I take pride in being a top-notch geek. In the geek world, we accept everyone, right? I mean it does not matter if you have blue fur, green skin, be a robot, or any number of oddities that might make you different and still be a star?
This past Friday, the force was unleashed again for Star Wars fans with the teaser to Star Wars, The Force Awakens. As soon as the opening shot appeared, something happened that honestly shocked me. Names redacted to protect the guilty:
My heart sank, it’s that simple. Star Wars has always, and I mean ALWAYS, been a bastion of mostly tolerance. That isn’t to say there have never been controversies around characters and choices, but most of the time the idea of tolerance is in there even when a bit obscured.
First, beyond the racism above is the flat stupidity. As has been explained many, many times, Stormtoopers are not the same as clone troopers. While some details are sketchy (I believe on purpose), it is generally accepted that between Episode III and Episode IV the Clones died out and were replaced by real people. George Lucas himself has said repeatedly they are not the same.
So not only is it racist, it’s stupidity. Never mind the fact the teaser gives zero information, for all we know the trooper could be in disguise. The man playing the part, John Boyega, is listed as a lead in the film so it is very possible. ?Regardless of the circumstances in the film, the comments are at best ignorant even if you take out the racist aspect of them.
Boyega also retorted about the racist comments a few days later with a great comment:
If only most racial issues could be resolved in such a manner as simply stating “Get?used toit.”
Thankfully, Star Wars fans restored some faith in humanity with some retaliation remarks under the twitter hashtag #blackstormtrooper. Many are funny, most are serious and all of them really shame the racist attitudes of online posters (as it should be). ?Some highlights are included below just to help all of us restore some faith:
And what internet phenomenon would be complete without a wise cracking meme to put it into perspective:
In closing, let’s just enjoy another foray into a galaxy far, far away with the teaser, because really what we need to do right now is escape:
