When did he do that? Morgan Freeman played his father though and nobody complained. Jesus' father, not Gibson's I mean. But I don't think anyone would complain about that either.

1. Shit, wrote the wrong actor.  That's on me for not correcting before replying. Replace "Mel Gibson" with, oh let's just spin the wheel instead of listing all possible candidates...Willem Dafoe.

2. Do you contend that the race was changed when Morgan Freeman played that role?

Well, this post is an example of selective outrage, because the media has been pandering literally forever. The first black protagonist in a Disney film was created in 2010. About 70 years of Disney animation had passed without a black protagonist. I still don't believe we've had an openly gay main character. I doubt we're going to see a trans lead in the foreseeable future. If you wanted to be cordial about it, you would call this pandering, although there are other words that could be used. Oh, and since The Princess and the Frog, between Walt Disney studios and the live action remakes, I believe we've had 17 or so movies with white leads. Zero black leads till the Little Mermaid remake.

The people who are complaining about black Ariel have been silent on this pandering for just shy of a century and probably continues to this day. This is shown by the list of examples of white washing which you kind of just brushed aside. It doesn't matter that Dragonball evolution was a shit movie, they were still absolutely pandering to a particular audience, and that audience didn't say shit about it. That one's especially interesting, because Chi-chi was allowed to stay Asian, cause that audience was probably ok with a hot asian love interest, but not a male asian hero.

So, Disney has overwhelmingly favored white protagonists throughout its history, and still heavily favors them. If you bought a puppy after the last time Disney has had a black lead in its animation projects or remakes (not including Pixar which has had one black protagonist so far) it probably lived a full life and died before the next time it happened. And when that happened after a decade and a half "OMG PANDERING!" Pfft. 

Which also explains why the rest of your post is, with all due respect, stupid. Because the argument from people who are fine with Ariel being black has never been that changing a character's race doesn't matter. The argument is that it absolutely matters because representation is important.

Since you brought up Black Panther, we can talk about that one. First of all, you are dishonestly poisoning the well by pointing out characters and figures where race is a key part of their story. Black Panther is not a movie that makes sense with a white lead. If Rosa Parks was white she could have sit at the front of the bus. Ariel's race is irrelevant to the story, and mermaids aren't real, nor is the world of the story, so there's no reason she could not be white. 

Setting that aside, out of I believe 22 solo MCU films right now, there are two with black leads. If you made Black Panther(s) white, there would be zero. Also zero from DC.

So, that's why it's not remotely the same situation, or hypocritical. Because people seeing positive portrayals of people that look like them is important. This is especially important when you're dealing with a group that was enslaved for the first few hundreds of year of American history, and for the next 100 years or so could not use the same water fountains or bathrooms. Taking representation away (which isn't really what's happening, because again go watch the animated movie if you want to see white Ariel) from a group that has tons of it is not at all the same as taking representation away from a group that has very little and a group that has historically been discriminated against for their race.

Trying not to be mean, but this is a childishly simplistic take that strips all of the context from the situation. In a world where white people and black people, men and women, gays and straights, cis and trans, had always been treated equally, then a change in either direction would be the same, and getting upset by one but not the other would be hypocritical. But, that's not remotely the world we live in. Instead of googling those super funny memes, maybe you should google scholarly works about how representation in the media shapes societal views and individual self esteem. Reading up on the Clark Doll Study would be a good start. Not specifically about representation in the media, but one of the pioneering, although debatably flawed, works in the field. Educate yourself and do better.

Well I doubt the father of a Jewish Galilean man was black :P jokes aside, I don't contend anything. Just pointed out nobody complained even though god the father has often been portrayed as a bearded white(ish) fellow.

I just thought your example of Jesus is kind a weak. How he's portrayed as a cultural and religious figure has evolved for centuries. Dafoe or Gibson with a beard and a long hair isn't too far-off the mark. If they made a movie with more historically accurate Jesus with a darker skin I doubt people would complain. Two different things. Dafoe and Scorsese did face plenty of critisism about the movie tho.

As a reminder, you said "I will say this, accounting for the examples of whitewashing you provided, correcting my initial comment: it can be done. But surely not to a character on the level Ariel."  Bearing that in mind...

1.  Turns out whitewashing has occurred to characters of such historical/cultural significance that geopolitics were shaped for centuries as a result (obviously a weak example /s), whereas Ariel is just a character in a children's fantasy story and does not even come close to that level of importance.

As a reminder, you also said "My second major point would be this: I don't care much about whitewashing or changing races otherwise. I care about selective outrage. About double standards."

2.  Then you provided an example that you do not even contend was race-switched at all.  I told you that your response would be evaluated with your second major point in mind.  It has not gone unnoticed that you've made plenty of excuses for whitewashing of characters even on a scale far, far above that of, well, all Disney princesses combined, but thought it necessary to air your opinions about casting a black lady to portray one of them.

It appears that you do not care about double standards quite as much as you claim.  I cannot speculate what conclusions readers will make when pondering what it is that you really care about, but I did warn you that you would be evaluated based on your response.

I said this, not KiigelHeart.

And, as I have said, I don't want to continue this discussion in this thread, because it is not the topic. I am at work forever. But as soon as I have time, I will create a threat about whitewashing. Should be fun 😀

I didn't say either of those things nor air my opinion on Ariel. Lighten up a little and try to exchange opinions without that pompous 'I did warn you that you would be evaluated based on your response' crap.