To worry most people won’t ever ‘get it’

[OverTheRainbow88]

All the marches, Protests etc and people still don’t seem to understand!

Will they ever?

One page actually says her hair is too frizzy. It was curly. Probably white middle classs author.

If they wanted to avoid all offence, (and all of the mermaids in the book had the same skin tone), what would be an acceptable texture description for hair that could be used in this context?

Or would it be best just to not talk about her hair at all, because of the colour of her skin?

Fluffy isn't the same as the negative stereotypes of fuzzy/wiry/unprofessional.
Funny how a lot of PP are substituting "fuzzy" in this very thread. It's an obvious reach.
If the mermaid's scales were too shiny you could all get incensed about criticising BAME people for being "ashy".

Or would it be best just to not talk about her hair at all, because of the colour of her skin?

As it's such a sensitive topic, obviously yes. Skin tone wouldn't be focused on for the same reason.

Surely it would be offensive if they changed the words used rather than the exact same words are used in all the books no matter what colour the mermaid is. As much as i agree racial hair discrimination is a thing i have never heard fluffy being used.

It really doesn't take much effort to find plenty of material about the negative connotations placed on Afro hairstyles and the pressure for black people to conform to white beauty ideals....

And for anyone saying it is just a kids T-Shirt or just a kids book, children are absorbing their world from a very young age. This is how unconscious (and conscious!) bias and stereotyping gets ingrained. Same as girls being pretty princesses and mermaids while boys are brave astronauts and explorers.

They could easily have used another feature. As another pp has said the fact this was improved does show how little diversity at there is at decision making level within the companies producing the books/t-shirt.

I would be interested to know how many people complaining about this actually are black. I would have thought the marches were about more important things and making a big issue of things that weren't even intended to cause offence undermines all the important stuff in my opinion.

I support BLM whole heartedly but think white people pointing out the flaw in an innocent child’s book and saying that a black character can’t have some quality in the book are the real racists here. The book points out numerous ways that the mermaids aren’t the right mermaid, it’s nothing to do with race. The black mermaid has hair that is too fluffy to be the mermaid IN QUESTION. If you read these books you would understand how they work. It does not say or imply black people cant be mermaids.

Yep, it could have been ‘too long’, ‘too silky’, ‘too wavy’ but I suppose it’s Usbourne books that are to blame?

And people like you OP wonder why people don’t take BLM seriously

This is absolutely not racist at all. Stupids posts like this completely deflect from the real issues behind 'black lives matter' and make it all into a bit of a joke, which it is not at all.

Publishers are trying to be more inclusive and then ridiculous posts and articles like this completely ruin it. Two steps forward and one step back!

If the publishers are forced to issue an apology over this I will be so angry!

I support BLM whole heartedly but think white people pointing out the flaw in an innocent child’s book and saying that a black character can’t have some quality in the book are the real racists here. The book points out numerous ways that the mermaids aren’t the right mermaid, it’s nothing to do with race. The black mermaid has hair that is too fluffy to be the mermaid IN QUESTION. If you read these books you would understand how they work. It does not say or imply black people cant be mermaids.

Yep this is honestly what i cant work out. I was always raised that humans are all equal. I was taught that there were nasty people out there who treated people differently based on the colour of their skin and i have always found that repulsive... So i am really struggling to see how its racist to make 2 mermaids one white one black equal using the exact same word is racist.

I think it’s worse out of the context of the whole book tbh.

I mean I agree that choosing that the black mermaid would have hair that was “too fluffy” was a bad idea - it could have been any of the other qualities, like the shiny tailbone whatever- was an obviously bad idea. Even though it is just supposed to be different to “my mermaid”.

But only the t shirt with only that picture even that slight excuse is gone, and it just looks really racist.

Umm.. what about the ginger mermaid whose hair is too fluffy? Is that one not offensive too then? People with ginger hair have been mocked relentlessly for decades, yet no one seems to be claiming that that's prejudiced.
Once again, people are looking too far into things and losing sight of what "racism" actually is.
The more likely thing here is that they re-published with different skin and hair colours for diversity purposes, and didn't really put much thought into which mermaids would be which colours. Also, she doesn't look black anyway, she looks olive skinned, which is different altogether.

To those saying this deflects from important BLM issues... the word grassroots springs to my mind!

JasperRising. Exactly, Well said.

Umm.. what about the ginger mermaid whose hair is too fluffy? Is that one not offensive too then? People with ginger hair have been mocked relentlessly for decades, yet no one seems to be claiming that that's prejudiced.

This reminds me of the BLM Vs the all lives matter.

The black baby in That's Not My Baby has a bib that is too squishy if I remember rightly. I really don't see the offence in this situation sorry.

Wait, this is about race? I saw the mermaid and assumed it was yet another trans thread.

edwardcullensotherwoman. Did the ginger mermaid get told her hair was too ginger? No, Well then, it is not the same thing.

So the uk population demographic is this:

white 87.2%, black/African/Caribbean/black British 3%, Asian/Asian British: Indian 2.3%, Asian/Asian British: Pakistani 1.9%, mixed 2%, other 3.7% (2011 est.)

So 3 percent of the population. Yet someone suggested there should have been someone who was black in the production process of the book.

They cannot be everywhere. They are a very small percentage of the population. It there was a black person at every level in every profession in this country there would be some serious over promoting going on.

Grassroots would be writing and publishing your own book, OverTheRainbow.

All this does, honestly, is make any diversity project seem like a minefield. The phrase 'ten foot bargepole' springs to my mind.

Like others have said, the old liberal ideals we were raised on - treating everyone equally - are being swept away by this new destructive, divisive hysteria.

edwardcullensotherwoman. Did the ginger mermaid get told her hair was too ginger? No, Well then, it is not the same thing.

But the blonde mermaid was told her hair was too fluffy.

@WitchenKitch

Something grassroots is at the most basic level of something, down there in the dirt with the roots of an idea or activity. The grassroots is the most fundamental, basic level of well, grass, but also ideas or political movements. ... not going to pretend I wrote that, but was explained well on google!!!

You're trying to explain a term to me that you had to Google?

Jesus. H.