If Ariel Can Be Black, Can Mulan Be White?

It’s honestly disappointing to me that the main talking point about about the recent live-action remake The Little Mermaid is focused on Ariel's race rather than the fact that Disney keeps pumping out lazy remakes without a hint of originality. For me, Ariel’s race is so insignificant to the film that it isn’t even worth noting. Still, I couldn’t avoid the conversation more than anyone else could, and when chatting with a friend from China one day, she brought up an argument that almost managed to sway me : if I’m okay with a black Ariel, then would I be okay with a white Mulan?

My immediate reaction was that no, of course not. Mulan is an inherently Chinese story and casting an actress of another race would distance the story from its cultural context in an uncomfortable and inappropraite way. So why was a black Ariel okay with me? After all, the argument could be made that The Little Mermaid is an inherently European story (though I would argue it’s an inherently queer story, but that’s a separate topic). If it’s inherently European, then wouldn’t casting a black actress similarly distance it from its cultural context? Related to this is an idea I’ve seen echoed all over the internet : if Disney wants to make a movie about a black princess, they should use an indigenous African story, not a European one. At first glance, this seems to be quite compelling, and seems to show that my views on race-blind casting are inconsistent. In truth, though, this argument is overly simplistic, failing to take into account black Americans' history.

The cruel and depressing fact is, many black Americans don’t feel a connection with African stories as a result of their historical experience in America. Disney, as an American company, is trying to connect with American audiences above all else, so if we want to understand why Mulan is Chinese while Ariel is black, it’s important to compare the immigration patterns of Asian Americans to that of African Americans. Asian Americans arrived in the United States mostly voluntarily, in pursuit of economic opportunities. They can trace their roots back to specific countries and cultures and have preserved a connection to them. African Americans, on the other hand, were mostly brought to the US by force in order to be slaves. Deliberate efforts were made to sever them from their cultural ties, and despite the existence of genetic testing many black Americans don’t know exactly where their ancestors came from - the cultural lineage is, in many ways, lost.

Given that Asian Americans have a more direct and personal connection to Asian stories, then, many of them grew up hearing stories like that of Mulan. As a result, it makes sense to choose that kind of inherently Asian story when making a movie with an Asian lead. In the case of black Americans, though, given that their ancestral culture was in many ways taken from them, they are unlikely to feel a deep connection with an African story. So what stories would they feel a connection with? To answer that question, we have to ask ourselves what stories now exist for black Americans, and for Disney's purposes, what are the fairytales that black Americans grow up with. It’s not a difficult question to answer: given that black Americans grow up in a country in which the dominant culture is white European culture and the education system highlights white European stories more than anything else, they are likely to have grown up with and connect to European fairy tales like The Little Mermaid. It makes sense, then, that a movie with a black princess be based on a European story, as that is the culture that they feel the greatest connection to and therefore the best way to represent their cultural reality.

This brings us back to the question, could Mulan be white? The answer is, surprisingly, yes - but only in very specific circumstances. If there were a large group of white people who were raised in a Chinese context, growing up with Mulan’s story rather than Cinderella’s, why not? They deserve to see themselves in their childhood tales as much as anyone else.

At the same time, I want to be clear that this isn’t the only context or argument for changing a character’s race; it’s quite specific to the context of children’s stories, and couldn’t be applied to adult works - typically those are justified by changing the perspective of a story through their casting choices. For example, Hamilton’s use of minority actors allows the audience to reexamine the American Revolution and Alexander Hamilton’s story while highlighting themes of race and immigration that other works might overlook. It's worth considering, though, if all media that features characters or actors belonging to a minority group, be it racial, sexual, gender, or otherwise, has to be about their identity above all else. Stories about white men are allowed to just be stories - perhaps as a culture we should reconsider why a story about a black woman has to be about her blackness in some way.

That’s a discussion for another time, though. My point here is that a black woman being cast as Ariel isn’t just a neutral choice, it’s a logical one given the cultural context of the United States. Not only that, while the current cultural context isn’t suited to having someone of a different race play Mulan or any other character who is associated with a specific ethnic background, there are hypothetical situations in which it would make sense. Is The Little Mermaid a good film? I don’t know - I didn’t bother to watch it. Probably not, because Disney’s live-action remakes rarely are. But if you’re choosing not to watch it because the Ariel is played by a black woman… You might want to reconsider if there’s actually a problem with that.