This is not unlike the experience of the first humans we see in human history, who were African and who were later shipped to be similarly violently exploited for labour and used as fodder for colonial plunder. Consider that the first human forms we see in The Force Awakens are those of the stormtroopers, who are moved in tightly packed ships and dispatched to commit genocide against a noncompliant population. In this reading, the Force Awakens is a grand saga like the story of the United States itself, in which the key to the political and moral liberation of everyone depends upon the rebellion and emancipation of black people.
But if all the stormtroopers are black, the Force Awakens can be read as a tale specifically rooted in black oppression and, more importantly, black awakening and rebellion indeed, it could be read as the first science fiction film of the Black Lives Matter era. As white, Latin and black actors respectively, stars Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac and Boyega better reflect the diversity of our times, which also plays to the international Star Wars audience Disney is developing around the globe. It not only made sense, it made the Force Awakens an even more intriguing and politically engaging movie. So when I watched the film for the second time, I did so imagining that all the stormtroopers were black. The clues were certainly there: that on a galactic scale the First Order had conscripted black folks to do its heavy lifting (just as so many other oppressive regimes have done right here on earth on a planetary scale). After all, the only stormtrooper we actually see unmasked is played by John Boyega, and so it’s possible – though we are conditioned to believe that whiteness is the norm even in outer space – that his race wasn’t an aberration but the standard.
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