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In this day and age some believe that America is ushering in a new post-racial era in which ethnicity is no longer significant and judgments over race are no longer relevant. Barack Obama has been elected the first African American president of the United States. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has become the first Hispanic justice to sit on the United States Supreme Court.
Our country is inching ever closer to judging people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character, as Martin Luther King Jr. hoped in his “I Have a Dream” speech. But there is one industry that has not integrated ethnicity into its products as seamlessly as would be ideal: Hollywood.Disney’s announcement that its upcoming animated film, The Princess and the Frog, will star an African American princess has sparked both praise and controversy. Disney should learn from some of Hollywood's other racial blunders. Instead of casting white actors to play non-white characters or inserting underdeveloped token ethnic characters into programming in ways that may perpetuate stereotypes, producers should naturally integrate characters who offer more to the plot than just their race.
Portrayal of ethnic characters has been an issue since film began. The controversial 1915 movie Birth of a Nation was criticized both for its racist message and for its African American slave characters that were played by white actors in blackface. Disney has also had previous run-ins with racial controversy for idealizing the relationship between slaves and masters in early America in its 1946 release Song of the South. In a more recent example, the character of Jar Jar Binks, which premiered in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and was also present in the following two movies, was criticized as being an African American caricature due to his speech pattern and general demeanor.
A recent example of white actors being cast to play non-white roles can be found in the adaptation of the animated Nickelodeon series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, into a live action feature film. The series follows a 12-year-old boy named Ang who must learn to “bend” the four elements of air, fire, earth and water in an attempt to bring peace back to his world. The creators of the series based Ang’s fantasy world in Asian and Inuit cultures, so it makes sense that the series features a predominantly Asian cast. However, in a move seen many times before, the film adaptation sports a cast in which several roles, including the three main characters, are played by Caucasian actors. This casting led many to ask the question, “Why not seek out talented Asian actors to play the roles?” Controversy ensued, as a letter-writing campaign and protests at a casting call accused the director of robbing minority actors of potential roles and Asian youth of potential role models.
Another film that recently ignited racial controversy was Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, which was criticized by those who thought the robot characters of Skids and Mudflap represented racial stereotypes of African Americans. Those upset with the robots’ portrayal view the comic characters’ constant bickering in ebonic English as degrading to African Americans and contend that the duo add nothing to the plot. Others object to the fact that one of the robots has a gold tooth, or that the pair admits that they are illiterate during the course of the film.
Future filmmakers should avoid these criticisms by incorporating ethnic characters that are well-developed and integral to the plot, as has been done on various television programs, such as Grey’s Anatomy, in which doctors of all different races are shown working together and holding equal positions in the medical field. The film industry should avoid showcasing shallow and potentially stereotypical characters in token side plots.
Hopefully Disney has done just that in The Princess and the Frog, set to release on December 11. The movie tells the classic tale of the frog princess with the addition of a modern setting and a plot twist. The film is set in the French Quarter of New Orleans, where the main character, Tiana, works as a maid, but is transformed into a frog when a frog prince kisses her. The pair then go on a quest to become human again.
So far, the movie looks promising, as the diverse cast features not only Disney's first African American princess but also a non-Caucasian prince hailing from a fictional Middle Eastern country. The ethnic characters drive the plot as the starring prince and princess and are not relegated to side roles, another promising sign.
However, some unanswered questions still remain. Will the African American princess be met with praise? Will she provoke controversy? And, most importantly, why did it take Disney 71 years to make her the star of a fairytale? |
