Disney’s Black Representation Is Still Not Good Enough [OPINION]

Disney’s black representation has either been nonexistent or quite offensive. There have been attempts to remedy this representation. Most recently, Soul and Spies in Disguise have featured black men as main character. Spies in Disguise is currently in theaters while Soul has projected premiere date of June 19, 2020. Unfortunately, both of these new films follow the same sordid footsteps as The Princess and the Frog. All three films technically have black people in leading roles. Somehow throughout each tale these black leading characters cannot seem to be able to stay black. 

Tiana is the only princess to take animal form in her movie. She is the only princess to not be shown simply as a human for her share of screen time. It is quite discouraging to have waited so long for representation only to have a green frog shown more than an actual black girl on screen. It feels as if actually showing black skin on screen during the debut of the first black princess was an afterthought. It is disrespectful and it is okay to not be satisfied with these crumbs of representation. It would be different if there was more to go on in Disney’s history but that’s a sour history that we have been reminded of with the release of Disney+. It seems Disney would rather they just sweep this history away than actually address it. An example of that is the live action remake of Dumbo which made lazy attempts to remedy the racism of the black crows. It feels like just moving forward is the decision of the company. This could work if forward meant actual change and not half-hearted efforts.

In the Soul trailer, we are faced with a black man presumably dying in the first moments of the film and his soul being a glowing green blob. A weird soul character that looks like a rejected ‘Inside Out’ character concept. For this film, patience will be needed as more teasers and trailers are dropped. Unfortunately, it is not a positive start. In Spies in Disguise, Will Smith’s super spy character, Lance Sterling, is transformed into a pigeon. The story shifts to the white sidekick helping this super spy pigeon in stopping the bad guy and changing back. Between The Princess and the Frog and Spies in Disguise, there is a common trend of black people striving toward  humanity. Tiana and Naveen find common ground with a bayou gator who wants to be human (just like them). The association of black people and animals is a disturbing one. It becomes even more disturbing if we were to look at Disney’s history of how animals are displayed and treated in their films. It would be a rough conclusion if, again, there was more black representation in Disney film/ animation in general to go on, but there is not. Disney has claimed the largest stake on animation and children’s films. It is important to be highly critical of the weak representation we were given as children and children are still being given.  

Hopefully, with more urging and critic these issues can be remedied in the future. The progress is slow and needs to be given careful consideration. By being supportive of smaller, diverse artists and animators the field of screenwriters and animation can become more diverse. It has been a long battle for representation. There have been steps in the right direction. It is okay to not be satisfied with those small steps. It is okay to be tired of this pattern.