"Star Wars," which encourages young Jedis to choose the good side of the Force and turn away from the temptations of the Dark and to never give in to anger, got a bit of hate on Monday when the hashtag #BoycottStarWarsVII began trending. Apparently, some online trolls are not happy about the casting choices made for the upcoming "The Force Awakens" film.
While the Star Wars movies are not exactly strangers to controversial casting and characters, the latest round of boycotters seem to have some temporary amnesia regarding their "Star Wars" history because they are up in arms over the fact that one of the main characters in the new trilogy is black.
Yes, despite the Star Wars series being set “a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,” the folks behind #BoycotStarWarsVII believe that the casting of British actor John Boyega as a Stromtrooper, seen in the first trailer removing his impeccably white helmet, is an act of #WhiteGenocide. The latter is another hashtag being used in conjunction with #BoycottStarWarsVII.
Of course, this could all be just a big marketing stunt, or a case of some trolls just having fun starting a flame over such a ridiculous premise.
For a bit of a history lesson on Star Wars, when the first installment of George Lucas' then risky science fiction movie came out, reportedly, John Landis commented to fellow director Lucas, “...is everybody in outer space is white?”
This prompted more diverse casting decisions for the second and third films, including Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, the original owner of the Millenium Falcon and the hero who blew up the second Death Star in "Return of the Jedi."
When the Prequel Trilogy came around, Lucas was then criticized hitting his diverse characters way off the mark by portraying them as negative stereotypes — Watto the slave trader was said to be portrayed as a “greedy Jew” while the infamous Jar-Jar Binks was criticized as depiction nearly every negative African American stereotype on the screen.
However, minorities portrayed positively or at least non-stereotypically were also seen in the Prequel Trilogy. Samuel L. Jackson portrayed the very powerful Mace Windu, New Zealand actor of Maori descent, Temuera Morrison, played Jango Fett, whose DNA was used to create a clone army and whose clone/son grew up to be the Bounty Hundter, Bobba Fett.
And must anyone even be reminded that Darth Vader himself was voiced by James Earl Jones?
The logic of wanting to boycott the new Star Wars films because of its racially diverse casting is quite baffling since actors of color have always been part of the films. However, we find hope in some Twitter users with more sense and humor in siding with the Light side of the Force to battle this new online racist message.
#BoycottStarWarsVII because Lando Calrissian is supposed to be the only black guy in the galaxy
— Bran mak Morn (@mak_morn) October 19, 2015
I 100% support the #BoycottStarWarsVII campaign, that way I can have a better choice of seats when I watch it multiple times opening weekend — NickG (@sub150run) October 19, 2015
#BoycottStarWarsVII so that the utter lack of impact on ticket sales can demonstrate once & for all how unimportant the bigot demographic is — Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed) October 19, 2015
George Lucas and his wife laughing at these #boycottstarwarsvii tweets like pic.twitter.com/0fksLcki2N — DeMarko Gage :) (@DeMarko_Gage) October 19, 2015
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