Two and a half years ago, Disney released The Princess and the Frog, its first animated feature starring a black princess. Since then, the studio has put Tiana to work shilling everything from tiny baby versions of the dress she wore in the film to bubble bath to temporary tattoos. And now, she's selling candy. Watermelon candy.
According to Sociological Images, the most offensive thing about Dig N' Dips candy isn't the fact that it aims to take advantage of little girls' princessy Valentine's Day dreams in order to pump them full of high fructose corn syrup, but that it either winks at or is completely oblivious of the stereotype that black people love watermelon. To add another flavor to this mess: Sleeping Beauty appears alongside Tiana to illustrate vanilla flavor.
Mmmm. Racism.
On the plus side, it appears that the candy flavors are meant to be integrated in order to create a new magical dreamland of tastesplosion, so even though Dig N' Dips are appealing to stereotypes, maybe the whole thing is a metaphor for how the world is more delicious if we simply listen to each other.
Or maybe this is another example of real life seeming kind of like a Mel Brooks film.
The First Black Disney Princess Loves Watermelon [Sociological Images]