In 2009, Disney released its first animated film starring a black human character in The Princess and The Frog and now the history maker is selling watermelon candy.

According to Sociological Images, Princess Tiana is paired in a dual candy item with Sleeping Beauty, who boasts her own flavor, vanilla. Farmed out by Disney, the “Dig N’ Dip” candy also sells the same products in other flavors using fairies like Tinker Bell from Peter Pan along with her multi-racial friends, including a brown fairy on the tropical packet.

Although the candy may appear to be just another flavor, the link between African Americans and racist stereotypes depicting blacks happily eating foods like watermelons and fried chicken has long been a struggle. Though the issue arose during American slavery, the idea persists today and was used as joke in relation to U.S. President Obama as recently as 2009. After the President took office, Dean Grose, the mayor of Los Alamitos, a city within California’s Orange County, e-mailed an image of the White House lawn surrounded by watermelons, touting the title “No Easter egg hunt this year,” according to the Associated Press.

Broadway and screen actress Anika Noni Rose voiced Disney’s first black princess, Tiana, and her mother and father were voiced by Oprah Winfrey and Terrence Howard, respectively.

props: Sociological Images

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