Recently, there has been a spark in racist comments about people of color, specifically black people, being in shows or portraying characters that have been white in the past. While this is certainly not new, people of color being in genres that white people heavily occupy or portraying usually white characters often receive a slew of racist threats. Kelly Marie Tran and John Boyega have received racist death threats from Star Wars fans after being in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, it got so bad that Kelly Marie Tran deleted her social media after receiving said threats in her Instagram comments.
The Star Wars fandom has always had its issues when it comes to issues such as racism, homophobia, and sexism. Any attempt at diversity in Star Wars content is met with threats to the creators, actors, and companies involved. It is always usually done by a small yet very vocal part of the fandom. However, the Star Wars fandom is not the only one that does this. Recently, House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones spin-off series about the history of House Targaryen, has been met with racist backlash over one of the characters, Corlys Velaryon, being black. To give much-needed context to those who have not watched Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, Corlys Velaryon belongs to House Velaryon and is Valryian, a group of people known for having white/silver hair, violet eyes, pale skin, and the ability to control dragons.
Although it states in the book Fire and Blood that the Velaryons have white/silver hair and violet eyes just like the Targaryens do, it was never explicitly stated what their skin color was. And really, even if it was stated, why should anyone care? In a world where dragons and snow zombies exist, the fact that a rich and powerful family is black is what throws people off.
This same problem also occurs with the Lord of the Rings spin-off show Rings of Power, and when Disney cast Halle Bailey as Ariel in the live-action Little Mermaid. Both received backlash for having black people playing “white roles”. Even more recently, the new retelling of Interview with a Vampire which casted two black actors as Louis and Claudia has also faced the same backlash, even though before Anne Rice passed away, she approved and praised the casting decision.
It is very easy for racists fans to use a myraid of excuses. They want the show to be faithful to the material. They claim that showrunners have gone woke and are forcing diversity down viewers’ throats. Whatever it is, they still do not claim to be racist. They just don’t want their show to become “political”. Which begs the question; why do they consider representation of other people that are not white, straight, or cis as political? And even further; why is this primarily seen in fandom culture? Though there are about a million answers to these questions, and I am certainly not well versed enough to answer them, I can boil it down to one very obvious answer: they are, simply, just racist. Cisgender, straight, white people have dominated fandom and nerd culture for generations and any attempt at change has been shut down.
Yes I know, not all cis, straight, white people in fandoms are like this, but an alarming majority are. Most of these people claim to have been bullied or are being bullied because of their interest in Star Wars, comics, and the like, and want to be accepted, yet they cannot accept or welcome people who are different than them into these spaces. They cannot handle that there are people from all different walks of life who enjoy the same things they do. They will probably continue to be like this until the end of time.
While it is important to call out these people, I think it is also equally important to not pay attention to them. They are set in their ways and will never change. Diversity in Hollywood has come very far, and while there is still work to do and improvement to be made, there has definitely been change. Many are seeing how important representation is to people, especially those who do not see themselves on screen. People of color are seeing themselves represented in ways they haven’t been before. While it is slow, change is coming and it will be here to stay. Racists will just have to get used to it.