There’s a small group of racist
fanboys calling for people to boycott Star Wars: The Force Awakens when it
opens in December. And the reason they’re calling for a boycott of the film is
because the hero is Black.
One of these lost souls even killed
himself when he heard the news.
Damn. Just Damn.
Is Star Wars REALLY that serious for
some of you out there?
I’ve been a part of the fantasy/Sci-fi/Comic
hobby for over 35 years. And I’ve never seen White people express this kind of
racism openly about any fantasy franchise. Sure, many fans have had their
issues about the casting of Black actors in White roles like Hemidall,
Catwoman, and Kid Flash. However, this is not the case of a film producer not
staying true to the source material.
This is a new Star Wars franchise and
the hero character can be whatever race the producers want him to be. So
there’s no reason for all of this anger.
Now I know some fans wanted to see
the Star Wars Saga continue with the expanded Universe of the Star Wars novels
featuring Luke’s wife Mara Jade and Han and Leia’s daughter and see them duke
it out with the Clone Emperor. And that contingent of fans has good reason to
be upset about having all the stories they invested time and money in retconned
out of canon by this movie.
But those Expanded Universe Fans have
been fairly silent about all the changes. No, this protest about boycotting
Star Wars is being done by a small group of dysfunctional White male fanboys
who felt entitled to the Star Wars franchise. These are the kinds of guys who
live vicariously through these characters. For these insecure White males Star
wars wasn’t just a movie, it’s an actual world where they could escape to feel
a sense of worth about being White Men. As long as White men like Luke and Han
beat the Empire they felt like they could have a chance of making it in the
world.
And the whole idea of a Black man
being the lead in the fantasy world of Star Wars injects reality in their
fantasy and prevents those White Males from feeling that sense of superiority. Presenting
the concept of a Black man who beats down White men in the Empire is a concept that
scares the shit out of them.
If kids of all races start looking up
to Black men as heroes in franchises like Star Wars, these racist White men
know they won’t be able to have their little world to escape to be superior
White Men. So they call for a boycott to keep Star Wars White and Male.
I think I’ll go buy a ticket. No, I
think I’ll go buy two tickets. I want to see more movies like this made, not
less.
The greatest irony about all this
racism is that Star Wars was supposed to be a universe filled with all sorts of
aliens, droids, wookies, and people of of all races from different worlds. So
you’d think a Black main hero would have come along a long time ago in the
franchise. But for six straight movies the lead hero was always a White Male.
If there’s ever a place that needed
more diversity it’s the science fiction and fantasy genre. The genere is still
populated by heroes that are 90 percent White and 90 percent male. Sure characters
like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena: Warrior Princess and Selene from the
Underworld franchise have made some inroads for White women, but the genere hasn’t
had a Black male leading a mainstream fantasy franchise since Wesley Snipes was
Blade in the 1990’s.
Having a Black male lead in Star Wars
could be the breakthrough African-Americans in the fantasy genre have been waiting for.
If this movie succeds we could see more fantasy projects with Black men and
women in the lead. That should give brothers and sisters more incentive to
spend money to go see this movie.
If a small group of pissy, pouty
white men want to stay home and miss out on the new Star Wars movie then let
them sit in their mother’s basements to bitch and moan about it on the internet.
Fantasy and science fiction shouldn’t just mean White males as the lead
characters. Star Wars is a universe filled with robots, aliens and monsters and
the people interacting with them onscreen should be just as diverse as the creatures
featured in them.
Fans are nutty no matter what the subject in question is, the only thing that changes is the material they're a fan of.
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