Why Being “Brown” is Not a Prop
Since my childhood, I was asked if my favourite Disney princess was Jasmine. I would be compared to Jasmine because of my long hair and reluctance to stand with the patriarchy, even at the notable age of six. And yet, I never saw the correlation. Today I see that the commonality between Jasmine and I is the color of my skin and hers. She was the only representation of skin tone and loose cultural resemblance that I could relate to. As an adult, I grew to appreciate Aladdin and the subtle inaccuracies in the cartoon, because there was the hope of rectifying those mistakes.
When Aladdin was being remade into a live-action film, there were reactions of joy and there were those of apprehension. The concern was whether or not they would cast actors that fit the ethnic and cultural ties of the story or if the actors would be white and made to fit the roles. The cast list came out and there was a wide range of representation, people were thrilled by the prospect of Middle-Eastern people being represented accurately. However, one choice was controversial, the role of Jasmine herself. Naomi Scott is ethnically half-Indian and half-British. Jasmine is a debated character and part of the confusion regarding the setting of Aladdin as a whole. Agrabah is generally accepted to be inspired by Arab culture and architecture, some concluding that it was created with the image of Baghdad in mind but with the political climate with the Gulf War, Disney renamed the city. Yet, some suggest that the palace resembles a pinnacle of Indian architecture, the Taj Mahal. Even more so, the story of Aladdin, part of a "Thousand and One Nights" or "The Arabian Nights", was written in Arabic and is colloquially an Arab text. Jasmine also has her tiger, named Raj, which is not an animal found in the Middle East and is regionally located in South India.
The whole cartoon was a generalization of Middle-Eastern and South Asian cultures and the live-action film was the opportunity to clarify the inaccuracies and represent a group that has been poorly depicted in the past.
While the origins of Aladdin as a story are debated, the concern her was that Disney was now generalizing Middle-Easterns, Indians, and other South Asians. To the eye, all "brown people are the same". There is no interchangeability between these ethnicities and acknowledging some of the shared histories is worthwhile. The Middle East and South India were at different times conquered by the Ottomans, Persians, the Muslim Empire, and later colonized by the British and French as well. While this is an extremely condensed statement, there is no denying the cross-cultural similarities and potential for mixing racial ties. However, it does not excuse the assumption that we are all the same. Differences should be presented and celebrated, rather than homogenized.
The casting of Naomi Scott, while controversial, was not the worst that happened on the set of the film.
In a surprising turn of events in my life, as someone who has loved Disney and continues to love it, I was speechless when I found out that the company had darkened white actors for their new live-action film, Aladdin. Disney has been accused and confirmed of brown-face in filming the new live-action Aladdin. For those unfamiliar with the term, "brownface" is the addition of makeup or effects to make white actors darker in an attempt to represent another ethnicity.
This whole scandal confuses me because is there not a plethora of Middle-Eastern, or South Indian (as they did with the main cast), actors in England or Jordan? Part of the filming took place in Jordan near Wadi Rum. So the producers and executives of the film are really saying that there weren't enough Middle Eastern people for extras, in the Middle East. On the other hand, to say that there weren't enough "brown" people in England, I argue is even more egregious. There are over 700,000 South Asians and over 500,000 Arabs in London alone. While I don't agree with affirmative action is to ensure that there is a racial quota that gives advantages to fill the category of diversity, I find it extremely difficult to comprehend that in over 1 million people, none of them could fulfill the role of an extra on the Disney set.
The response of some of the PR representatives of Disney was that they struggled to find qualified actors that fit the characteristics of the roles and that with their commitment to a diverse cast, there were times when they used makeup and effects to have actors "blend in". A consistent theme of melding, mixing, or generalizing is brought up in the creation of these films and the industry is sorely lacking in effective solutions. Skin tone is not a tool and it is certainly not a choice. Fake-tan all you want but you're still going to have to check the right box when applying for your passport.
What is your ethnicity? Please check one of the following: White. Black/Africa. East Asian. South Asian. Middle-Eastern and North African. Latin American. Other.
Those are your choices and until we can agree on a system that refuses to categorize and discriminates based on race and ethnicity, in no world should it be acceptable to "blend" into a category that has been racially profiled, for entertainment nonetheless. Not discounting Scott's talent, the precedent of the film was questionable from the start and the reluctance of the producers to promise to stop using "brown-face" is a sign that this problem has not nearly ended.
The conflation and convergence of these ethnicities have been an Orientalist tendency and recursively used as a tool to dissociate and homogenize these groups. Jasmine was and still is objectified as the erotic fantasy and representative of the subjugation in these cultures. While she is an exuberant and strong character that pushes against the patriarchal ideals of the villain, Jafar, she remains to be seen as a character with agency.
When the remake was announced, most people were just thankful that the main cast of Aladdin wasn't white. While I agree that we've come a long way from where we were in the 1940s and even 1992 when the original Aladdin cartoon came out. There is absolutely no reason to be darkening white actors to play these parts. I look forward to watching the movie but also to see if they have fixed the glaring issues in the cartoon as well as the homogenization of cultures in the film.