Dear Lauren,

Happy new year! It couldn't have been a worse way to start of 2024 though. I'm sick and tired of seeing such blatant racism everywhere.

The Percy Jackson series on Disney Plus came out recently, and Annabeth, who was white in the books, was casted by a black person. The cast list was already announced a while ago, so you'd think that people would have gotten over it already, right?

I'm still seeing hate everywhere. For instance, I saw one person comment on a video about the show and they said, "Just going to say it, why did they make Annabeth black? I am not being racist." I can see that they're genuinely asking, so they get a pass, but some of the comments?

The person who commented seemed racist along with other people, like one who said, "Yeah, out of all the girls who auditioned for Annabeth the one that looks the least like Annabeth gets chosen? I guess this is what happens when you partner with Disney." And then in later comments they go on to say the casting was probably rushed and they probably didn't even do any auditions since they couldn't find a single blonde person in millions of people who fit.

There are so many holes in their argument I'm not even sure I'll be able to talk about every single one.

First of all, they're looking for people that actually fit the age. Obviously they're not going to hire an adult for a twelve year old, so that already limits your choices. You also need someone who's a girl, or at least nonbinary or trans woman (I'm not sure if that's the proper term though). Again, you have limited options. Instead of the millions, you're probably only in the hundreds. You also need the actor to fit the character's personality, so again, very limited with probability only double digits or on the lower ends of hundreds. If you also want them to be blonde, good luck trying to find someone to fit that role.

Second, if they didn't have any auditions for Annabeth (which they did, Rick mentions it in his post about how Leah is Annabeth), it's because she fit the role so well, they didn't think anyone else could do such a spectacular performance as her. And they're probably right. The casting directors and Rick Riordan, not the people hating on Leah. Remember, the author was involved with casting. If he says Leah was the right choice, she was the right choice.

Third, if they did have auditions, they certainly didn't rush it. Walker is the perfect Percy. They clearly wouldn't have gotten someone who fit the role so well if they were rushing it. Do they dare argue against that? Probably not. Grover is amazing. Do they argue against Aryan not belonging either due to a rushed cast? Probably not. Rick even says in his post that the auditions took a year and they were very thorough.

I wish people would stop being so hateful. Imagine Leah reading all the comments from people who wish she looked more like the books. Maybe to achieve a compromise just give her some blonde hair extensions?

I don't think I'll post this. I know that some people just wish she looked a little more like the books and I don't blame them. It's what anyone would want. It's reasonable. They're not being rude about it. It's the people who say stuff like the person who posted that rude comment are the problem.

Am I the one that's being rude though? Is the other person not aware of how rude they're being? Maybe I should add trying to be nicer to people to my New Year's resolution. I might even publish this so I can know other people's opinions and try to adjust accordingly.

As Harry Emerson Fosdick said, "Hating people is like burning down your house to get rid of a rat."