I know I should really write about Eskom, but I decided not to for a couple of reasons: Firstly, so many commentators have been writing and talking about it and I don’t believe I have anything new to add. Secondly, it is not good for my blood pressure. Honestly, stage 6?!? And don’t even get me started on the whole 30% increase story. See, now I’m already annoyed!

So, let me rather talk to you about something I stumbled across over the weekend.

Being a bit bored, I was flipping through some news sites when I came across a story with videos of mostly African American girls watching the trailer of Walt Disney’s new version of The Little Mermaid for the first time.

Clip after clip showed the little girls’ astonishment when they spot Ariel - played by Halle Bailey - and realise that she’s not white. Almost all of them showed a moment of puzzlement, but then came the outbursts of joy: “Hey, she has braids – just like me!” “Mummy, Ariel looks like me!” “She is black, she’s a black Mermaid!”

I was moved to tears by these girls’ reactions when they saw themselves mirrored in this beloved character.

“How on earth did it take so long?” I wondered.

After the first weekend, the trailer had been downloaded over 100 million times but get this: there were over 1,5 million dislikes (YouTube then disable the button) and a whole drama unfolded on Twitter under the hashtag #notmyariel.

Really?

Some idiots were even trying to hide their racism behind “scientific” claims such as that a mermaid can’t be black because she lives under the sea and therefore gets no sunlight. Eh, so sun exposure is the reason why we have people of different races? I also hate to point out the obvious: Mermaids don’t exist!

So, who is to say what this fictional character should look like?

Of course, behind the ridiculousness of these responses, there is a far more serious issue. What these little girls’ spontaneous reactions demonstrate is how important representation in media is.

On an individual level, it gives children (in this case children of colour) the opportunity to dream, to believe that they too can be the heroine, that they too can be beautiful and admired.

Research has shown that the images children see in books and the media form not only a crucial part in how they see themselves but also how they engage with racial and gender identities in general.

So, in order to believe that they can be strong, powerful and achieve their dreams, children need to see characters who look like them and who personify these qualities. In addition on a more collective level when they are exposed to diversity it inculcates tolerance towards those whose appearance is different from theirs. 

“The media we consume has a profound influence on how we see, understand, and treat people, both those within and different from our own race or ethnicity”, says Prof. Onnie Rogers, PhD, from Northwestern University, who co-authored a report called: The Inclusion Imperative: Why Media Representation Matters for Kids' Ethnic-Racial Development.”

Of course, that only works if adults’ own prejudices and fears don’t mess it up for them.

Dr. TreaAndrea Russworm from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts points out that representation is always about power.

“Power resides in popular culture and the images that convey messages about who belongs, who has agency, who can be part of a world, who cannot be part of a world,” she said recently. “Therefore, the (negative) reaction to this is about the fear of losing power.”

Which is why it is clear to me that it is also important for those of us who are white to see characters that look different from us so that we can be challenged in the subtle and not so subtle prejudices that we still hold.

By normalising diversity on every level of our lives, we can also be freed from our own prejudices in a world that far too often still holds up whiteness, masculinity and being straight as what is good and desirable.

Famously Ariel sings: “Wish I could be… part of that world.” That is good and fine for a mermaid who wants to be out of the sea, but no child should feel that about the world that they live in.