These four articles about both Cinderella and The Little Mermaid are called ““I Don’t Want a Black Ariel. — Why We Shouldn’t Be Satisfied With Race

Switching” by The final cutback, “The white nostalgia fueling the ‘Little Mermaid’ backlash” bye Brooke Newman, “Brandy’s Black Cinderella Made

The Impossible Possible In Hollywood” by Vicky Mochama, and lastly “The Whitney/Brandy Cinderella Was One of the Most Important Movies of the ’90s”. These articles all have different perspectives and thoughts on the race switching situation. It’s important to hear feedback from people, especially audiences that way people understand others beliefs. In this case these four different articles about two different movies are based on race switching and diversity.

I believe these articles tend to fall in between three different genres such as persuasive, narrative, and descriptive. These articles’ target audience are a bit similar. These authors want to give feedback on the movie directors and other audiences who believe the opposite of what they’re stating. 

The Final cutback article is about the race switching in The Little Mermaid. They believe as a black person that this shouldn’t have happened. They believe this race switching is an attempt to give us representation. The comparison made in this article with Peter Parker and Miles Morales was to prove that everybody would have agreed with him if the audience sees, hypothetically, how if they’ve switched Peter Parker to a black man, that others would then agree that it shouldn’t have happened. On the other hand, “The white nostalgia fueling the ‘Little Mermaid’ backlash” by Brooke Newman has a different perspective. She states how there aren’t really many Disney movies with diverse characters. In this race switching case, she believes it’s welcoming to minorities to also feel included and feel like princesses. Newman talks about the hashtag #Notmyariel isn’t acceptable. Newman states, “So the question the #NotMyAriel crowd should be asking themselves is: Whose childhood memories and viewing experiences matter most? Their own or those of today’s children?”. She explains how this can have more children feel accepted and included as a princess finally. Also not to mention that non fiction books that children from back in the days read never really had a black character or any diverse characters. 

Eric Thomas talks about Cinderella. He believes it’s such a wholesome story and how welcoming it is to have diverse characters. Thomas states “It conjured a world that was vibrant and modern and multicultural, and it filled that world with magic.” Explaining the story of Cinderella having all these welcoming moments for people of color feel included, Thomas also states, “I will never forget how stunning it was to watch these two performers, both

women of color, sing the words “It’s possible” over and over and over

again, until I believed it. It changed my life.” Proving how beneficial a woman of color can do to an audience. He believes it’s beautiful to have many different cultures in one movie instead of just one race. Vicky Mochama also speaks on Cinderella being a black woman and having diverse characters. Making Brandy Norwood the first black actress to be the role in a huge film production. Vicky states how significant the movie is for many people as any fairy tales can be told with diverse characters in it. This phrase “Made the impossible possible” is pretty much a reflection on how this fairy tale broke barriers and standards for representation. Vicky believes how because of this fairy tale that has many diverse characters, highlights the importance of diversity.

As an audience, I can say how much society is affected in a way. And by affected I mean, society focuses so much more on races rather than the stories. I believe leaving a negative opinion on a movie that has race switched is pretty ignorant knowing how this can open doors for minorities/diverse communities. I understand that it’s odd for others to see their favorite character switch races all of a sudden, but what matters is if the role remains the same. Diverse casting can attract a wider audience and it also helps break racial stereotypes and tensions. I believe the main reason why they even did the race switching with Ariel was to contribute to an inclusive and equitable society by promoting diversity. I don’t think they’ve done this in a way to offend anyone.