Boyega and the diversity in LOR and GOT
Boyega on a Star Wars panel at ComicCon |
Whoever accompanies the pop world certainly knows John Boyega, young
Briths star of Nigerian origin, who did an outstanding performance
as Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, role that won him the Oscar BAFTA –
British Academy of Film and Television Arts – as revelation actor (deserved, in
my opinion). Indeed, the actor is one of the good things in the movie, which stood
out for having been a woman as protagonist, and more than that, revealed the
face of a stormtrooper in the first teaser, and his face isn’t white! Point for
diversity, representativeness and nerdverse (the nerd universe), point for
women and Afro-descendants both unfortunately so poorly represented in hero
films or, when they appear in them, appear as villain or victim. My woman (who
is Afro-descendant) everytime shows me that black people are the first to die
in action movies, they are the equivalents to the security officers (also
called “red shirt ones”) in Star Trek original series: the secondary character
who must die to highlight the courage of the main character; therefore, movies
that innovate in this aspect as Star Wars: The Force Awakens are a welcome
revolution.
However, between one performance and another (and between a ComicCon and
another) Boyega has found time in his busy schedule to criticize the poor
representation of Afro-descendants in Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. “There
are no black people on Game of Thrones,” Boyega said. “You don't see one black
person in Lord of the Rings.” Ok, Mr. Boyega, I understand your apprehension, I
respect your point of view, but I’m bound to disagree.
When I say I understand your point of view I’m talking seriously! It is
really absurd the tiny participation of Afro-descendants in Hollywood
productions, which results among other things, in the almost non-existence of
Afro-descendent participations in several Oscars of recent years; and this is
not due to the lack of excellent black actors, but the lack of roles for they
in cinema! It’s not important not just to employ black actors, but also so that
our children can, for example, identify with black heroes, so that they do not
grow up thinking that blacks are ‘disposable’ – black lives matter! –, reliable
helpers to highlight the heroism of white ones. Yes, representation matters,
and I pray for movies like Black Panther; I hope that they do a good job, which
value the black superhero and that the movie make us feel proud. Whith more
stories with black people as protagonists, gain the black actors, gain our
society... and gain us, movie fans, with more options to watch!
Side by side Westeros and UK maps |
However... in his eagerness to pass on his positive message, I think
Boyega messed up with the works he chose. Lord of the Rings is a trilogy based
on JRR Tolkien book, is passed in Middle-earth, world created by the British
writer with the United Kingdom like inspiration. The work is a metaphor
(although Tolkien hated to say such a thing) of England, its formation, its
values and its myths. About Game of Thrones, it is based on Songs of Ice and
Fire, by George RR martin, work deeply influenced by that of Tolkien (no, the RR in
common is not mere coincidence, but a homage), Telling a story that takes place
in an imaginary world that, guess... is a metaphor for the UK! In Martin’s work
even the map of the Seven Kingdoms can easily be compared to the map of Great
Britain, while the continent beyond the Narrow Sea is the continental Europe; that
is, in the two works we are reading about a specific place, even
metaphorically, a place with a history of its own, mythology of its own and ...
white population! Ok, I know nowadays there is no more ethnic hegemony in the
UK, and Boyega is a good example of this, but both works don’t deal with the
twentieth century (even of the nineteenth century), but rather take place in a ‘medieval’
period, when the Anglo tribes had joined the Saxons (both white) and even those
who had not joined, like the Scots and Irish, were equally white; that is,
there’s no sense in having blacks in both Middle-earth and Westeros!
Ok, ok... I recognize, this is a bit of ‘nerd preciosity’. Let's face
it, it will be great to have ethnically representative films, with black heroes,
Latin heroes, Asian heroes, Arabian heroes... the problem I see is when we must
place heroes of other ethnicities in works where these do not fit, and the
cited works (LOR and GOT), in my ‘preciosity nerd’ point of view, they don’t
fit ethnically representative heroes; just as it would be absurd to put
"white heroes" in a series like Luke Cage, or to put a white one as
protagonist in Blade. This is different from Star Wars, work
This is all very different, for example, from Star Wars, a work that
covers an entire universe and in which the little representation of Afro-descendants
is evident, in this specific case I agree with Mr. Boyega: “Although Star Wars
has some black characters – Billy Dee Williams as a smuggler, Samuel L. Jackson
as a peripheral Jedi – they are less represented in the galaxy than ewoks.”
To
briefly summarize, I look upon favorably the racial (and sexual) diversity
in the cinema, I think representativeness is important, I want to have more
movies to watch ... but I strongly disagree with the obligatoriness of black
characters where they don’t fit, no matter how dear Finn defends it.
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