And the reason we get these stories in this way is not because of anything related to wokeism, progressivism, DEI, or whatever buzzword you wanted use. It is because of risk averse capitalists. Disney knows a Black Little Mermaid is a safer investment than an original story with a Black protagonist so that is the version we get.

That is rather racist isn't it?(Not your comment but the attitude held by the corporation)

No, it is cynical, ignorant, and lazy, but I don't think it qualifies as racist. I would compare it to those people who like to claim they "don't see race". It isn't actually racist because it isn't discriminatory or putting one race above another. It is just ignoring something that often can't be ignored.

The original story was a fiction too and creates fictional past too. That exact same story with only males in it ... was a fiction. Those males never existed and never did any of those things. Variant of the same fictional story with a woman or a black person is ... exactly as fictional as original. The real world back then contained both men and women. None of them done the mythical things stories are about.

Modern reimagining of The Three Musketeers make Musketeers sound more honorable and noble then actual text. Some comedies make them sound incapable, clumsy and funny. Dumas politics was not pro-ancient regime and he actually makes it clear. Making that into super honorable flawless dudes is as much "changing past fiction" as if you slapped gender or race or made them eskimos. But somehow that is fine.

> If all we see is fictional pasts where black people are just white people with tans, and women are just pretty men, what are black people and women complaining about?

In general, they complain about how they are or were treated back in real world. They also complain about being depicted in fiction as dumb simpletons without agency and then people on discussion forums claiming that those dumb simpletons depictions somehow constitute historical reality.