- A Black Princess
March 2010
- This week, I took a group of 8 year old girls to see 'the princess and the frog' as part of a half term day out. I sat and watched the film getting the greatest enjoyment from their absorbed captivated faces.
- After the film, I asked them what they thought of the film. The girls enthusiastically told me that they loved it and thought the princess was beautiful and deserved to get the restaurant she had worked so hard for. To my surprise not one of them mentioned that the princess was not while, with blue eyes and long flowing blond hair.
In complete contrast to them, I was very powerfully affected, positively so, by the sight of a black princess. A black princess that had the leading role in a Walt Disney film that would get huge exposure.- The final cut of the film is a family-friendly adventure in the classic Disney mould. In it, the all-singing heroine Tiana (Anika), is a hard working, strong-willed feminist who is initially repulsed by the shallow, arrogant, brown skinned prince Naveen (Bruno Campos). After sharing an exciting adventure, they fall in love in true fairy tail style.
I grew up at a time when black people were not shown on TV unless it was in a negative light. My early childhood coincided with Mohammed Ali his famous speech:-
* "We've been brainwashed. Everything good is supposed to be white. We look at Jesus, and we see a white with blond hair and blue eyes. We look at all the angels; we see white with blond hair and blue eyes. Now, I'm sure there's a heaven in the sky and coloured folks die and go to heaven. Where are the coloured angels? They must be in the kitchen preparing milk and honey. We look at miss America, we see white. We look at miss world, we see white. We look at miss universe, we see white. Even Tarzan, the king of the jungle in black Africa, he's white....... When are we going to wake up as a people and end the lie that white is better than black?"- In November 09 we blogged about the program 'Bleach, Nip, Tuck: The White Beauty Myth'. In it we stated "the idealised (physical) form (UK) is essentially the Westernised depiction of beauty; namely white, tall, slim, full breasted (but not too full), with moderate amounts of body hair on males etc. ... The problem with this ideology is that we are not all the same. As human beings, our genetic makeup ensures that we come in an array of different colours, heights, body shapes, weights and even hairiness. Some physical features are associated with a one ethnic group, while other features are associated with another group. ...The wonder and beauty of humanity lies in both our similarities and differences".
- It seems that we might indeed be waking up. Today, UK children of all nationalities can go to the cinemas, see a film staring a black princess and not feel the need to question the possibility.
The princess is voiced by Anika Noni Rose. She was told in 2006 that she was going to be the first black heroine in the history of Disney animation and stated that it was 'the dream of a lifetime'
However, black a merican commentators and bloggers reacted with horror to the movie’s proposed storyline; a poor black waitress in pre-civil rights New Orleans must elude a local voodoo-practising villain and marry a visiting white prince. The Haitian-American fashion designer Shirley Bruno said that she was “shocked” by the very idea.
* Thomas Hauser, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times.