Sorry but I call bullshit on a lot of this. Firstly how many of those British shows have a non-white lead? Probably not 20+% of them. 

The fact of the matter is when it comes to TV/movies, white people have been massively over represented to the point where the issue actually is it's like a spoiled child that is used to all the attention now throwing a shit fit when they realize they have to share once in a while. 

Who really is actually being "hurt" by Ariel being black in 1/20 times Disney has had a non-white "princess"? The people whining most loudly about this are coming from the place of the "status quo is white people in the lead in everything all the time and anything different is an affront to me" basically, the spoiled brat of a kid who is used to be catered to non-stop now throwing a crying fit because they're realizing they have to share with other kids on the playground once in a while. 

Funny how there's only an outcry about this when PoC get a few blockbuster lead roles (this year specifically one of the few in Hollywood's history where you can probably point to more than 2 blockbuster movies headlined by a PoC actor). 

But when Jake Gylennhal was Prince of Persia, and Emma Stone was cast to play an Asian woman, and Robert Downey Jr. was in blackface that was no big deal and/or hilarious or just "get over it". Curious how when the shoe is on the other foot there's a group of people (not saying people in this thread but we know the types that are out there) that are having a meltdown like a toddler. A black Ariel and a black-latino Spider-Man is just too much to cope with. 

The demographics have shifted far more than that too, for Americans under 18 (ie: the future generation of content consumption), that crowd is now actually so-called "minority majority", meaning there are more non-white kids in the US than white kids. For 30 and under the demographics are very diverse still. If anything, as I've said Latinos are very underrepresented on screen, and they are the no.1 theater going demographic in the US but they barely get any love. Hollywood is only now realizing black people not named Eddie or Will can be a lead in a movie, it will probably take another 15-20 years for Latinos to get the same treatment. 

The fact is though most big budget or even mid budget or even low budget Hollywood movies are still white-leads. Indiana Jones, check. The new Star Wars had Finn and then embarrassingly sidelined him after teasing him as a Jedi type in the trailers. The Flash, check. Barbie check. Oppenheimer check. Guardians of the Galaxy check. Mission: Impossible. Even the Fast series became minority drive less by design and more by tragedy, Paul Walker passing away made the franchise Vin Diesel centric instead of the two of them being co-leads (and the original movie itself being basically a "white dude becomes cool with inner city types" fantasy to begin with). 

For the person out there that's getting hysterical over dark melanin in their blockbusters, relax and breathe. There's plenty of white bread in movies and TV still, the majority thereof in fact. It's just going to be going forward you're going to have to learn to share rather than having everything tailored exactly to just one demographics over and over again ... it's like a child that's gotten used to being an only having it explained to them that with a new brother or sister they're going to have to learn to share things and can't be the center of everything all the time anymore. 

You can't over correct because of past mistakes, you learn from them and not repeat them. Over compensation just creates a negative effect.

The issue with Ariel is like any Gamer who grew up in that time, nostalgia.  When you remake something it will always be subject to some argument just like with games. You have to wait long enough for the people to die off before it really becomes a non issue, or just accept there will always be backlash and just ignore it.

The biggest problem with Ariel is the media, they went out and found all the reaction videos of black people say shit like "oh may God she is black" and getting excited about, rather then OMG they picked a great actress for the roll. I mean you fuelling a race agenda war there and demeaning the actress, basically implying she got the work cause she's black. It seems to be fuelled mainly by Americans.

In 80s 90s 00s, it wasn't a big issue, people didn't seem to make a deal about black actors being in movies etc now every movie seems to be under a public microscope to a point these movies are starting to feel like token gestures to be inclusive. The movies from the 80s 90s 00s, I never felt when watching "oh look here is our token coloured person", for some common sense reason those movie scripts were written in a way that politics of race didn't appear in them and guess what they were enjoyable to watch because those actors did a great job. I didn't have one single thought about a coloured person being out of place. Now we get stupid statements like we made Cleopatra black in a documentary series cause well you know she lived in Africa so she couldn't be white". Lot of scientific evidence based arguments went into that conclusion. It is so hard not to think these new movies are token gestures when they slam it in our heads via media outlets.

There was plenty of criticism over white actors playing POC roles, the term "whitewashing" itself was coined out of widespread criticism of the practise, the phrase goes back to the 1990s.

I don't think any reasonable person would say that Black people, or Asian people, or Latinos, or for that matter women or gay people shouldn't get representation, just that representation should be authentic and reflective of society rather than lazy tokenism.

Maybe the term white-washing extends from the 90s, but in practise Hollywood has been doing that since like the 1920s and earlier, lol. Basically since the advent of film. 

Bruce Lee came up with the concept of the TV series Kung-Fu, he wrote as a starring vehicle for himself. Guess what happened. The TV network took the concept, kicked him off it because he was "too Asian" (even though the lead role is a Kung-Fu monk from China) and the role was taken by a white actor (David Carradine). They only gave him a chance in Hollywood movies once he became the biggest star in Asia with Enter the Dragon. And even to this day, you have Quentin Tarantino protraying the real Bruce Lee as a clown-ish idiot in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood who gets beat up by Brad Pitt (lol). 

Gate keeping and keeping colored people out of movie roles for "reasons" has been Hollywood tradition for ages, don't kid yourself. 

Yeah those uppity negroes getting too excited about a black Ariel, really needed to be put in their place and calm down. How dare they be excited over a black Ariel, obviously that's the problem. Is it possible she got the part by the way simply because she was the best for the role? How many girls her age can act AND sing at that level? *crickets*. 

In the 80s/90s/00s the standard "norm" was all-white or predominantly white cast. PoC just accepted that as the norm because that was all Hollywood would give them. 

The truth is it's plainly transparent what the issue is ... white people are used to movies catering to them 99% of the time with white actors being the leads most of the time, with the "token exception" for the uber-talented black guy like an occasional Eddie Murphy here or Will Smith there (usually one of these guys per decade, lol). Now that a *few* big movies are casting in a more diverse way, guess what? Some people are not happy, it's plainly predictable why. 

The messaging is clear ... black people, brown people, Asian people aren't supposed to be leading in Hollywood movies. They should know their place in the corner and stay there, unless they are clearly defined genre-tropes ... like a Chinese guy leading a kung fu movie, OK (though a Van Damme or Seagal or Jason Statham are also welcome to take those parts too, no problem there). But if the colored folk dare try to step out of that box, it's a problem. It's "tokenism" now apparently, but clearly not when it's done the other way around. 

I have no problem with people being happy. It's Hollywood and media making a big deal see we did it to make these people happy or speeches about how we doing diversity, look at us we playing our part attitude. They bring race into it by highlighting it rather then just say we picked the actress with the best voice and talent for it.

It is no different then those fake videos of people donating stuff to poor people and putting it up on social media without their approval. I mean fuck I live in the CBD and help homeless people out, but I don't go patting myself on the back for it on social media seeking attention, look at me I donated something to a person of need.

This is why I say it is tokenism, look at me we are the good studio of the industry filling in our coloured quota and letting you all know about it in your face that we doing it (and yes they don't say it in those words they use PR speak). That to me is degrading to the actress. If I was her I would be thinking did they really pick me on my talent or am I a publicity stunt to make Hollywood feel better about itself.

It's no different then women who are on boards of companies that show up for photo opportunities and the men are their smiling shaking their hand, then during the meeting the the same men saying it's ok you don't need to stress about it every time she has something to say in the meeting. Basically tokenism we hire women into power position, but in reality in the background she doesn't have input and starts to wonder why is she in this role. Now don't take this as ALL work places are like that, but there are some that still exist with that attitude.

So the point I am making is, we need to stop dividing ourselves by race, gender sexuality etc and focus on talent and attributes of the person who was given the job. Talk about actors for their talent and not try to stir the pot which leads to doubt of that person's ability. The media has no place in bring up skin colour for any of their articles as a talking point as all it does it fuel hate.

Redheads are my fave and Hollywood has gotten rid of them. True natural redheads are a minority but don't tell Hollywood that.