Freeform Penned An Open Letter To The “Poor, Unfortunate Souls” That Don’t Like Halle Bailey’s Casting In ‘The Little Mermaid’

As you might expect in 2019, the announcement of Halle Bailey as the actress cast as Ariel in Disney’s live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” sparked plenty of controversy. No, not because the actress can’t sing (she can). And no, not because she’s terrible at her job (while she doesn’t have an extensive IMDB, it would appear that she’s pretty damn good at acting). All the controversy stems from the fact that in the classic animated tale (and yes, even the source material), Ariel is depicted as white, and Berry is, in fact, Black.

Well, over the weekend hashtags like #NotMyAriel (and my personal favorite, #NotMyAerial, for those that can’t spell but really love to spew racist thoughts) began popping up, with all the vile sentiments from folks not happy that a Black woman would be playing a mermaid in a Disney film. The horror!

READ MORE: ‘Grown-ish’ Actress Halle Bailey Cast As Ariel In Disney’s Live-Action ‘The Little Mermaid’

Bailey’s current network home, Freeform (who distribute her series “Grown-ish”), came to the actress’ defense and released an open letter to those “poor, unfortunate souls” that have a problem with the casting.

“Yes. The original author of ‘The Little Mermaid’ was Danish. Ariel…is a mermaid,” the letter begins. “She lives in an underwater kingdom in international waters and can legit swim wherever she wants (even though that often upsets King Triton, absolute zaddy). But for the sake of argument, let’s say that Ariel, too, is Danish.”

It continued, “Danish mermaids can be black because Danish *people* can be black. Ariel can sneak up to the surface at any time with her pals Scuttle and the *ahem* Jamaican crab Sebastian (sorry, Flounder!) and keep that bronze base tight. Black Danish people, and this mer-folk, can also *genetically* (!!!) have red hair.”

READ MORE: Jacob Tremblay & Awkwafina In Talks To Join Melissa McCarthy In ‘The Little Mermaid’ Live-Action Remake

“But spoiler alert – bring it back to the top – the character of Ariel is a work of fiction,” the post concluded. “So after all this is said and done, and you still cannot get past the idea that choosing the incredible, sensational, highly-talented, gorgeous Halle Bailey is anything other than the INSPIRED casting that it is because she ‘doesn’t look like the cartoon one,’ oh boy, do I have some news for you…about you.”

Bailey has joined the already reported cast of Melissa McCarthy, Jacob Tremblay, and Awkwafina. No specific release date was given, but Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” is set to begin production early next year and arrive in theaters sometime in 2021.