Hollywood needs to do Better True diversity needs to happen behind the scenes and onscreen in Hollywood. By: Khadija Sharif Throughout my childhood I looked for myself in the media I consumed, and there weren’t a lot of films that really portrayed the experiences of a Black girl in the United States. You can’t imagine how excited I was when The Princess and the Frog first came out, and how there have been milestones in media representation for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) since then. As I grew older, though, and got more invested and interested in film, I started to notice a pattern in how production agencies treat “groundbreaking representation” and how in many cases it falls short. The Disney Corporation’s new liveaction era is a key example of where onscreen representation falls short. A prime example of this is Disney’s Mulan. Although having an all-Asian cast is a milestone for representation, it’s important to note that the composer, director, and writers are all mostly white. You have to wonder why a movie marketed as a new step towards a more progressive era for Disney is so white behind the scenes. Hua Mulan is a popular folktale in Chinese culture, so it would’ve made sense for the behind-the-scenes crew to look as diverse as the film’s cast. Disney has hollow representation; they reap all the benefits from presenting BIPOC stories but from the white lens. They don’t open opportunities for BIPOC writers, directors, and composers because they don’t really care about doing the work. Disney would prefer to present BIPOC stories through the lens of white writers and directors because it’s easier and they can still push this idea of progress and 24 | UNTOLD
representation. Mulan suffers the same fate that many “multicultural” Disney films do: homogenizing a culture to profit off of it while largely ignoring the actual people from whom the movie is based. To me, it felt like a cash grab for quick nostalgia and the magic that I felt as a kid was gone. When Carmen Garcia, a first-year at Hamline was asked what representation meant
to them, they said, “I haven’t felt represented growing up as a Latinx person with all of the kids’ media I used to consume. I feel like Hollywood needs to start talking to communities and including BIPOC when making movies about Image © Disney.com
