Last week, we were made to watch a football game with bated breath for two hours to catch the new Star Wars Force Awakens trailer. After all, it's the new Star Wars movie — possibly the most popular franchise that had revolutionized film making back in the day. And when it finally featured, the whole world erupted in a similar chorus of nerdgasm, breaking the internet and crashing the online ticket sales. Although I have been an avid movie buff all my life, I have never seen anything like it. My dad, who lives in India, woke up early morning to catch the trailer and when he called me, his voice was shaking with excitement. For someone who rarely expressed any emotion, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that something was capable of emanating such excitement out of him.
However, as much as we loved the trailer, this article is not about Star Wars or the new movie. Its about something more, something so incredibly disturbing that an international student couldn't fathom at first. Yes, from the title, you have probably guessed that its about racism. After all, critics (or should we call them racists) labelled the movie as a supposed "white genocide", having a "sinister multicultural agenda," and urged for the boycott of the movie. For those of you who are confused, one of the leading actors in the movie John Boyega, who is black, plays a stormtrooper in the movie. Hence, according to the racists, a stormtrooper is not supposed to be black. So much for a movie about aliens in a far, far away galaxy.
Its not just about Star Wars. Michael Jordan, who played Johnny Storm in the new "Fantastic Four" movie, was the subject of similar racist remarks. Those who were criticizing the actor believed that Johnny Storm is supposed to have blonde hair and blue eyes. Stan Lee, the guy who basically created this character, said that he was more than OK with the casting. He felt that, more than racial discrimination, the outrage reflected the people's hatred for change in familiar characters. OK, maybe he is right. But that line of logic would fail to explain the outrage over John Boyega's character in Star Wars. It's a new character altogether!
Honestly, I think its incredibly awesome to incorporate such diversity in a movie franchise like Star Wars. Kudos to the director JJ Abrams and the producers of the movie. Marvel, too is producing a movie ("The Black Panther") with a black actor, Chadwick Boseman, as the lead. Such popular franchises can set an example for others. Its high time films start adopting more diverse actors because like Stan Lee said, "that's the way the world is." And more than that, its about celebrating diversity.
