Everybody Has an Opinion, and Here Is Mine: The Little Mermaid Made Me Do It
For the past four days, I’ve been home coughing and sneezing due to some germs I picked up from I don’t know where. Being in the house as I await my healing has yielded more time for me to scroll through social media and read up on what’s happening in the world of entertainment.
Earlier this week, I stumbled upon a post that was about the number of dislikes the teaser for the upcoming adaptation of the Little Mermaid received. I didn’t give much thought to it initially. I hadn’t planned on seeing it and as a matter of fact, I haven’t seen the original, nor have I read the story that influenced it. Be that as it may, as I continued to scroll through my newsfeed, I saw more and more posts surrounding the teaser. Like most things in the social media realm, there was a mix of disapproval and praise. To be perfectly honest, it piqued my curiosity, so I watched the teaser. I liked it. I think the imagery is intriguing and it fulfills its purpose as a teaser. Although I realize everyone isn’t going to like what I like and vice versa, I am still perplexed over one of the reasons why a lot of people are upset about it.
Most of the resistance I read surrounding the adaptation is the fact that Ariel is black and not white. This puzzles me for serval reasons. Mainly because the character is fictitious—mermaids don’t exist, so why should race matter? Don’t get me wrong, I think I could understand backlash if someone wrote a screenplay about the late Elizabeth II and cast Oprah Winfrey to fulfill the role. I’d get that. Just like I’d have an issue with a producer redoing Malcolm X and casting Tom Cruise. But I gave examples of human beings that existed, not a character from a storybook.
It makes me wonder what the real issue is. Will we ever get to the place as the human race where trivial things don’t matter? Aren’t there more important things we could use our energy to discuss and ultimately correct—like homelessness and mental health? How about exploring the correlation between the two?
Seeing these things on social media is so disheartening. Will we ever move past “them vs. us?” Can we heal from the contention that was birthed before those of us among the living were born? These are just my thoughts. The even sadder part is I don’t believe we will get past it because there aren’t enough of us who want to.
