‘Don’t choose to be racist’
‘Star Wars’ blasts fans who diss Moses Ingram
These are not the “Star Wars” she signed up for.
Like John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran before her, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” star Moses Ingram is facing attacks from fans who think the fictional “Star Wars” universe should be all white.
Ingram, who plays Reva, a Jedi hunter Inquisitor (photo), in the new Disney+ series, shared comments and messages from angry fans Tuesday, saying her “days are numbered” and calling her the N-word and a “diversity hire.”
“Long story short, there are hundreds of those. Hundreds,” the 29-year-old actress wrote in an Instagram story. “And I also see those of you out there who put on a cape for me and that really does mean the world to me because, you know, there’s nothing anybody can do about this. There’s nothing anybody can do to stop this hate. And so I question my purposes even being here in front of you saying that this is happening.”
She continued, “The thing that bothers me is that like, sort of, this feeling that I’ve had inside of myself, this feeling that no one has told me, but like I just got to shut up and take it. I just got to bury it. And I’m not built like that. So I really just wanted to come on, I think, and say thank you to the people who show up for me in the comments and the places I’m not going to put myself. And to the rest of y’all, y’all weird.”
Along with fans, Ingram also got an endorsement from the official “Star Wars” Twitter account.
“We are proud to welcome Moses Ingram to the Star Wars family and excited for Reva’s story to unfold. If anyone intends to make her feel in any way unwelcome, we have only one thing to say: we resist,” read a Tuesday morning message.
“There are more than 20 million sentient species in the Star Wars galaxy, don’t choose to be a racist.”
Moses is far from the first nonwhite actor to face the wrath of “Star Wars” fans. Tran, whose parents were refugees from Vietnam and who played Rose Tico in “The Last Jedi” film, was run off of social media by nasty comments and then barely appeared onscreen when she reprised her role in “The Rise of Skywalker.”
Boyega faced similar backlash as the first Black Stormtrooper when he appeared in “The Force Awakens.”
“I’m the only cast member who had their own unique experience of that franchise based on their race,” he told British GQ in 2020. “Let’s just leave it like that. It makes you angry with a process like that. It makes you much more militant; it changes you. Because you realize, ‘I got given this opportunity but I’m in an industry that wasn’t even ready for me.’ “