Asian American Ariel Encounters Prejudiced Social Media Comments

Just a reminder that she's portraying a mermaid and her sidekicks are a crab, seagull, and fish and the villain is an octopus with eel minions. None of them are actually human.

Brava, Diana! I hear she's fantastic in the role.

Why am I not surprised, especially after yesterday.

In Trump's America, bigots think it's totally acceptable to say whatever they want. He does. He ran on a platform of hate, and people voted for him. What else can we expect now? Very. very sad.

I saw the show in Pittsburgh and the production and directorial choices weren't my favorite, but she was quite good. Her voice was absolutely lovely. I beloeve this is one of the biggest things she's done in her career and I hope it just keeps growing.

People should be able to say whatever they want? Nope. My friend shouldn't be called a "n*" on the subway for being black and I shouldn't be called a "sand n*" for existing on the street as a brown person. Everyone should be able to say anything whatever they want??? Tell that to the family of Heather Heyer. Repugnant.

People have been thinking and saying whatever they want about race in this country since the 19th century? Since its inception? When this land was first discovered by Europe? How much longer is it acceptable to say things that are blatantly racist and literally hurtful? How did Oscar Hammerstein II put it? O yeah, "You've got to be carefully taught." It's still being taught and it's still being said and we've gained less progress than we all thought. This institutionalized and systemic racism has to stop, period. It can't be okay to say things like this anymore. Shows casting Asians as lead characters is an example of the kind of action that is needed. It is the way the entertainment industry can combat these small-minded people. "You change the world when you change your mind." Bravo to this creative team for doing such a simple thing as casting the best singer for the role; it leaves a much bigger impact than the apparent simplicity of the casting choice.

Free speech doesn't include hate speech or other language that's inherently harmful to others. It doesn't encompass neo-Nazi ideology, because if those people had their way every single non-white person in this country would be dead or locked up somewhere. There is no dialogue to be had with people who would throw my queer Jewish ass in a gas chamber before I could logically argue my way out of it. Acting like there is one is appeasement and complicity. America is built on the concept of white people taking things that were never theirs to take from the people who were here first, and constructing their own society on the backs of people they stole from elsewhere. The rise of visible white supremacy isn't because of the opening of dialogue between them and people who aren't hateful, violent racists. It's come about because these vile people feel safe expressing their true thoughts while there's a white supremacist in the White House. We all have every right to be scared and want them to go away. Unless, I guess, you're a white dude, because they were never coming for you anyway.

qolbinau, I say this respectfully, but I believe you are a white person in another country, so you really don't completely understand what it's like to be a someone non-white in America, especially right now. I am respectfully asking you to open your ears. There is no place for hate speech in America. After seeing what I have seen these last few days, I am fed up. Yes, feel free to express whatever opinion you have, but expect those around you to smack you down. The xenophobia in this country is off the charts. You may not agree with the religion, but people have the right to practice with freedom of persecution in the United States of America. Yes you have freedom of speech, but I have the freedom to speak against it. Honestly, I'm not open to having a "conversation" about this. I was a month ago, but it has been proven to me that anyone who still suppots Trump and his ideas are Neo-Nazis and I don't converse with Nazis. I hope that you open your mind and try to put yourself in someone else's shoes. I guarantee that your opinion on this matter will change.

Margo319 said: "People should be able to say whatever they want? Nope. My friend shouldn't be called a "n*" on the subway for being black and I shouldn't be called a "sand n*" for existing on the street as a brown person. Everyone should be able to say anything whatever they want??? Tell that to the family of Heather Heyer. Repugnant.



"

qolbinau didn't say they should be allowed to be allowed to say anything they want because he/she agrees with them/"free speech", it's so we know who these insane people are and can call them out on this. And while there is some truth to the differences between being "disappointed by casting a non white" v attacking due to race, the problem is, is that just because one is more overt than the other, doesn't mean the covert one is ok. Bigotry can be subtle, and that's an example of it. Merely for the fact that Ariel isn't human, for the love of heaven it doesn't matter who's cast as long as they got the skill set and yes they need to be educated about this, but the thing is we've been trying.so.hard. And they're.still.not.getting.it! This is why we finally are just wanting to shut up their nonsense because the "nice conversations and dialogue" haven't done a damn thing. They still don't understand the concept of white privilege nor believe it exists. Once there's an understanding that it exists and WHY, then finally admitting one's privilege can happen, and finally a forward momentum can start. It's not very many steps to take, but it's take a whhoollleee lot to get people to take them. There's a reason why the cliche of "big city people with forward thinking ideas v small minded people who still live in their small hometown" still persists in the world of fiction....because sadly it proves true in real life all too often. Heck I don't even remember exactly or when I finally "saw the light" as it were and I'm glad I did but dammit trying to explain this to people who haven't gotten it proves hard to do. It's hard to explain covert/subtle bigotry to someone who doesn't understand it because all they've seen is their hometown without really haven't been exposed to anything else.

I know I ranted a bit, but these white supremacists coming out like roaches who've been in hiding just makes me want to scream. It's easy to to condemn overt bigotry because those people are just insane. Any sane person would condemn it, but there's still many a sane, but still ignorant, populace who needs to understand that bigotry isn't just murderous lynch mobs, labor slavery, or throwing people of certain backgrounds out of one's establishment. All that may not exist in droves like it used to which I'm grateful for, and much progress has been made in a century's worth of time when humans have been around for eons (think about that for a hot sec...) but there's still a ways to go.

So what are you suggesting? That we shout down these people as racist bigots and let them continue on their racist ways in private where you won't even know that it's happening? I think we all want the same goals but we are disagreeing on the vehicle to achieve that goal.

Good luck trying to change attitudes by shouting down people as racist bigots and suppress freedom of speech. They'll just shut up but turn the Asian applicant away because they aren't a 'good fit', not buy a ticket to the Little Mermaid because it has an Asian actor, not go to the Asian restaurant because they can't get their 'Merican food, complain when their son wants to marry an Asian woman, and not want to travel to an Asian country.

Maybe though they will read the articles about this issue and realise you know what, maybe it doesn't matter if an Asian person is playing a non-human and buy that ticket for them and their family after all.

Updated On: 8/13/17 at 11:10 PM

It sounds incredibly conspiracy-like to claim that the entire 'alt-right' politics movement would want the lead actress to be dead. A very strong claim and to me sounds akin to people saying that all followers of Islam are terrorists. Do we have any real evidence to believe that the specific people complaining about this casting want her dead? To me the issue here seems much more likely to be the small town/backwards-type mentality than a conspiracy to want non-white people dead. I am very dubious/skeptical about this claim indeed - perhaps embarrassing myself. But I just don't buy that the motivations from these complainers were one of wanting non-white people dead. Maybe a small fraction of a movement. But not a whole movement. This is crazy talk - and I am definitely out of touch with the issue and the sense of urgency if it is true (but given the ability for the left and right to overreact and twist each other's views my first reaction is skepticism).

I want to point out that the article mentions that a similar issue arose when he cast Nikki Renée Daniels as Belle in a production of Beauty and the Beast 13 years ago. So you know what will continue to open minds? Diversity in theatre. It will actually change the world. Wouldn't you even agree with that, qolbinau, since you like this situation or opportunity or however you put it? It's such a simple thing to cast people of color in prominent roles and change someone's mind and preconceived notions about characters and people in general. (Also, I bet Nikki was a fantastic Belle.)