Why Boyega is down on Disney

John Boyega wasn’t happy with his role in the new Star Wars trilogy, said Jimi Famurewa in GQ-Magazine.co.uk. He played a stormtrooper who joins the Resistance, but after a fairly prominent role in the first of the films, his character wasn’t developed further and was sidelined. Boyega came away feeling Disney had cast him as a token African-American in a one-dimensional role. “What I would say to Disney,” he says,

“is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are, and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good. I’ll say it straight up.” The British actor was very active in this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests in London, and after that awakening, he is now much more openly addressing issues of race in the film industry. “What they want you to say is, ‘I enjoyed being a part of it. It was a great experience...’ Nah, nah, nah.” The white actors in the series, he says, were given central roles with more complex characters. “They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley,” he says of his co-stars. “Let’s be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything.”

Steinem’s unfinished business

At 86, Gloria Steinem has no plans to retire from activism, says David Marchese in The New York Times. “The progress we’ve made is not sufficient,” says the feminist icon. “But there is an advantage to being old. I have a role to play in the movement by saying, ‘Here’s when it was worse.’” With Donald Trump in office and left- and right-wing activists clashing in the street, aren’t things pretty bad for progressives now? “We are at a point of a backlash because we are winning,” she says. “Most Americans agree with what social justice movements have been saying. But that means 40 percent of the country feels deprived of their position in an old hierarchy, and they’re in full backlash.” Of all the internal struggles in the feminist movement, Steinem is most regretful about the supposed clash between white and black feminists. “The public image of the women’s movement as white is a problem,” she says. “It was led by black women! Sometimes it’s hard for us to see that because we have a pretty racist view of history, and we tend to see white people as leaders.” As she soldiers on, Steinem credits her tenacity to her late husband, who taught her to live in the moment. “I have to keep reminding myself that even if I live to 100, which I have every intention of doing, it’s not that long left. I just hope that I don’t die saying, ‘But! Wait!’”