Stacy Whitman is the founder and publisher of Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books that publishes diverse fantasy, science fiction, and mystery for children and young adults. She holds a master’s degree in children’s literature from Simmons College. In this post (cross-posted with permission from Stacy’s blog) Stacy reflects on the representation of people of color in the ABC show Once Upon a Time.
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Ever since Mulan showed up at the beginning of season 2, I’ve been pondering on how diversity is handled in the fairy tale world of Once Upon a Time. After 
all, this is a fairy tale world that includes (real) tales from China, not to mention the genie from Aladdin, so we’re not limited to the tales of white western Europe (and medieval western Europe was a whole lot more diverse than many people give it credit for). One of the seven dwarves appears Asian, the guy who plays Sidney Glass/the Mirror/Genie is black. Though the actress who plays the Evil Queen/Regina is Latina, she’s not portrayed as Latina, so it’s hard to count that as one in the win column. There are (a few) others, but few who are named and whose backstory we see anything of.
I am enjoying the direction the main storyline is heading in this year in the show’s third season, but I’m highly disappointed with how the show handles its characters of color. Have you noticed how many of them die or get locked away to be forgotten compared to other characters? Sidney (who disappeared to star on Revolution, never to be mentioned again); Tamara, Neal’s fiancée who was trying to sabotage magic and kidnapped Henry (who could as easily have decided to be good and joined up with their team, but no, just got killed off; granted, so did her white partner in crime); Lancelot, who is dead before we ever meet him.
We’ve got a spinoff that just started this week, too (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland). It would have been a perfect opportunity for deeper exploration of the story of one of the surviving characters of color, like Mulan, who seems to exist only as a helper character so far, not a hero in her own right. She’s even in a love triangle with Sleeping Beauty and Prince Philip, rather than with her own love interest from her Disney story, Li Shang. We never see much of her backstory or really anything of her part of the world. In other words, season 2 really dropped the ball on her potential. (Though perhaps we’ll see some chemistry between her and Neil while Emma’s feeling a little drawn to Hook? I don’t know. I’m not really feeling that direction.)
Mulan is one of the most compelling Disney characters ever, and her origin tale from China is rich source material for a show that likes to take the Disney portrayal and add a few more layers. I’d rather see her be a hero in her own right, rather than a love interest who’s only important because she helps the (white) main characters. Surely there could be some sort of conflict in the Enchanted Forest she could rally to fight for, leading a rag-tag bunch of warriors to save the day?
And all wishful thinking of where a spinoff could have gone aside, there’s the actual spinoff which just premiered yesterday. I could be wrong about the guys who play the love-interest genie Cyrus and the Knave of Hearts (perhaps they are multiracial or of Latino or Middle Eastern origin, but it doesn’t appear so) in the new spinoff, but as far as I can tell, the only person of color in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland is Naveen Andrews, who plays Jafar. Given Once Upon a Time’s track record of trying to redeem bad guys, perhaps this isn’t the cliche “guy of color is the bad guy,” and I hope that’s the case… and I hope that Jafar doesn’t end up dead by the end of the mini-series, the way so many other characters of color have been killed off in the original.
What does this mean for people of color in the Once Upon a Time world? So far, not much good. I’d love to be proved wrong by this season of OUAT or OUATiW, but I have little hope that I will, based upon the track record.
What do you think? Are you looking forward to OUATiW? How do you think Jafar will be portrayed?
