“Heard they were remaking the movie The Color Purple,” one member posted in the group. “They recast Oprah [Winfrey] and [Whoopi Goldberg] with [Gwyneth] Paltrow and Drew [Barrymore].”
“I’m really hoping that a black little mermaid will inspire an entire generation of people to learn to swim,” another member posted, an apparent jab at the Black community, who historically did not have the same access to public swimming pools as White Americans and are statistically less likely to swim, even to this day.
“I won’t allow my child to watch the new little mermaid. Changing the color of my most beloved princess is just wrong,” someone else posted. “I’m blessed to have found a group of people who relate to and share my thoughts.”
As word about the existence of the group has circulated online, a large number of Facebook users, many of whom are Black, have joined the group in protest, calling its members to task for their opposition to the movie on racial grounds. A majority of the most recent posts are from such users.
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One member joked, “We really came in this group & turned it into ours.”
“Just curious,” someone posted, “what do y’all think Jesus looks like?” Other posts included historically accurate renderings of what Jesus may have looked like.
“I just can’t understand all the flack about the Little Mermaid being Black. The Jesus that is depicted as a blond haired, blue eyed white person certainly does not fit his description in your Bible. Cleopatra who was an Egyptian queen is depicted in the movies as a pure white woman,” someone else posted. “You can depict obviously non-whites as white but to depict a cartoon character as Black is a deadly crime.”
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Another user posted a “Cool Disney Fact” about “The Little Mermaid” animated series, which pointed out that in the series, “Ariel meets an African mermaid from the Ivory Coast. This is because mermaids are fictional and can be black.”
