Twitter has been growing crazy over the news that Star Wars VII will have two black lead characters. It originally started with a UK based twitter account who complained that"The new Star Wars movie barely has any whites in it". Soon after someone else tweeted in outrage against the diversity in the movie one of their tweets said that "white children deserve wholesome movies, not more PC anti-white diversity crap". A third person tweeted "Let's make #BoycottStarWarsVII trend" and suggested that the movie was more "anti-white propaganda". Here in the U.S. many started tweeting in outrage against the idea of boycotting with the hashtag BoycottStarWarsVII while some tweets were racist and containing comments about not paying child support and putting "rims on At-At". This just proves that many people saying that the race problem in the U.K. and U.S. is non-existent are delusional. Diversity to some whites is seen as threatening and part of some big agenda rather than representing the way the world is, diverse with different skin tones, hair textures rather than this white fantasy where one ignores all the diversity and deem it as "wholesome" or the norm of society. Why not add people of color to a movie about fictional characters? This reminds of the outrage against the newer Annie movie which had a black girl playing Annie, social media was up in arms against Annie no longer being white and resorted to calling the young black girl the "n-word" and "nappy headed". All because the girl didn't fit into the ideal utopia of whiteness. The strange thing about this is National Geographic predicts that there will be less pure white people and more mixed race people. Therefore, a movie full of people of European descent wouldn't even be accurate. Adding black people to a movie should not evoke so much hate and irrational feelings that we as black people are trying to take over. Non-black people also shouldn't believe that adding blacks to a movie makes it ghetto or tarnish the purity of a movie. While, I do not believe in false symbols of progression by adding more diversity I believe in diversifying the roles of black people in Hollywood especially in utopic or futuristic movies that shy away from the criminalization of black people such as roles as drug dealers and robbers or someone trying to make it out the hood. Depictions like Will Smith tend to play like his roles in I am Legend, and I, Robot chip away at the stereotypes and depict the universal feelings, characteristics and dilemmas of everyone such as; fear, vulnerability, love, cleverness and the internal conflict of wanting to be good and fighting the allure of being evil. Unlike, many depictions of black Americans that depict us as innately bad, ignorant and unskilled in things that require intellect and wisdom. People of color should be seen as diverse with the ability to break the mold. Little white children never feel limited by society because of their skin because they see their potential in all aspects of media it's time black children feel that way also. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMy name is Kiara and writing is the way I express myself. Archives
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