Disney's Princess and the Frog

Tiana

The little black girl from New Orleans

Working day and night to accomplish her dreams

All she wanted was her own restaurant

Silly as that may seem

It should have been that easy right?

Hard work should have won the fight?

Nonsense - society knows it's never that simple for us

Having to jump through twice the hoops

To acquire the same amount of trust

And yet in Disney’s version of this happily ever after

She finds her prince

He teaches her how to dance

She teaches him how to mince

This is simply adorable through a childhood lens

But sadly, I am a realist, with crucial opinions to expend

Realistically, this fairytale would have never come true

Call me a pessimist if you must

But if I were not here to state the facts

What would I be here to do?

Think of her poor father

He was a double shift worker too

He worked so hard that it dug his grave

He was the blue collar worker to the white collar slave

Only he had no foreign princess to relieve his strife

For it was his own diligent, selfless nature that took his life

Why is it our fathers who always have to die?

Notice Disney did not deem the man who saved Tiana

A member of her own race

For Prince Naveen came from a distant place

But I guess I understand why Disney did it that way

Because had the prince been white, I would have a hell of a lot more to say about that controversial array

And so the million dollar question remains burning in your minds as you ask me: If you were in charge, what would you do?

I would have spared the life of the princess's father

I would have turned her into a butterfly instead of that hideous green creature

I would have given her culturally defined physical features

I would have told her that she was more than the money Prince Naveen and gave her

And most importantly, I would have told her that her charisma, confidence, and character made her a princess long before Prince Naveen “saved” her