A Sense of Doubt blog post #2662 - Racist Star Wars Fans are not STAR WARS FANS: THAT ONE THING for 2206.02
So, this.
This THAT ONE THING for Thursday 2206.02.
A personal message from Ewan McGregor. pic.twitter.com/rJSDmj663K
— Star Wars (@starwars) June 1, 2022
Official Star Wars Twitter Calls Out
Racist Reactions to Moses Ingram as Reva
By Rachel LeishmanMay
31st, 2022, 3:08 pm
From the jump, Lucasfilm warned Ingram about the reaction that could happen, which isn’t doing much. Telling an actor that people will inevitably be racist towards you isn’t exactly protecting anyone, but the official Star Wars account has taken a stand for once in protecting Moses Ingram and issued a series of tweets in support of her. “We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist,” the official account Tweeted.
That was followed up with “There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.”
We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist. pic.twitter.com/lZW0yvseBk
— Star Wars (@starwars) May 31, 2022
And good. It’s about f**king time we see support for these actors from official channels. I think there was a lot that they learned from the reaction to Boyega, Tran, and even the sexism towards Daisy Ridley during that sequel trilogy era. And while it’s unfortunate that the lesson seemingly had to be learned the hard way, at the actors’ expense, at least the lessons learned are benefiting performers like Ingram in that the official channels for Star Wars are standing behind her and supporting her.
Don’t choose to be a racist
The “criticisms” of Reva are all things either explained in the show (like the biggest nonsense complaint about how she could know she could get to Obi-Wan through Leia) or just generally come from a place of unfounded hatred towards Moses Ingram simply for existing within the Star Wars universe. As the official account tweeted out, “don’t choose to be a racist.” Because that’s really what this boils down to. These “fans” don’t like the idea of their lead antagonist being a Black woman, and that’s it.
Right now, their “argument” against the official account is that Lucasfilm is attacking fans. No. Lucasfilm is calling out racists. And if you think that’s an attack, then don’t be racist! It’s really quite simple. If a tweet calling out racism is attacking you, good! Racists should be under attack. I think that Moses Ingram’s Reva is a perfect inclusion in the show, and it makes me so sad to know that she wasn’t welcomed into this franchise but, instead, was sent incredibly hateful messages on Instagram.
Ingram explained in Instagram stories that she was getting hundreds of messages filled with racist remarks because of her role in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and that while no one told her this, she felt like she’s meant to just sit and take it, but she’s not “built” like that. So, she’s speaking out and is grateful to those defending her in the comments and online in spaces she’s not going to put herself in. And then she had a great response to the rest of people being racist and gross towards her. “To the rest of y’all? Y’all weird,” Ingram said, and honestly, I love it.
I’ll defend Ingram at every turn because she’s done nothing wrong. Existing in Star Wars as a Black woman isn’t a crime, despite what racist fans want to believe. Her Reva is fresh and exciting, and I can’t wait to see where the show takes her. And I know that Ingram will do her justice, and we all should support her and fight back against the racists who want her to feel unwelcome. Star Wars should be for everyone—except racists.
(featured image: Lucasfilm)
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
Why Can’t the Star Wars Nerds Imagine a World With Black People?
Fans are being racist, again.
It’s like clockwork. A harvesting of Star Wars IP is announced; a cast list is released; a horde of fans abuse an actor of color for daring to be in the franchise.
This time the racists crawled out of their hidey holes and took to social media to abuse actress Moses Ingram. Ingram faced the barrage after it was revealed she would play “Reva” in the new Obi Wan Kenobi mini-series. People called her a “diversity hire,” the N-word, and a slew of other race-based insults. Some even threatened her life.
Disney defended the actress. And, eventually, Ingram addressed the abuse herself, posting a response on her Instagram story.
Moses Ingram posted an instagram story about the racist comments she’s been receiving from Star Wars fans pic.twitter.com/NUe7aB0UQo
— sleemo (@sleemo) May 31, 2022
Ingram is only the latest person in a long string of actors who’ve been tormented by racist fans. We see this happen to actors of color in science-fiction and fantasy franchises over and over and over again. Just a few months ago, 12-year-old Leah Seva Jefferies had to contend with a similar bout of online harassment after being cast in the new Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series. Jefferies, a Black girl, is slated to play Annabeth Chase, a character who was white in the novels the series is based on.
But the Star Wars fandom is especially notorious for bullying and harassing towards cast members they don’t like, especially if they’re an actor of color. In 1999, Ahmed Best secured a role in the Star Wars prequel film, The Phantom Menace, playing the infamous character Jar Jar Binks. While the character was rightfully criticized for being a hodge-podge of numerous racial stereotypes, a lot of that backlash unfairly fell on Best.
In a story for ABC News, Best describes how the toxicity almost pushed him to take his own life. At one point, the actor found himself on the edge of the Brooklyn Bridge.
“As a Black man from New York City, from the Bronx, there’s this façade that I can’t be hurt,” said Best. “In actuality, I was really just crumbling inside.”
In 2014, the teaser for the much anticipated Star Wars sequel The Force Awakens dropped. The first image that millions of fans saw was of the Black actor John Boyega, in the middle of a desert planet, decked out in the iconic, white Stormtrooper uniform. It outraged some fans. They called it “anti-white” propaganda. In response, the hashtag #BoycottStarWarsVII was created, with racists claiming that film promoted “white genocide.”
“I’m in the movie,” Boyega said in response. “What are you going to do about it?”
Four years later, actress Kelly Marie Tran endured a similar experience. Tran, who is Vietnamese-American, played the character Rose Tico in the movie The Last Jedi, the second installment in the sequel trilogy. After the films’ release, she also faced a hoard of sexist and racist insults online. In an essay for the New York Times, Tran detailed how those insults affected her mentally and emotionally.
“Their words reinforced a narrative I had heard my whole life,” she wrote. “That I was ‘other,’ that I didn’t belong, that I wasn’t good enough, simply because I wasn’t like them.”
In the following movie, Tran’s role was scaled down significantly, with many speculating that this was in response to the backlash. However, the film’s co-screenwriter has said this was due to editing and bad CGI
The series’ lead actor and executive producer, Ewan McGregor, took a more direct approach.
In a video that was posted on the official Star Wars Twitter account, McGregor stated that there’s no place for racism in this world and that he stands with Moses.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2206.02 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2526 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
No comments:
Post a Comment