‘Queen Charlotte,’ ‘Cleopatra,’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ make May the month of Black queens
Black women’s portrayals in pop-culture are even more important at a time when Black history is ignored in school curriculums and a report says Black girls are treated inequitably in PA schools
Queen Charlotte’s diamond tiara is tucked into massive curls. Her Afro glows like the full moon.
This queen of England, portrayed by mixed-race actress India Amarteifio in Shonda Rhimes’ reimagining of 18th-century British royalty, is not just rumored to be Black — she is unapologetic about it. The swoon-worthy story of Charlotte and King George III’s (Corey Mylchreest) courtship is resonating: Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story has been Netflix’s top streamed series since it was released two weeks ago.
Queen Charlotte isn’t the only current binge-worthy series or film with a woman of color in a royal role traditionally reserved for white actors. Netflix released the four-episode docudrama Queen Cleopatra May 10, featuring Black Brit Adele James as queen of the Nile. And on May 26, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, starring R&B singer Halle Bailey, will open in theaters.
Those of us who yearn to see Black women in spaces, places, and roles we’ve historically been barred from find these casting decisions affirming. It gives Black women the chance to see our stories included in the human experience. Non-Black people are exposed to Black women as both beautiful and powerful, providing a fuller picture of who we are and who we’ve always been. In a week when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill defunding DEI programs and limiting how race is discussed in the state’s colleges and universities, Black women’s historical portrayals in pop culture are even more important.
“I’ve always second-guessed who I was and what I looked like, how I’m supposed to act,” said Amaiyah Monet, an 18-year-old Philadelphia high school senior from Southwest Philadelphia. “Seeing Black girls as the fairy or a queen is like, releasing. It releases us from a system that has held us back for so long.”
How Black women are portrayed in the media — and how they are not — is one of the reasons Black girls are treated so poorly in Pennsylvania schools, according to the Education Law Center – PA report: “We Need Supportive Spaces that Celebrate Us: Black Girls Speak Out About Public Schools.” The study surveyed Black middle and high school girls and determined that Black girls in Pennsylvania schools are subject to discriminatory dress codes, endure racial slurs, and are treated like threats. Black women’s stories aren’t a part of the school curriculum and mental health providers and social workers are culturally incompetent. The cumulative effect is bad: Black girls don’t enjoy school and aren’t learning.
» READ MORE: Black girls’ education is fundamentally inequitable in Pennsylvania, a new study says. Here are eight fixes.
“Forty-eight percent of Pennsylvania schools — or 1,400 schools — don’t have a single teacher of color,” said Paige Joki, the lead attorney for Education Law Center’s Black Girls Education Justice Initiative. “Many [Black girls] attend schools where they aren’t allowed to talk about race. When people are digesting a solid stream of anti-Blackness, they are going to devalue Black people.”
The report outlined eight solutions including hiring, retaining, and supporting Black teachers, administrators, and staff. “Black girls aren’t the only ones who need to see they are valuable and that they can and want to learn,” Joki said. Black girls as princesses help change ”the narrative not just for Black girls, but for everyone who interacts with them.”
At the African American Museum in Philadelphia last Saturday, a dozen teens and tweens made cloth mermaid dolls. The event celebrated inclusion and urged the young women and their mothers to practice self-love, said Nina Ball, the museum’s director of programming. The girls armed their cloth mini-mes with positive affirmations about their inner beauty, their natural intelligence, and why they matter.
“Disney’s reimagining of The Little Mermaid is a huge disruption in the narrative of how little Black girls see themselves,” Ball said. “They finally get to see they can be treated gently, fairly, and like royalty.”
Anti-Black racism was consciously reinforced in the media, real life, and fairy tales for hundreds of years so antiracist ideas need to be a part of the zeitgeist in much the same way. This is a good start, but there is still so much work to do. When Disney cast Bailey as Ariel, racists complained the choice was an affront to their childhood and Black girls were being told again they weren’t wanted. It was like getting a magic wand for Christmas and discovering it’s broken.
“People said the same thing about Yara Shahidi getting the job as Tinker Bell [in Peter Pan & Wendy], that she didn’t belong,” Monet said. “When people see something they aren’t used to, they get scared. Change is scary and different, I get it. But why do they want to always question whether we belong there?”
Some Egyptians threatened to sue Netflix because they say James, a biracial woman, is too dark to play Cleopatra and that their history is being “Black-washed.” Bridgerton’s mixed-race high society was criticized for being historically inaccurate, even though, much like Hamilton, it’s a reimagined world.
Queen Charlotte is centered around the radical idea that if Charlotte, who many historians argue is of African descent, was able to embrace her Blackness, anti-Blackness wouldn’t be a scourge of Western society. Instead, we live in a world where Black royalty like Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, was conspicuously missing from King Charles’ coronation and Black girls in Pennsylvania go to schools that devalue them. Pop culture is starting to be intentional about changing that narrative. Will we follow suit?