Remember two and half years ago or so when Disney released "The Princess and The Frog"? It starred the company's very first black princess, Tiana, and it was relatively successful despite the controversy over the princess's original name and occupation. (They were all set to name her Maddy and have her working as a maid. People weren't stoked, so Disney changed her name to Tiana and made her a waitress.)
Well Disney recently made a bold move and decided to have Princess Tiana grace the packaging for their watermelon flavored Dig n' Dips candy. On the other side -- Princess Aurora is shilling away for the vanilla flavor.
And people are all sorts of upset.
Clutch magazine
has called this packaging "sloppy," and went on to say, "As usual, it's hard to
believe that anyone would intentionally make this kind of insensitive
mistake, but pairing the white girl with vanilla and the black girl with
watermelon should have set off an alarm in someone's mind."
and Sociological Images said "In light of this history, as well as the ongoing racism, the product
below -- a Valentine's Day candy that pairs two Disney princesses -- is
rather, let's say, insensitive. The White Cinderella character
decorates the vanilla flavored side; the Black Tiana character decorates
the watermelon flavored side. Just... wow."
Whoa. We think it's a bit insensitive but we're also confused as to why Disney would pair vanilla and watermelon flavors together in the first place. Wouldn't vanilla and strawberry or watermelon and blueberry or maybe even watermelon and blue raspberry have been better choices?
What do you think? Are people over reacting or is Disney's princess pairing insensitive?
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