Posted on October 20, 2015

Twitter Trolls Call for Boycott of New Star Wars Film Using #BoycottStarWarsVII Because It Is ‘Anti-White’

Corey Charlton, Daily Mail, October 20, 2015

A group of racist internet trolls have called for a boycott of the upcoming Star Wars film because it is ‘anti-white’, just hours after the release of the movie’s final teaser trailer.

Using the hashtag #BoycottStarWarsVII, they claim the highly anticipated movie is a ‘social justice propaganda piece’ and ‘PC anti-white diversity c***.’

But Twitter users have swiftly reclaimed the tag–pointing out the original series, and the follow up trilogy, also contain black characters.

The film features black British actor John Boyega as one its main protagonists. In the few clips of the film released so far, he is seen wearing a stormtrooper uniform but is also a jedi.

The hashtag started trending after the poster and final teaser trailer were released for the latest installment of the film–featuring some old-timers and a few interesting new details.

Among the claims made by the trolls were accusations it should be boycotted because it was ‘nothing more than a social justice propaganda piece that alienates it’s core audience of young white males’.

A second person tweeted: ‘While children deserve wholesome movies, not more PC anti-white diversity crap.’

Others made even more outlandish claims, including that the film was ‘anti-white propaganda promoting #whitegenocide’.

However, as soon as it began trending, hundreds of supporters of the new film re-appropriated the hashtag.

Describing the trolls’ claims as ‘stupidity’, they astutely pointed out that the past two trilogies in the film series have featured multiple black actors.

Throughout the entirety of the first trilogy, villain Darth Vader was voiced by James Earl Jones, while the second and third films introduced Lando Calrissian, played by Billy Dee Williams.

And in the second trilogy, the Jedi Master Mace Windu was played by Samuel L. Jackson, and bounty hunter Jango Fett was portrayed by Temuera Morrison.

Some of the Twitter users’ responses included: ‘If you want to stay home because the leads are black and female, I want you to stay home too.’

Another person said: ‘Nobody tell #BoycottStarWarsVII about Lando. Or Mace Windu. Or the voice of Darth Vader. Or every Clone Trooper.’

Another Twitter user stated: ‘So this #BoycottStarWarsVII is disgusting. Upset over a black man being one of the lead characters and saying it promotes ‘white genocide’.

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[Editor’s Note: In a 2013 interview, director JJ Abrams addressed a question about the diversity of the new Star Wars cast: “We wrote these characters but when we went to cast it, one of the things I had felt, having been to the Emmy’s a couple times–you look around that room and you see the whitest f*cking room in the history of time. It’s just unbelievably white. And I just thought, we’re casting this show and we have an opportunity to do anything we want, why not cast the show with actors of color?”]