Combating racism in outer space
Karlyle Stephens
Mesa Legend
“Its 2015,” we like to hear ourselves say. What did people 50 years ago think when they spoke of the year 2015? With Siri, autonomous cars, drones, and Matt Damon on Mars, we’ve nearly fulfilled or are on our way to fulfilling the sci- fi fantasies that were the Jetsons, Star Trek, and Star Wars. The advancements are impressive, and make us both proud and comfortable. But it’s also why we become so disturbed and angry by the fact we are still having to remind ourselves of simple things like “black lives matter.” It’s embarrassing when we look at our huge technical advancements in comparison to our small social progress.
We millennials predict that the solution to racism will come when all those “old people” leave. But the biggest hate crimes this year were committed by some of our fellow young people. The latest was committed by the #boycottstarwarsVII movement that responded bitterly to the trailer of the new Star Wars film “The Force Awakens.” Their outrage was over a lead role being played by African American actor John Boyega. The group resists the efforts major pop culture icons are making to be more diverse. They believe diversity equates to “white genocide.”
Although the boycott was quickly silenced by the majority on the social media battlegrounds, the existence of old white supremacist fears of white genetic annihilation should not go totally dismissed. These anxieties when ignored translate to violence. We saw the biggest tragedy of the year carried out by a 21-year-old who was motivated by the fear of blacks “taking over the country.”“It’s 2015” we say in disbelief. Let’s wake up to the realities and make sure we get our social progress on pace to be as grand as our tech-scientific improvements. Otherwise we’ll bring our unresolved race wars with us to space where there may be other wars for us to confront.
