptation) with the main character Snow White, and Hermoine Granger in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (a Broadway rendition of the franchise). 

All of these race swaps had triggered a big reaction out of the media whether it was straight up racism, or toxic nostalgia. But let's get into what some of these reactions were: 

Some people were outraged that characters that they grew up with, and were a part of them for so long, were now going to represent something else. People just refused to accept the new rendition of these characters, demanding the representation be removed and reprimanding the casting directors for their choice of actress. And some other people tried to not appear racist by creating outlandish reasons for why these characters could not canonically be people of color, demanding the representation for themselves instead which is. . .selfish, to say the least. 

A lot of these responses were permeated with toxic nostalgia. Seeing a character that you once loved being portrayed in a different light can be challenging, but that feeling doesn't allow you to spread negativity online, when the story and journey of the character is staying the same. As we push on to a modern era of radical empathy and cultural sensitivity, television needs to get with the program, and increase the visibility of marginalized peoples. Don't be upset that a character that you once knew is changing, because as I said before, the only thing that is changing is their appearance. Their traits, the plot and the journey is all continuing on. If a character's race swap immediately presents a problem for you, than that might be a signal that you do need to fix yourself. 

But what are my thoughts on this? 

I believe that this race-swapping is a positive thing. Now, girls of color get to see themselves in a new light, and get to step into a world where characters that are idolized in pop culture can represent us too. It is very important that this representation is being executed in television and film, because representation actually really does matter. Being represented in the media that you consume is so important as it helps you to build your self esteem, create a sense of self and sometimes, it's nice to see someone like you being portrayed in a certain light. 

However, my main concern floats in the territory of original characters. Let's not get so caught up with race swapping, that we forget about original characters that are people of color. I just don't want girls of color to be getting other's leftovers. It's unfair, and we do need our own individual things that is ours. 

I hope you guys enjoyed  this post and were able to maybe take away something from this. If you are interested (or want to), make sure to share this post or follow me (if you have a blog). Sending everyone well wishes!

Ciao, 

Miki ✌🏾