In case you missed it, earlier this week, Disney announced that singer-actress Halle Bailey has been cast to play Ariel in the upcoming live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid.”
Meet the new #LittleMermaid' star Halle Bailey https://t.co/OJdCYTRbDy pic.twitter.com/6nQ3qcgMm4
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 3, 2019
And literally billions of racists are outraged about it.
Can’t believe people are getting mad abt a black girl playing The Little Mermaid. “It’s like casting a white girl to play Mulan!” Bitch, Mulan is Chinese and the movie is set in China. Ariel is half-fish and it’s set under the sea. Mahirap i-prove ang nationality ng fish okay
— Saab (@saabmagalona) July 5, 2019
This is amazing and also racists are big mad about a fairytale fictional character not being white. https://t.co/ImVXxxmgEn
— “Celia” (@_celia_bedelia_) July 3, 2019
So, who, exactly, is “big mad about” this? Well, if you believe the usual suspects, tons of people. But if you believe your own eyes, you’ll find it’s much fewer than that.
[A black actress is cast as Little Mermaid]
Everyone: “oh ok”
Heroes on Twitter: “what’s the matter racists?? Outraged about diversity again???”
Everyone: “no it’s fine”
Heroes: “you stupid bigots!”
Everyone: “what?”
Heroes: “WHY ARE YOU SO OUTRAGED??”
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 4, 2019
BET did a story about all the "racists" who are "big mad" that Ariel is white. They compiled 6 tweets to prove the outrage exists. Two are from anonymous accounts with 10 followers. Two are from non-white people. This is the faux-iest faux-outrage ever.https://t.co/T6mCUVBYvg
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) July 5, 2019
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Truth be told, there are probably a lot more people outraged over the idea of yet another unnecessary live-action remake of a Disney classic than the casting of Bailey. But narratives aren’t gonna perpetuate themselves, right?
Yesterday, BuzzFeed News’ deputy curation director Brandon Wall took a closer look at one of the most prominent accounts being widely cited as evidence of a racist backlash against a black Little Mermaid:
This viral tweet complaining about the Little Mermaid casting being racist has a profile pic stolen from an Instagram model. The “half black best friend” pic is taken from god knows where, but shows up in a bunch of Pinterest BFF roundups pic.twitter.com/aYMwKf1XNl
— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) July 4, 2019
One more: The pic of the Little Mermaid DVD the account tweeted came from this tiny YouTube unboxing channel, video was uploaded in 2016 https://t.co/eReuWRisa0 pic.twitter.com/qeR9qGpmne
— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) July 4, 2019
Welp.
And everyone quickly noticed one of the main accounts pushing the faux outrage was fake.
No one cares except the people who got trolled into thinking someone else cared https://t.co/76a3vskizx
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) July 5, 2019
This is a really important thread on how bad actors use fake outrage bait on social media to foment social discord. Don't fall for it. Be wary of bizarre tweets from anonymous randos designed to push your buttons and play to your biases.
Use the internet. Don't let it use you. https://t.co/NjHekAHIcT
— (((Yair Rosenberg))) (@Yair_Rosenberg) July 4, 2019
It seriously should not be this difficult not to fall for this crap. Lord knows it happens often enough to know better by now.
I don't have a soundcloud, check out these tips on how to inoculate yourself from this kind of bullshit instead https://t.co/pLUWrZIS65
— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) July 4, 2019
I had a fair amount of prominent people citing my tweets and blaming it on Russia/some kind of highly coordinated campaign/etc
It doesn't have to be that complicated. The Little Mermaid account was good ol' fashioned BS as ancient as the internet. https://t.co/3OrKh3n1OZ
— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) July 4, 2019
Some things never change. And that’s what the outrage-mongers are counting on.
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