In this day and age, many of us like to think that a person’s ethnicity shouldn’t get in the way of what job they have, or what role they play. Unfortunately, not everybody seems to think the same way — especially when it comes to characters that they have a particular idea of. Disney fans will know that the live action version of The Little Mermaid has found controversy after casting Halle Bailey to play Ariel. 

While detractors have suggested that this is because she doesn’t resemble the iconic red-haired girl in the 1989 original, there’s no doubting that many are uncomfortable with the idea of a black woman playing the part also. It’s led some to take drastic measures, as with one Disney fan who went to the effort of using AI to change Halle’s features in the trailer to resemble a red-haired white woman. Claiming that this could be done to the whole movie when it was released, they quickly attracted all kinds of criticism for the shady move. Seeing as mermaids probably aren’t real, there’s no limit to what race they can be.