First I like to say, I'm all for unity and equally. I pray one day we as a society can put aside ALL our prejudices, be it race, color, style, gender, social class etc. and focus on the one thing that matters the most, LOVE. A single act of love can heal wounds, can build bridges and make a person stronger. Believe it or not we are all connected and need each other. Lets continue to look at the bigger picture and love our neighbor. For through love growth is obtained.
Now...I would like to focus on my community, the "black community". Why is it that we are just now seeing the first animated black princess in theaters? It is now 2010 and the last major motion picture with (animated) lead black characters was BeBe's kids, produced in 1992. Since then we have seen all shades of color in lead characters from Asian, to Native American, to Indian and of course White, but no African American. Is it because the interest in such characters non-existent? Do investors and production companies feel they won't get a significant return from the film? I don't know the answers to those questions but I do know that I don't blame a major studio like Disney for waiting so long to produce such a character. I don't feel it was Disney's duty to create a black character, or a Positive black character for that matter. I feel the responsibility falls on our community.
When I was younger I never thought that there were black animators. I always envisioned a bunch of white guys, but no black folk... Why did I think like this? After much deliberation I came to this conclusion, "lack of example." Never hearing about any black animator. As a little black boy interested in drawing and watching Saturday morning cartoons, I often imagined what it would be like to be an animator. But alas my thoughts were short lived because it seemed impossible. What if at that very moment someone in my community took the time to open my eyes and show me that there are indeed black animators? How would that revelation have affected me?
To all my colleagues of color....Represent! Don't wait for a major Studio like Disney to create a Black Princess. Create your own examples of positive black characters and open up someone's eyes. Show them that we're here and we're making moves, "If I can do it so can you!"
