Racists and sexists hate the black-led “Star Wars” series

The Star Wars fan community continues to embarrass itself. The latest series in the franchise, The Acolyte, has once again fallen victim to critic bombardment by audiences – an unfortunate practice often rooted in racism and misogyny.

The prequel series with Amandla Stenberg, received rave reviews by critics, currently at 84 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The series was also a Ratings for Disney+, marking the streamer’s biggest debut so far this year.

Despite the warm reception, the series is still not immune to the harshest criticism from the Star Wars fan community, as it is currently on a shocking 15 percent audience share.

For years, certain projects in the franchise have been slammed with criticism, with hundreds of audience reviews pouring in on sites like IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes and influencing the overall ratings. Dedicated audiences believe they have a right to these stories, and unfortunately, parts of these fanbases have serious racist, misogynistic, and often homophobic biases that they operate under when engaging with this content.

Stenberg spoke about some of these topics in an interview with GQ UK Earlier this month. “There’s a certain breed of ‘Star Wars’ fans who are very vocal on the internet… they’ve called our show ‘The Woke-alyte’ quite a lot – and I thought, ‘OK, what about that?'”

Part of the fan backlash also came from a clip of Stenberg that circulated at the series’ premiere. Forbes points outAn interview clip from years ago in which Stenberg talked about “making white people cry” while promoting her film “The Hate U Give” was shared by thousands. complete taken out of context and used as a means to criticize the actress and a supposed “woke agenda” from Lucasfilm.

This is not a new move in the Star Wars fans’ playbook. Stars like John Boyega, Kelly Marie Tranand how The origin reportedObi-Wan star Moses Ingram faced relentless attacks and even racist threats from fans. God forbid the Star Wars franchise includes more than just the white leads of the original series. With a black and queer lead like Stenberg, countless fans finally see themselves in this beloved fantasy world.

Luckily for Stenberg, she seems to be focusing on the love she’s receiving from other viewers, particularly Black fans and content creators. “There’s also a significant group of Black creators and Black ‘Star Wars’ fans on TikTok who are vocal about… the resistance that we’ve experienced and where that’s coming from,” she also told GQ.

“And these people make me so incredibly happy, and these are the people I am so grateful to, and I want to send them as much appreciation, love and gratitude as I can because they keep us grounded.”

“The Acolyte” is now available to stream on Disney+.