Like, I think you can have something about a black servant girl in, say, the 1930s, and still be respectful. Mind you, that you CAN do something doesn't mean there's a great probability that you WILL...
I think it's during the Jazz Age? So, 1920s, maybe?
And I think you definitely *could* do a good story about a black servant girl, and it's not even so much that it's not "respectful" to portray the black princess as a servant, because it really would be all in how you handled the story... (although I really do doubt they would handle it well. Like, either she's the "sassy, spunky Black Best Friend" type who is happy to be a servant, or the downtrodden, humble Cinderella type who is long-suffering and noble and good, and... I just don't know, really.) It just seems like, you know, for their *very first black princess*, they could do better than have her be the servant to a white character, you know?
I think one aspect of it is... you know how sometimes you hear Jewish readers criticizing the YA literature they read as kids, because there weren't ANY young adult books about Jewish characters that weren't ALSO about the Holocaust? They couldn't find any books about kids like them just having crushes, or going to summer camp, or solving crimes, or fighting dragons, or everyday YA type stuff. It was ALWAYS "blaaaah it's so tragic and terrible to be Jewish and everyone dies." And sometimes you just want a story that reinforces that you can be what you are, and yet your whole life isn't *defined* by this one thing-- you can do things *besides* "escape from the Holocaust" or "learn from your Nana about the Holocaust". Not that those are terrible stories, but it's also good if you don't always have to have just the one type of story over and over, you know?
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Like, I think you can have something about a black servant girl in, say, the 1930s, and still be respectful. Mind you, that you CAN do something doesn't mean there's a great probability that you WILL...
I think it's during the Jazz Age? So, 1920s, maybe?
And I think you definitely *could* do a good story about a black servant girl, and it's not even so much that it's not "respectful" to portray the black princess as a servant, because it really would be all in how you handled the story... (although I really do doubt they would handle it well. Like, either she's the "sassy, spunky Black Best Friend" type who is happy to be a servant, or the downtrodden, humble Cinderella type who is long-suffering and noble and good, and... I just don't know, really.) It just seems like, you know, for their *very first black princess*, they could do better than have her be the servant to a white character, you know?
I think one aspect of it is... you know how sometimes you hear Jewish readers criticizing the YA literature they read as kids, because there weren't ANY young adult books about Jewish characters that weren't ALSO about the Holocaust? They couldn't find any books about kids like them just having crushes, or going to summer camp, or solving crimes, or fighting dragons, or everyday YA type stuff. It was ALWAYS "blaaaah it's so tragic and terrible to be Jewish and everyone dies." And sometimes you just want a story that reinforces that you can be what you are, and yet your whole life isn't *defined* by this one thing-- you can do things *besides* "escape from the Holocaust" or "learn from your Nana about the Holocaust". Not that those are terrible stories, but it's also good if you don't always have to have just the one type of story over and over, you know?