If you are a Star Wars fan like I am, then on Monday night you were eagerly awaiting the newest trailer for the seventh installment of the franchise. Not every person in love with the galaxy far, far away was happy for the new trailer.
No. There was a group of people on Twitter starting a new hashtag, #BoycottStarWarsVII, for the reason that they feel the film is anti-white. The Hollywood Reporter reported in the article “Boycott Star Wars VII Movement Launched; Movie Called Anti-White” by Graeme McMillan that the hashtag was started as some see the film – which has cast a black man in a leading role – as anti-white propaganda.
The article quotes one Twitter source as saying: “‘#BoycottStarWarsVII because it is anti-white propaganda promoting #whitegenocide,’ read one tweet from an account calling itself “End Cultural Marxism.’”
Where to begin….Well, it’s probably worth mentioning that there were some fans who got bent out of shape for literally no reason when one of the film’s main actors – a black man named John Boyega – was cast and appeared in the first promotional trailer as a Stormtrooper.
For whatever reason, the notion that a black person could be cast in a Star Wars film in a leading role sent some on the Internet into a frenzy. Now that the movie’s release date is drawing nearer, many have actually begun to cry out the casting of a black lead is somehow anti-white.
I take it that these people are forgetting quite a few details surrounding the movie. The first being that most of the cast is actually white. Mark Hammill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Domhnall Gleason, Gwendoline Christie, Adam Driver, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Anthony Daniels, Daisy Ridley, Andy Serkis and Max von Sydow are all white people and make up members of the very large cast of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The director/co-writer/co-producer, J.J. Abrams, is white. The other screenwriters – Lawrence Kasdan and Michael Arndt – are both white. The other producers – Kathy Kennedy and Brian Burke – are both white.
What about this movie is anti-white? Simply because a black person figures into a universe that is large and expansive doesn’t mean that a movie is anti-white. Besides, Star Wars was never a franchise that didn’t include black people.
One of the coolest characters in this franchise’s history – Lando Calrissian – is played by a black man, Billy Dee Williams. Darth Vader’s body may have belonged to white body builder David Prowse, but his voice was that of black stage actor and cinematic legend James Earl Jones.
Let’s not forget that Samuel L. Jackson played an integral role within the three prequel films as the co-head of the Jedi council, Mace Windu. What’s the deal now?
Why are these people – whom for my own sanity, I pray are a small minority – so dead-set on creating a stink that a black person has been given a major role in a Star Wars movie when it has happened before?
Not only that, the claims that this movie is anti-white are completely groundless given the amount of white people working in and around this movie. These Star Wars fans (again, this small minority) need to take a lesson from their rivals across the way – Star Trek fans.
Star Trek was conceived as a show where in the future all humans – of varying races and creeds – worked together to explore new worlds and make massive discoveries. Why can’t Star Wars be the same in that regard?
Brian Laughran
Editor-in-Chief
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