Star Wars and Racist Fanboys

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.