The trailer for the upcoming Disney movie was released on September 11. In this new live action version of The little MermaidAriel, the main character, is played by the young black actress Halle Bailey.
If Halle Bailey’s name had been announced for a long time, the release of the trailer again unleashed a wave of racism alleging a discrepancy with the cartoon published in 1989, where Ariel is a mermaid with white skin and red hair.
Beyond the discrimination suffered by the 22-year-old actress, some extreme reactions lead to measures on social networks. This is the case of a Twitter account that boasted of having used an artificial intelligence to “bleach” Ariel, turning her white and red.
In this tweet, a user relays a screenshot of the initial tweet praising the technology used to replace a black person with a white person on screen.
The user @TenGazilionIQ, who claims to be an “artificial intelligence doctoral student”, never shared the video in question and his account remains active on Twitter. On the other hand, the person behind the tweet, @vandalibm, was suspended by the social network, US outlet Gizmodo reported on September 14. On his profile, a message indicates a suspension for violating Twitter’s rules.
For her part, the actress shared on her Instagram account the video reactions of little black girls surprised and happy to meet a heroine who looks like them.
“People have been sending me these kinds of reactions all weekend and I’m really in awe. Seeing the reactions of these little ones makes me very emotional, it means everything to me. Thank you all for your unconditional support,” the actress wrote on Instagram.
Source: BFM TV
