After a 3-year-old Aboriginal Australian girl was told by strangers she shouldn't dress up as Elsa from Frozen at a Disney-themed event in Melbourne "because Queen Elsa isn’t black," the racially vilified child and her family have received an amazing outpouring of support from around the world, The Courier reports.
It all started earlier this month, when Rachel Muir brought her young daughter, Samara, to a local shopping center dressed in costume as the popular Disney character. While waiting in line for more than two hours to play in a children's snow pit, the mother and daughter were surprised to be accosted with racist comments by fellow attendees.
"The lady in front of us turned around to Samara and said, 'I don’t know why you’re dressed up for because Queen Elsa isn’t black,'" Muir told the paper. When Muir asked the women what she could possibly mean by the comment, one of the woman's daughters proceeded to screw up her face, point at Samara and say, "You’re black and black is ugly." Muir was understandably stunned by the racist remarks, and Samara burst into tears and hid her face behind her hands.
Though the Muirs stood strong, held hands, and continued to wait until they reached the front of the line so Samara could play in the snow, the young girl who so loved Elsa became sad and withdrawn in the weeks following the incident. When Samara refused to attend the weekly Aboriginal dance class she had previously enjoyed, her mother asked why and received a heartbreaking response: "She pointed at the skin on her arm and asked why she was black," Muir explained. "I told her ‘because God gave you that skin colour, because you’re a proud blackfella like mum.'"
The proud mama then took to Facebook, penning a post about the incident that was subsequently shared more than 1500 times, and garnered the attention of Australian media, sparking an outpouring of heartwarming support from people around the globe. But perhaps the best part? Young Samara was crowned "Queen Elsa of Australia" in a Facebook competition after the judges heard her story.
"I can't express how much it has meant to us," Muir said. "I just thought it would be a story people would click past and forget. To know that she has touched so many people…that they see her how I see her, is just incredible." We couldn't agree more. [The Courier]
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