In Hyde Park, in the heart of London, on June 3, at a rally by the Black Lives Matter movement, British actor John Boyega speaks out to condemn the rampant violence against black people in the United States and elsewhere. It was, of course, in reaction to the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American who was killed by a white policeman in Minneapolis on May 25. But also the death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old black woman found hanged in her cell in July 2015 in Texas, after being arrested during a traffic stop, and the many others missing from the black community.
"Every black person remembers the first time someone reminded them that they were black. (…) I want you to understand how painful it is (…) I don't want this to happen anymore. It will never happen again! »John Boyega's speech
John Boyega is the main black character in the recent Star Wars trilogy, launched by The force awakens (2015), by J. J. Abrams, and whose third episode, The Ascension of Skywalker, was released in December. The saga of George Lucas has historically always offered a significant role to a black actor. In Empire strikes back (1980), Billy Dee Williams appeared alongside Harrison Ford, in the role of Lando Calrissian, a character he would resume in the following opus, Return of the Jedi (1983), then in the final installment of the very recent trilogy written and directed by J. J. Abrams. Billy Dee Williams had thus become the first black actor to play such an important role in an action and science fiction film. Then in George Lucas's "prelogy" – The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005) – it will be Samuel L. Jackson, the same man who helped organize the funeral of Martin Luther King in Atlanta in 1968, to play a key role.
Domino effect
On June 3, John Boyega said: "I am 28 years old, I was born and raised in London. (…) Every black person remembers the first time someone reminded them that they were black. (…) I want you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race is nothing. And I don't want this to happen anymore. It will never happen again! " Then add "I don't know if I will have a career after that, but I don't give a damn. " Suddenly, the comedian suggests that a political position on the treatment of the black population by the American police could close the doors of Hollywood to him.
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