Disney criticized for casting black actors in The Little Mermaid but avoiding talking about slavery

From the announcement of the casting to the release of the live-action film "The Little Mermaid", it has received negative reviews from audiences around the world, including some in the entertainment industry. Marcus Ryder, one of the presidents of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, who usually advocates for media content diversity, has also criticized "The Little Mermaid" for casting a black lead but avoiding talking about slavery.

Ryder said he agreed with Disney's decision to improve racial representation in film and television works by casting black singer Halle Bailey as Ariel and black actress Noma Dumezweni as the prince's mother Queen Selena. But he also believed that as a children's movie, "The Little Mermaid" should not choose to not acknowledge the history of slavery just because adults would find it offensive.

Ryder speculates that The Little Mermaid is set in the Caribbean in the 18th century. Although the movie does not specify the time point, Ryder believes that slavery was still practiced during that period, but the movie does not describe it at all. He does not want children to mistakenly think that period was an era of racial harmony after watching the movie, and does not want children to be misled by the movie.

Ryder suggested that even if they wanted to avoid slavery, there were better solutions, such as the crew could set the time and space in Haiti after 1804, because Haiti was the first Caribbean country to abolish slavery. In this way, the film would not be suspected of whitewashing history. He understands that this is a fictional story, and it does not prohibit black children from having fantasies of escaping reality, but he just doesn't want to see children have any misunderstandings about important history.

Ryder lambasted that setting fantasy stories at this point in history was like setting a Jewish-Gentile love story in 1940 and ignoring the Holocaust, or setting the setting on a slave plantation in the antebellum South and pretending that enslaved Africans were actually happy.

Ryder also expressed encouragement for Hollywood to continue to promote racial representation, even if this will lead to attacks from many netizens, but it will also bring loyal audiences willing to defend the film to the studio, and this kind of audience cannot be bought with any amount of money.