Yara Shahidi, Disney's new Tinker Bell, has been busy in recent days speaking out against the racist backlash to her casting in "Peter Pan & Wendy."
But the "black-ish" and "Grown-ish" star also has taken the time to celebrate the significance of her new role in the latest "Peter Pan" retelling, and what it means for Black and brown people who are watching from home.
When the trailer first dropped in February, many online criticized the casting of Shahidi, who has a Black mother and Iranian father. Since the first onscreen depiction of Tinker Bell in the 1924 silent film "Peter Pan," the fairy has exclusively been played by white actors in more than a dozen versions since.
