But over the years, as a Black man, I have also discovered just how brazenly toxic some Star Wars fanatics can truly be. It was a sobering reality that once again reared its ugly head when Star Wars actress Kelly Marie Tran deleted all posts on her Instagram account after reportedly being bombarded for months by racist and misogynistic social media comments, often times targeting her Vietnamese-American heritage. The bubbly newcomer, who starred as the all-heart Rose Tico in 2017’s The Last Jedi, did however leave one telling message: “Afraid, but doing it anyway.”
The bold harassment has spilled over to Twitter. A troll calling himself Supreme Leader Jerry posted a Gif of a young Anakin Skywalker on his pod racer straight from the deservedly maligned Episode 1: The Phantom Menace mouthing the words, “It’s working, It’s working!”
When Last Jedi director Rian Johnson jumped in to take up for Tran (“You know the difference between not liking a movie and hatefully harassing a woman so bad she had to get off social media. And you know which of those two we’re talking about here”), the response from some Star Wars die hards was troubling. “Critique and showing dislike against something is ‘trolling’? Good tactic. Whatever makes you sleep at night,” responded a fan. Nice.
Being A Star Wars Fan While Black: The Dark (And Toxically Racist, Sexist) Side Of Fandom
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