"Fairy tales", are considered, perhaps, a somewhat small segment of overall mythology and folklore. If I were to define what a fairy tale is in exact terms, I would probably mention two things: 1) That the main character is rewarded with material prosperity, and perhaps marriage and 2) The aspect of "helpers". Many characters in fairy tales are kind of meek, and it's usually through a "one good turn deserves another" series of events, whether via denizens of the animal kingdom or a mysterious elderly stranger, that rewards the protagonist through kindness or hard work. The way these stories worked was enough for oral folklore, or for children, especially in a short stint. But as our folklore has moved to longer, and sometimes more visual mediums, we tend to like our legends to be a little more...martial in their presentation. Hence a story where nobody throws a punch is overtaken by the mantra "People had swords back then...why not use them?" Once Upon a Time's Prince Charming is something of a badass, who we see spill blood. (and have blood spilled!) Whether our fiction has become more proactive or belligerent is a story for another time, but my point is, it's starting to blur with a lot of "Heroic Age" mythology, or modern high fantasy.
In the various flashbacks, we see background characters...a clergyman here, a guard there, who is clearly a person of color. A few mythology and fantasy enthusiasts get quite perturbed whenever they see non-white faces in adaptations of Germanic legends. This of course, tends not to reflect on the complainers. I don't have a problem with color blind casting per se. It's hardly going to disenfranchise white people the world over if a large scale production features a non-white captain of the guard or something. But seeing it raises a few problem too. First off all, way to not have the conviction to put a person of color in a main role. But also, I'm led to ask "What's a few roles here and there if most of the fairy tale characters are just from Germany, France, and maybe one or two from Italy" Europe is a very small "continent" in a very large world, and there are countless amazing stories from Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and the Americas.
There's a Chris Rock joke about how Shaquille O'Neal is "rich", but the the man who signs his checks is "wealthy". I think of that joke whenever I see people talk about giving a non-white actor a chance in a European fantasy story. To simply give people of color roles (And token roles at that) does not address the institutional problems at hand, namely the very Eurocentric world view. And you can make your fantasy kingdom as anachronistically inclusive as you'd like, that doesn't make it truly egalitarian. It just means non-whites have a seat at the table that whites have built. Right now, the standard fantasy setting is based on Lord of the Rings. This is because its author, J.R.R. Tolkien, was an enthusiast, some might even say fetishist, for anglo-saxon folklore. In order to allow minorities to flourish in a genre that sometimes warrants aspersions on the race issue, we need to go back to the route. We need break out of a frankly chauvinistic worldview, which is that Europe is the pinnacle of storytelling and mystic-infused heroism, and that the United States is the natural successor. It's a perhaps unintentional, but hopelessly western view of things. And it is probably a temporary solution to a largely institutional issue. If we keep spinning the same Snow White yarn, but just occasionally throw in minorities, instead of truly drawing from their often rich heritage, it just seems, as they say, mighty white of us.
Fantasy, the European kind, has become a bit of a trend this decade. But people will embrace Anglophilic cinema, and yet not wonder why things are going wrong, from a race standpoint. In fact, the only recent franchise to draw inspiration from outside European tropes was Avatar: The Last Airbender. Which was kind of the brainchild of two white creators, but was purported to be a well-researched take on Asian culture. But of course, then they made the movie, and cast white actors in all the lead roles, with minorities so graciously being handed the secondary ones. This of course, ended up creating a goose-and-gander scenario of color-blind casting, as opposed to a chance to give the world a real alternative the typical fantasy nodule.
Mind you, I'm not urging for some kind of segregation. No "white people should want to be this, but black people should want to be this." If, after hearing a collection of stories from around the world, a young African-American girl still decides she wants to be Cinderella rather than Marimba, I'm all for it. My point is, authors are more important than the dressing. For social mobility, the marginalized have to be allowed to be the architects of culture, not hope to benefit from a trickling "generosity", which can ebb and flow. In order to make American fiction truly multicultural, we should go for multiculture, not the one culture with the occasional new candy shell.
Besides, how many different ways can one reinvent Snow White anyway?
