Actress Loan Tran speaks up for the first time after leaving social media because of the online hate she recieved in this piece she wrote for New York Times.
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.
John Boyega got racist internet hate when he was revealed as a new Star Wars protagonist
Daisy Ridley got sexist internet hate when she was revealed as a new Star Wars protagonist
Kelly Marie Tran got racist and sexist internet hate when she was revealed as a new Star Wars protagonist
and Daisy and Kelly both eliminated their social media presences for it.
idk what to even say, entitled white male Star Wars fans are absolute trash and have no place being fans of movies about hope and compassion for others.
I’ll add that it’s very noticeable that a significant swath of people ostensibly defending her feel the need to qualify it with how much they dislike Rose. Saying ‘don’t throw racist misogynistic abuse at the actress of a character you hate’ is … clearing the lowest possible bar. Apparently, it’s so difficult to simply denounce widespread racist misogyny without tacking on their seething hatred of a character her actress did not write.
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