About Online Threats Abuse & Misogynoir Towards Black Women in the Entertainment Industry...
Susan Wokoma appeared on the Woman's Hour on BBC Radio recently and she bravely spoke out on the letter of support she and Somalia Seton put together to support Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, as well as speaking candidly on the effects the online abuse that Black women face have...
I IMPLORE people in these fandoms, especially where harassment of Black women happens to listen to this podcast to understand what it does.
Listen below:
There is a very white tendency to either make the focus their own sympathetic reaction to a Black woman entertainer being bullied/harassed like this (crying or feeling bad for it happening to them) or minimize what's happening. "It's only one or two" or "They'll probably never see it."
And I get the tendency to want to either distance or somehow equalize it to the harassment white women face, as well...but there is a particular nastiness that comes with misogynoir that gets at literally wanting to dehumanize and punish a Black woman for existing.
The intention is to destroy them completely, rather than put in place.
Anyway, I encourage anyone who cares about Black women in fandom to give the segment interviewing Susan Wokoma, a listen.
#WAKE UP BABE NEW FAVORITE BULLSHIT GAME JUST DROPPED
#’STAR WARS OR JUST WORDS’
#I AM CRYING BECAUSE THEY REALLY SAID ‘IS THIS A LEGIT STAR WARS TERM OR JUST BULLSHIT NONSENSE?’ AND THEY HAD NO IDEA
#I’M ALSO CRYING BECAUSE OF COURSE I KNEW ALL THE ANSWERS
#I AM SO EMBARASSED
#BUT ALSO HIGHLY ENTERTAINED AT THEIR ANTICS
#EWAN BEING A SORE LOSER
#HAYDEN NOT KNOWING A TERM THAT ANAKIN WAS THE MOST PROLIFIC USER OF
#MOSES BEING JUST LIKE THIS IS THE MOST SURREAL DAY OF HER LIFE AND JUST ROLLING WITH IT
#EWAN AND HAYDEN MAKING EACH OTHER LAUGH
#ALL OF IT AROUND ‘CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STAR WARS NONSENSE AND RANDOMLY GENERATED NONSENSE?’
#AND NO YOU FUCKING CANNOT
This weekend, Star Wars fans made Obi-Wan Kenobi the most watched Disney Plus Original Series premiere of all time. And for that, I would say a big thank you, and it just goes to show what this family can do when we all pull together.
However, it seems like some of the fanbase, from this influential fanbase, have decided to attack Moses Ingram online and send her the most horrendous, racist DMs. And I heard some of them this morning and it just broke my heart.
Moses is a brilliant actor, she's a brilliant woman, and she's absolutely amazing in this series. She brings so much to the series, she brings so much to the franchise. And it just sickened me to my stomach to hear that this had been happening.
I just want to say, as the leading actor on the series, as the executive producer on the series, that we stand with Moses. We love Moses, and if you're sending her bullying messages, you're no Star Wars fan in my mind. There's no place for racism in this world, and I totally stand with Moses.
Moses Ingram in Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi’s Return (2022)
“It’s a dream I didn’t know I had. I just never thought it would or could actually be me. The first day, going to costumes and putting on the suit, it blew my mind.“