Why the Latina Snow White Backlash Against Rachel Zegler Makes No Sense

In July, photos of Disney’s new production of Snow White leaked, showing Rachel Zegler, the New Jersey-born actor of Colombian and Polish descent, in her role as the “white as snow” princess in the upcoming live-action version of the story. As with other Disney remakes that feature diverse casting and representation, racist fans of the franchise are big mad, taking to social media to criticize the casting because of Zegler’s Latine ethnicity and disputing the idea that the princess could be played by someone who has some roots in Latin America — even if she’s, quite literally, a white woman from the US Northeast.

The criticism hinges on the idea that the film’s alleged race-blind casting is fundamentally changing the original story of Snow White, a pushback that has been recycled from racist attacks against the 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, which featured Black actor Halle Bailey as Ariel. For instance, one outraged Twitter user posted, “Snow White is also no longer white and will be played by biracial actress Rachel Zegler,” adding that the seven dwarfs have similarly been “replaced” by “multi-racial, mixed-gender ‘magical creatures.’” While these racist critics attempt to hide their bigotry behind arguments like historical or cultural accuracy, defenses that have little to no weight in the world of fiction, it’s obvious that they have no knowledge of how race and ethnicity function.

“The debate around her playing the Disney princess is nonsensical because she is a white Latina.”

In response to the criticism, Zegler expressed her gratitude to her fans on social media, but said she would be tapping out of the dialogue surrounding her playing Snow White. “Extremely appreciative of the love I feel from those defending me online, but please don’t tag me in the nonsensical discourse about my casting,” the 22-year-old Golden Globe-winning actor tweeted. Zegler is right — the debate around her playing the Disney princess is nonsensical because she is a white Latina, making the complaints that Snow White is “no longer” white-skinned or of European heritage particularly laughable.

It shouldn’t have to be said again and again, but white Latines exist. And often, white Latines have an easier time being cast in “traditionally” white American roles because of their whiteness. Zegler is a white Latina, which is evidenced by her casting as a character that is known as being “white as snow.” Even more, with familial origins in Poland and Spain, Zegler has the European heritage that her white supremacist critics are demanding. To complain about her lack of white, European, or even US roots isn’t only terribly racist and xenophobic — it’s also inaccurate.

Even if those fighting against the imagined enemy of wokeness try to fit Zegler — or other white Latines — into a vague category of racialization, it won’t change the fact that white Latine people are white.

“To complain about her lack of white, European, or even US roots isn’t only terribly racist and xenophobic — it’s also inaccurate.”

White supremacists from the US like to think of themselves as better than anyone who was born, or has ancestors from, below the US border, and often use American whiteness as a model to do so. Meanwhile, white supremacy thrives in Latin America as well — and has for much longer than it has in the US. Latin America has a violent history of colonization that led to the genocide of Indigenous communities, enslaved Black people, and created racialized caste systems, and this legacy continues in the racial inequality that privileges white Latin Americans and Latines over Black and Brown Latin Americans and Latines.

American white supremacy — an ideology subscribed to by the people attacking Zegler — purposefully ignores this history and misunderstands the nuances of race and ethnicity among Latines. In some ways, this confusion is the result of white supremacy and nationalism across Latin American countries, where the violent history and myth of mestizaje has attempted to place all Latin Americans and Latines into one single white-brown racial denomination that at once conceals anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism while allowing it to persist in plain sight.

“Zegler’s Latine heritage doesn’t erase her whiteness, and her casting as Snow White doesn’t disrupt racial hierarchies in Latin America or in the United States.”

Maybe it’s folly to argue with people who want to vilify any attempt at inclusion in Hollywood — even if that inclusion is that of a white Latina — but it’s necessary to recognize that Zegler is white, and that Black and Brown Latines have a much harder time getting cast in big productions, especially for roles that hinge on one’s paleness like Snow White.

Zegler, who deserves the role as Snow White not because of the countries her ancestors descend from but rather because of her own outstanding talent, is right to focus on the positivity of being cast as a Disney princess and ignoring the strange discourse that has arisen in the wake of her casting. After all, despite what the bigoted critics or even the production team as Disney may think, Zegler’s Latine heritage doesn’t erase her whiteness, and her casting as Snow White doesn’t disrupt racial hierarchies in Latin America or in the United States.