I, like many others, spent Halloween in bed watching a spooky Tim Burton movie. As the credits of the Corpse Bride starts playing I decide to look up the cast. Under a list of names and characters, I discovered a series of articles on Tim Burton and multiple racism accusations. How did this happen?

As a little girl, Disney was ingrained into my life at every point possible. And by every point, I mean everything. I’m talking about notebooks, mugs, school bags, princess dresses, anything Disney (and also Dora the Explorer themed) I wanted. And I think like most of my generation, watching Disney and dreaming of being Rapunzel or Mulan or Jasmine as my long-time career was an everyday activity.

However, being mixed heritage, I was always disappointed when the next princess or character came out being, yet again, another white, skinny, long-haired girl. Mulan was really the only character I felt even a slight bit connected to whilst growing up.

India is an incredibly diverse country with over 1.35 billion inhabitants, 427 languages, and one of the most successful film industries in the world, but Bollywood has had a long history of not representing all people in the diverse nation from which it originated from. Colourism has been a large issue in South Asian society, and has permeated into Bollywood, allowing it to promote harmful and racist beauty ideals to its viewers from all across the world.

When people think of Black LGBT history, they tend to start and finish with Stonewall. It was vital to LGBT liberation, but in dealing with the history of the Black LGBT community, we need to go back further to the 1920s, hrough the civil rights movement, the AIDS epidemic and up to today.

Ranging from baggy jeans to bucket hats, hoop earrings to lettuce trim tops, there are so many overlooked fashion trends that have been made and set by the Black community and we need to give them the recognition they deserve.