File under news we hate to report. The racist reactions to Halle Bailey as The Little Mermaid hit a fever pitch on Wednesday as one user uploaded a video whitewashing Bailey. While there have also been incredibly moving reactions — even prompting a TikTok trend of people filming their Black children reacting gleefully to seeing Bailey as the famed Disney character — it’s disheartening and frightening that anyone would feel the need to go so far as to actually re-render the film’s new trailer.
The user, who uploaded the offensive clip under the handle @vandalibm, wrote referencing the video’s original creator, @TenGazillionIQ, “He fixed The Little Mermaid, and turned the woke actor into a ginger white girl. He says he can do fix [sic] the entire movie when it comes out with 4x A6000 in 24 hours. It’s over for wokecels.” In a follow-up tweet, @vandalibm backtracked saying “This is purely for educational purposes, please do not misinterpret this in a racist way. I am just amazed by high-IQ friend [sic] who works with Artificial Intelligence and the stuff he can make, and wanted to show people his field of study.”
Luckily, as the video spread across the platform with users reacting in outrage, Twitter took action and suspended @vandalibm. @TenGazillionIQ, whose account is still active, did not post the video to their account. They did, however, tweet a reference to “new followers who came from that Ariel thing.” Their bio reads, “Attention new followers, this is mostly an Islamic history, highlighted scientific papers, & AI art account - PhD in Artificial Intelligence - Computer Vision.” Unfortunately, they’re using their talents to spread racist views online. As a far better video worth your time, we suggest Bailey’s Tuesday post of delighted fan reactions to her debut as Ariel.
