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\"PHOTO:
ABC News
PHOTO: Tracey Baptiste, author of "Mermaid and Pirate," is shown during an interview with GMA3.
>

Baptiste wrote an op-ed -- \"Mermaids Have Always Been Black\" -- published in The New York Times shortly after the announcement.

\"I was super excited about Halle Bailey becoming Ariel. I loved mermaid stories when I was a kid, and I think swimming in the ocean, I thought of myself as a mermaid and very much identified with mermaids,\" Baptiste told ABC News. \"It really shouldn't be surprising that Ariel could be, you know, that Halle Bailey could play the role as a Black woman.\"

Her Times opinion column specifically explored the presence of mermaid-like creatures in African folklore centuries before it was used in the West, noting that \"water spirits abound in African stories.\"

\"We have been so used to a particular dominant culture that when there are other people coming in and taking on roles, especially these kinds of fantasy roles, people are just so used to the dominant culture that they cannot conceive of anybody else playing these parts,\" she said.

Baptiste said that her newly released book, \"Mermaid and Pirate,\" not only strives to put other races in fantasy roles, but also to teach a lesson that she believes translates to the real world.

\"The big takeaway in 'Mermaid and Pirate' is that you can become friends with somebody even though you come from different cultures or even don't speak the same language,\" she said. \"I hope that kids and parents will get from 'Mermaid and Pirate' just friendship against all odds.\"

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