Racism affects the African Diaspora globally

By Gregory Simpkins

Members of the African Diaspora in North America are justifiably concerned about racism in our backyard, so to speak. The existence of “Karens” – white women who try to use the law to banish our people from their presence and worse are quite evident. In fact, one of these Karens recently shot a Black woman through her closed door when the woman was asking for her son’s tablet that the white woman illegally took into her possession. Whether one believes the United States is systemically racist or not, racism clearly exists within people in this country.

However, while we focus on what happens to our people here, have we neglected to watch and react to racism internationally? That also exists.

Negative reaction

The latest example of a negative reaction to blackness came in response to the Black actress portraying the Little Mermaid in the live-action film of the same name. In America, we are in the midst of an effort to reverse decades of our people being shut out of roles that are not specifically Black. Disney decided that the actress who would embody the animated character Ariel would be a beautiful woman of color. Entertainment Weekly, for example, gave her performance a glowing review:

“As the titular mermaid yearning for a life beyond the sea, ‘Ariel’ is at the heart of this. In Halle Bailey, Disney and Marshall mint a new star. Bailey is breathtaking as ‘Ariel’. Her rendition of Part of Your World (the best “I want” song ever written) transmogrifies the already classic tune into something as otherworldly as undiscovered sea life. But it is her altogether human performance that makes it impossible not to fall in love with her. Her ‘Ariel’ is less a tempestuous teenager with a crush than she is a blossoming and curious young woman,” the magazine wrote on May 22 2023.

However talented she was in that role, though, her presence in the film just didn’t sit well in Asian markets. According to The Hollywood Reporter on June 5 2023, The Little Mermaid is getting doused in select foreign markets amid a racist backlash over the casting of Halle Bailey. The journal wrote that the movie grossed a mere US$3.6 million in its first 10 days of release in China, by far the worst showing among Disney’s live-action adaptations. It also was struggling badly in South Korea, where it earned US$4.4 million through June 4. Sources close to the movie, as well as box office analysts, say Disney knew The Little Mermaid could face challenges, but was surprised by the extent of the backlash and its impact.

“The social media outcry over Bailey’s casting has been particularly vociferous in both markets. Sources believe this has resulted in unverified audience reviews bashing the movie. In South Korea, such reviews have even made headlines,” The Hollywood Reporter stated.

If you look back at the reception for the first Black Panther film, which generally was well-received globally, inspiring a campaign to build modern African cities, it was positive in most places except China. The website Quartz had reported on March 18 2018, that in the run-up to the release of the movie in China, pundits warned that the movie could only hope to, at best, match Ant-Man’s opening in the region (US$43 million). When Black Panther finally made landfall in China, it blew past all predictions, with a US$67 million – up there with some of Marvel’s long-running, well-established cinematic franchises, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Many Egyptians erupted at the appearance of a Black actress in the role of Cleopatra in the new Netflix film, which was art of an ongoing debate on whether Cleopatra VII was Greek or Black.

The release of American films internationally with Black leads reflects current domestic sensitivities to inclusion. China is now the world’s second largest theatrical market, but there has been concern that Hollywood might avoid releasing films with Black leads there. It also led in the past to egregious acts of “decolorization” in how Hollywood films have been marketed, including Lucasfilm’s decision to minimize Black actor John Boyega’s face in Chinese posters for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Yet The Little Mermaid was released in Asian markets despite the past experiences with racism against Black characters.

Disrespect

Other Asians also have displayed more than disrespect toward members of the Diaspora. Do you recall the horrid caricatures of Black people with duck-like lips on mannequins in Japan back in July 1988, a Japanese toy manufacturer and a major Tokyo department store made international headlines when they were forced to withdraw products and fashion mannequins that depicted blacks with unflattering, exaggerated features, but the lesson against such blatant disrespect toward Black people was not universally accepted in Japan.

“Even though Sanrio Co., makers of the offending Little Black Sambo line of toys, and Sogo Department Store, which displayed black mannequins with enormous, grotesquely grinning mouths, have learned a hard lesson about using racial stereotypes in their marketing strategies, dozens of smaller businesses throughout Tokyo have no intention of following suit,” reported the Chicago Tribune on August 28 1988.

Getting back to depictions of Black characters in films, the other recent backlash regarding a Black actress in a film role also occurred in recent weeks. Many Egyptians erupted at the appearance of a Black actress in the role of Cleopatra in the new Netflix film, which was part of an ongoing debate about whether Cleopatra VII was Greek or Black. She was a descendant of Macedonian General Ptolemy of Alexander the Great’s army, but there are those who believe she was at least mixed with African ancestry as well despite contemporaneous depictions of her as having Greek features.

“The latest iteration of this debate blew up last month with the release of trailers for Netflix’s Cleopatra, featuring the Black British actress Adele James playing the legendary Ptolemaic queen – a casting decision that has unleashed massive anger among Egyptians. While some of the reactions have been crudely racist, other criticisms have been motivated by historical grievances and the long-standing Western tradition of separating modern Egyptians from their ancient heritage – whether in the name of imperialist notions of Western civilization or Afrocentrism,” wrote Sara Khorsid, an expert on Egyptian culture, in a recent May 14 article in Foreign Policy magazine.

Khorshid says this casting denied Egyptian scholars a say in this matter despite the ongoing debate about Cleopatra VII’s ethnicity and that in doing so, Netflix was “denying modern-day Egyptians ownership of their history,” long a sore point among Egyptians. So, is this merely a cultural issue, or does it reveal racism in Egypt? If you ask Nubians of Egyptian birth, they might tell you that being Black was not a neutral issue for them in their original homeland, which is why so many of them left Egypt. Moreover, culture was the rationale used by Japanese to excuse the crude depictions of Black people.

You also may recall that during the height of sub-Saharan migration on to Europe through North Africa, there was a nasty trend toward modern slavery involving the Black refugees. The International Organization for Migration reported in April 2017 that there were open slave markets where African refugees were sold like cattle, reminiscent of the American slave markets in the 1700s and 1800s.

Outrage

I must ask, where has the outrage among Diaspora leaders been to the racism faced by our brothers and sisters across the world? The U.S. Congressional Black Caucus did threaten a boycott of Japanese products back in 1988, and the African Union did protest the North African slavery of sub-Saharan refugees as well as the impediments to Africans in Ukraine who were delayed from leaving the war zone in favor of White passengers getting on trains first.

Members of the African Diaspora travel globally, and while we believe our status as Americans or Canadians makes us immune to racism elsewhere, that may not be as true as we would like to believe. It is in our self-interest, therefore, not to ignore fellow members of the Diaspora who are mistreated because of their race.

Just as we experience racism in North America, we also could find ourselves the victim of racism abroad just as other Black people do. I do not suggest that any of us would find ourselves in a slave market in Libya, but why would it be acceptable for others in the Diaspora to suffer such a fate without a collective reaction from us all? If we don’t seem to care about the status of our kin – however distant – then why should we expect those of other races to care either?

Gregory Simpkins, a longtime specialist in African policy development, is the Principal of 21st Century Solutions. He consults with organizations on African policy issues generally, especially in relating to the U.S. Government. He also serves as Managing Director for the Morganthau Stirling consulting firm, where he oversees program development and implementation. He further acts as a consultant to the African Merchants Association, where he advises the Association in its efforts to stimulate an increase in trade between several hundred African Diaspora small and medium enterprises and their African partners.