It seems that Disney’s live-action adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is receiving a lot of backlash lately if Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) and his scathing criticism are any indications. Unfortunately, not all of that backlash is coming from a morally motivated place. Racism is still very much alive and hating, as Rachel Zegler is finding out. Fortunately, she isn’t going to take this lying down. Not at all.

Rachel Zegler in Snow White Vs. Racist “Fandom”

Zegler wears a silk charmeuse off-the-shoulder dress by Vera Wang (verawang.com) and a Jennifer Behr pearl-encrusted headband. A Tiffany & Co. choker finishes the look. In this story: hair, Mustafa Yanaz; makeup, Dick PagePhotographed by Stefan Ruiz, Vogue, December 2020
This princess is no one’s damsel in distress.

During an interview from Variety alongside Andrew Garfield (The Amazing Spider-Man, Hacksaw Ridge), Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) returned fire against some very toxic “fans” of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs raging against her on Twitter. It seems that Disney’s decision to cast Zegler, a Latina, as the titular heroine is drawing quite a bit of racists out of the woodwork. She isn’t having any of that though.

“When it was announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry. We need to love them in the right direction. At the end of the day, I have a job to do that I’m really excited to do. I get to be a Latina princess.”

Fighting Hate With Love

Rachel Zegler at LA premiere of "West Side Story", wearing Elie Saab Fall 2021 Haute Couture peaerl white ball gown. Really, it's a dress that screams "Snow White".
If there’s a dress that’s more Snow White-like, there wouldn’t be many of them.

So yeah, Rachel Zegler seems to be taking the Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi approach to the haters. She even confirms this outside of Variety. Back in June 2021, LA Times reported that Zegler, in a since-deleted Tweet, stated in response to those same racist haters:

“yes i am snow white no i am not bleaching my skin for the role”

All in all, it’s a pretty mild statement in response to so much race-based hate and spite, which is pretty admirable of Rachel Zegler. It’s even more significant since her co-star in that Variety interview, Andrew Garfield, commented about those racist haters that they’re “[t]he people that we need to educate. The people that we need to love into awareness.” It seems that they’re both of the opinions that love is the only thing that can fight hate. Well, it’s better than the alternative. And frankly, we all need a bit more love in this world. Those Snow White “fans” are already showing us that there’s too much hate as it is.

Source: Variety, LA Times