Princess Tiana

Angelina Jolie can finally stop whining about her daughter, Zahara, not having a black Disney princess to idolise, because Disney’s latest film “The Frog Princess” features Princess Tiana (below).



Of course, Disney is a corporation with a racist reputation (that is definitely not a line from my forthcoming rap song Disney Sound Good); Walt apparently hated Jews, and many people have nitpicked their way through Disney cartoons to find anything that could be construed as racist. Some of it I can totally see (the Siamese cats in Lady & the Tramp being shady; the fact that the monkeys in the Jungle Book are the only animals with African-American accents), whilst some is a bit tenuous (the implication that in Snow White, white equates to purity & beauty, whilst black (the Wicked Witch) is evil; this is something so ingrained in society that it goes much further back than Disney films).

Anyway, because of this reputation, it is no surprise that the whole black princess issue has caused some controversy. Do you want to know where the bone of contention lies? It lies in the fact that Princess Tiana falls in love with a white prince. People are raging because they feel that a white prince is a cop-out; it’s Disney’s way of keeping the racism alive by saying that a black prince wouldn’t suffice for the black princess, because white men are better. What are they going to say next? That the “frog” in the film title is actually Disney-speak for “wog”? This does my head in! If the prince was black, people would bitch that Disney was suggesting that black people should stick to their own race. I think their choice of a mixed-race relationship is great- it signifies acceptance.

And by the way, Angelina, while I totally understand your daughter’s need for a cartoon character she identifies with, everyone knows that Belle from Beauty & The Beast is where it’s at.