When Black girls saw an Ariel who looked like them for the first time, they were overjoyed. In that moment, actress and performer Halle Bailey didn’t just become a movie star. She became something far more important: a character in whom these girls saw themselves.

She became a larger-than-life character that any girl — Black, white, or otherwise — could relate to because Ariel’s tale was meant for everyone.

But what about the characters that are tailor-made for their viewers? What about the “Black Panthers,” “Fresh Princes,” and “Moeshas”? Although there is something to be said for reimagining classic icons for different audiences, by focusing solely on the changing of a character’s race, marginalized communities lose personalized stories made for them.

The media has done a much better job of giving minority groups a platform in the past few decades. Movies like “Black Panther” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” have shattered records in Hollywood and the entertainment industry while telling unapologetically cultural stories. Shows like “Abbott Elementary” and “Black-ish” have also proved that network TV doesn’t need an all-white cast to appeal to multiple demographics.

So then why do we still see race-swapping? For every show or movie that carefully crafts a beautiful narrative around diversity, there are three more that lazily switch out a white actor for a Black one, changing nothing else about their story.

Although changing Ariel’s race had a positive impact on many Black children, I can’t help but wonder what Disney’s true intentions were. Disney has suffered from many of its original movies not returning enough profit at the box office. As a result, they have started pushing more live-action remakes because it guarantees people will return to theaters.

Because Disney also has a history of promoting mostly white or white-appearing characters, it’s not hard to believe they brought Halle Bailey on to bring more color into the film.

This type of lazy casting draws attention away from any real dialogue about these projects and turns them into debates about representation versus the “woke agenda,” as seen last summer when “The Little Mermaid” live-action trailer was released.

Furthermore, it completely disregards pre-existing stories that already do a fantastic job of representing specific demographics.

Instead of remaking a Black version of “The Little Mermaid,” why not create a live-action “The Princess and The Frog”? “The Princess and The Frog” nearly tripled its original budget, earning $267 million off a $104 million production cost. For all intents and purposes, this movie was a success, yet Disney still has not chosen to continue with it.

Choosing to simply race-swap a character also takes away the chance to tell new, original stories like Pixar’s “Coco,” which made $807 million off a $200 million budget.

In an age where marginalized communities are paying top dollar for representation, studios need to create engaging media worth watching.