John Boyega’s Black Lives Matter speech draws praise from Disney, directors

Protests in opposition to police violence continue around the world, with people still demanding justice following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis — and changes to the system that allowed it to happen — last week.

Lots of celebrities have joined the protests, including Game of Thrones alum Richard Madden (Robb Stark), but few have made waves like John Boyega, who played ex-Stormtrooper Finn in Disney’s Star Wars sequel trilogy. Speaking at a protest in Hyde Park in London yesterday, the actor had some very powerful things to say:

“Look, I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this, but fuck that,” Boyega said. “Today is about innocent people who were halfway through their process. We don’t know what George Floyd could have achieved, we don’t know what Sandra Bland could have achieved, but today we’re going to make sure that won’t be an alien thought to our young ones.”

"I need you to understand how painful this shit is. I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing — and that isn’t the case anymore, that was never the case. We are a physical representation of our support for George Floyd. We are a physical representation of our support for Sandra Bland. We are a physical representation of our support for Trayvon Martin. We are a physical representation of our support for Stephen Lawrence, for Mark Duggan."

He also asked protesters to remain “as peaceful as possible.”

Boyega is attracting a lot of positive feedback from people in the industry, including powerful directors and producers who all but guarantee that he will, indeed, have a career after this:

And so on. Boyega’s Star Wars costar Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), who signed his tweet “dad,” also showed his support:

And perhaps most notably, Disney itself voiced support through the official Star Wars Twitter account:

This one is a little easier to be cynical about, and indeed, plenty of folks on Twitter are wondering where this support for Boyega was, for example, when trolls were urging a boycott of Star Wars when it was announced that Boyega, a black man, would be starring in The Force Awakens, or when the studio removed Boyega from the Chinese version of the poster for that movie.

And I think those complaints are valid. I think everyone should look a little more critically at shows of support from companies as opposed to individuals; does Disney mean what it says or is it only standing behind Boyega while it’s politically palatable to do so? At the least the studio has committed to donating $5 million to anti-racist organizations.

As for Boyega, who has long had no compunction about saying things Star Wars fans might find controversial, I hope he keeps on speaking his mind.

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h/t SyFy Wire