Transcript
Lots of super chats coming in already.
Now, I'm not sure if I should...
I wasn't going to talk about this.
but now I am gonna talk about it.
I've got a lot of controversial subjects because people are asking my opinion on a lot of controversial topics. And these are topics that I've usually avoided.
I've avoided them on platforms like the previous one, CuckTube, that I was on.
Because...
I understand that it's very easy to be...
misconstrued and taken out of context when discussing very sensitive issues. So with that in mind, I'm going to dive right in here.
Hey Tristan.
I know you are a biracial man. I'd like to know what your thoughts are on Disney casting the new Ariel Mermaid...
as a black woman
Whew.
and the room goes silent.
talking on the internet about race issues.
I am going to tell you what I think about Disney.
Cast casting the new Ariel from Little Mermaid as a black woman. Oh messages are popping up on my phone. Don't talk about it. Right? Let me put my phone down.
Thank you.
I'm going to say:
How dare you?
Disney.
How dare you?
cast Ariel
as a black woman.
I think for a company that prides itself in imagination,
That is the least
imaginative thing
you could possibly do
Now wherever you think I'm going with this, you're going to be wrong, so sit back.
And listen up.
I think
that of you
hired a bunch of movie makers who had never seen The Little Mermaid before.
and said, "Alright guys, we're gonna make a show about a mermaid who lives under the sea, who's half human."
And they went off and animated or hired or cast a black actress or made the character black and said, here we go, we're finished with the movie.
You could say, "Oh, well in my mind she was white and redheaded, but yeah, fair enough mistake. Cool, you hired an actress. Good for you. Cool. Let's run with the movie." But that's not what happened, is it?
What happened is,
A bunch of executives at Disney sat around at a table and said, "I have a good idea to represent black people."
Let's make Ariel Black. Let's take a character who is historically white and red-headed. Forget about the little red-head girls who like having a Disney princess that they can look up to. Let's...
Turn this character black because that will make black people feel good. Now, I am a multiracial, biracial man. My father was black. My mother is white. And I can't speak for all black people.
But I can speak as a mixed race man with a black nephew,
and say, I think that is the laziest...
most pathetic excuse
for representing black people on modern day television. Let me tell you something. We're gonna role play something.
In the 1980s, they did it right. They did representation on television the right way. In 1982 or 1983,
An executive walked into an office at an American television studio and said, "Listen up, guys. We don't have enough black people on television."
And the executives and the producers all sat around and said, you know what, you're right. We don't have enough black people on television.
I have an idea.
What we'll do is we'll create a sitcom. A sitcom that doesn't
Portray black characters in a negative way. Let's have the father be a judge The mother be a lawyer the the the daughter be a television presenter the son be a straight-a student and let's cast Will Smith as a character who is living in an upper-class
well-to-do black family, but still struggling with some of the issues that modern day black teenagers deal with. Let's call it the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Let's not portray black people in negative light and let's do something positive for the black community by making this show. And the executives sat around and discussed it and they thumbs up it and signed it into reality. And the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, one of my favorite shows when I was a kid, was born. The Cosby Show, exactly the same. They sat around and said, let's make a proud, well-to-do black
on the television every single day without portraying black characters in a negative light. That is how you do black representation on television.
What you do nowadays, Disney executives and Netflix executives, who are listening, is you are lazy.
And you are not treating the issue seriously. Today, 2021, 2022, a television executive runs to the door and says, guys,
Netflix.
We don't have enough black people on television.
What do we do about this? And you dummies sit around and go, um...
Black Vikings?
And you all cheer and say, "Yeah, black Vikings, wonderful idea. Let's make Vikings black."
It's an insult to Norse history. It's an insult to European history. It's an insult to black history. It's not factually correct and it doesn't help black people.
It is lazy and one of you clowns at Disney sat around when the executive said we need more representation of black people on television.
And you went...
Oh!
You know the Little Mermaid? There's been like 20 movies with her in it. She's a character at every Disney theme park. And she's a white woman with red hair. Why don't we just make her black?
and you patted yourselves on the back and said, "Well done. You've done your bit for black people. You should be ashamed of yourself."
That is the least imaginative way
to help black representation I've ever heard of. And it's not just that. I see it all the time. I was watching a movie recently.
And I had to turn it off halfway through. Mary, Queen of Scots.
It was set.
during the reign of Elizabeth the first in England when there were no black people in England. Keep in mind the first black man ever to live in London was a historical figure. His name was Cornelius and he didn't move to London until 50 years after Mary Queen of Scots was set. Where's the movie about Cornelius?
You want to make movies with black people in it set in medieval England? Make a movie about him. Make a movie about his life story. What you don't do is take a time period that had no black characters and cast a whole bunch of black actors. I'll tell you why. Because I don't want my young black nephew watching Mary Queen of Scots thinking, well, in the 1500s we were advisors to the Queen and generals to armies. No, you weren't.
No, black people weren't, and white people teaching that they were is a way of getting rid of the guilt that they carry.
And it's absolute nonsense. It is a lazy attempt at casting black people in modern day television.
If you think of some of the black people in history, I actually got this up, I'm going to read the full title out.
In 1861, a slave named Robert Smalls stole a Confederate ship and delivered it to the Union Army. He was given command of the ship. He became a major general, bought the house where he was a slave, and let the former owner's wife live there when she developed dementia. He learned how to read and write, and won an election against a white man, and served five years in Congress.
Where is the movie about Robert Smalls?
Where is the movie about Robert Smalls?
You don't make one. What you'll do is you'll make a movie about Vikings and turn them black. It's insulting and it's lazy.
What's his name? Ashuga. Is it Ashuga or Ashuka?
I believe he was a black slave sold by a Portuguese merchant vessel to Japanese men who set him free and he became a samurai warrior in feudal Japan. A black African man. Where's the Netflix series about him?
Animated or non-animated. That would be a fucking killer of a show. Make the series. There's a job for a black actor. But what you don't do, and the BBC did this, is take a classic story like the story of Troy where Achilles is described in the original text as a fair-skinned man with long blonde hair and make the actor black.
You don't take Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's wife, who was a white woman, and make the actress black. It's lazy and it's insulting. As a mixed-race man, it offends me.
So no.
I don't think that The Little Mermaid should be black.
What I think Disney should do, if you are so imaginative and filled with imagination as you claim you are, is create a new princess.
Maybe a princess in feudal Africa.
Maybe make a story about black characters and include more black people.
Don't just blackwash your characters. It's lazy and it's stupid and I personally can't stand it and black people shouldn't stand for it either.
You should go to a movie where they make the Vikings black and walk out and say, why are they putting...
black people in the Vikings movies. My kids are going to think that we were Vikings.
It's absolutely ridiculous. But I will give a quick honorable mention to people who do make movies and TV shows...
and cast all black cast people like Jordan Peele. I watched a movie recently
It was called "Us."
It was a horror movie by that director Jordan Peele.
I have, I've sat around with my black friends. I mixed race myself. I know I look super white. For all the comments, I know I look super white.
I mixed race myself. I sat around with my black friends talking about horror movies. And they're like, ah, yeah, that's white people shit. The house is haunted. I'd act like this. I'd act like that. You know, to actually watch Us, which was a movie directed by Jordan Peele, which was a horror movie...
starring a black family and a bunch of other black actors. It was a wonderful movie because it was an original story,
Great that he cast an all-black cast because why shouldn't you it's not a movie that's being redone It's not a plot that should involve white people. It's a plot set in the United States and you know 13 14 percent of Americans are African American and
And it was hilarious. The way that they behaved in the horror movie was actually different from the way white people behaved. Analyzing their body counts, etc. And it was a great movie. So shout out to great directors like him.
But you know, when I hear they're trying to make James Bond black, I mean the 007 in the latest one, I know it's not James Bond, but with some black woman, I'm like,
Just write new characters, write new black characters and make the movies great. There's no need to do this.
And black people should demand more from companies like Disney. That's what I think.
about the Little Mermaid being black.
So long answer I know did my cigar go out?
All the people who warned me against speaking up against that are saying that was a very good answer. What did you think I was gonna say?
You think I'm some white supremacist? I'm mixed race.
*sniff*
*Sigh*