New Orleans, voodoo, and Disney's first black princess

Disney's upcoming animated movie The Frog Princess, an American fairy tale musical set in New Orleans during the 1920s Jazz Age, will star the first black princess in Disney history. No announcement has yet been made about who will voice the 19-year-old a chambermaid named Maddy, but Alicia Keys and Dreamgirls Jennifer Hudson and Anika Noni Rose are reportedly among the contenders.

This is a really great - if long overdue - development, but I rolled my eyes when I saw that that the movie was set in New Orleans. Of course the first movie featuring a black princess would be set in New Orleans - because that's where the black people live, according to Hollywood. Not Cleveland or Seattle, or Boston, but New Orleans. Yes, there is a very large population of African Americans (and Caribbean Americans) in New Orleans, but a lot of black people live elsewhere, too! Apparently a movie about a black princess from Cleveland just isn't as appealing. Why not?

In a word: voodoo.

Every time there's a special New Orleans-themed episode on a TV show, like the one on Bones earlier this season, or the latest episode of Blood Ties I watched last night, it always features black folks who practice voodoo. And sure enough, one of the characters in The Frog Princess is "an elderly, 200-year-old Voodoo priestess/fairy god-mother."

Nevermind that (I'm guessing) the majority of black people in New Orleans don't practice voodoo - white people just can't get this idea out of their heads. It exoticizes black folks and makes them seem more like the "other," and less like your neighbor down the street. I'm not black, and I'm not from New Orleans, but I'm offended on behalf of both. And intelligent people everywhere. Yes, I know I'm on a rant, and probably about something no one else cares about, but I don't like lazy writing that's based on stereotypes.

Watch, now I'll go home tonight and discover a voodoo doll that looks like me with pins stuck in it on my doorstep. If I turn into a giant snake in my sleep tonight, you'll know why!