Star Wars actor Moses Ingram has shared a sampling of the racist messages and comments she has received online since joining the cast of Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In a series of posts to her Instagram story on Tuesday, Ingram — who plays new Inquisitor Reva Sevander — shared just a few of what she claims are hundreds of racist messages from Star Wars fans, some of which contain the N-word.
One message shared by Ingram said, “You suck loser. You’re a diversity hire and you won’t be loved or remembered for this acting role.”
Others still were even less subtle in their blatant, obvious racism.
“There’s nothing anybody can do about this. There’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate,” she said, in a video posted to Instagram.
She continued, claiming that though she feels she should “grin and bear it” when it comes to the online hate, she is just “not built like that.”
“Thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and in the places that I’m not going to put myself,” she added. “And to the rest of y’all, y’all weird.”
On Tuesday, following Ingram’s post about the racist comments, the franchise published a series of tweets welcoming her to the Star Wars cast while condemning fans attacking the actor online.
“We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold,” the franchise wrote. “There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.”
Ingram, however, is not the first Star Wars actor to receive racist messages online.
Actors John Boyega (Finn) and Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico) have also spoken publicly about the racist hate they received following their debut in the Star Wars franchise — hate that persists.
Boyega told British GQ in 2020 that the racism he faced when cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 has made him more militant.
“I’m the only cast member who had their own unique experience of that franchise based on their race. Let’s just leave it like that,” he told GQ.
“Nobody else in the cast had people saying they were going to boycott the movie because (they were in it). Nobody else had the uproar and death threats sent to their Instagram DMs and social media, saying, ‘Black this and Black that and you shouldn’t be a Stormtrooper,” he continued. “Nobody else had that experience. But yet people are surprised that I’m this way. That’s my frustration.”
Tran, who first appeared in The Last Jedi, told The Hollywood Reporter the hate she received as a result of her race was so severe that it forced her to leave social media entirely and spend time in therapy.
The Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi released its first two episodes on Friday. The remainder of the series will stream weekly on Disney+ on Wednesdays, until the finale on June 22.
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