Jyn Erso and her team will take on the Empire in the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story film. Meanwhile, a version of the Rebel Alliance on Earth — lead by the Rogue One creators — are standing up against prejudice and hate by modifying the famous Rebel Alliance icon in a very particular way.
Seeing as part of our world has recently been thrown into tentative chaos by the election of Donald Trump on Tuesday, Star Wars fans started brewing a Rebellion by Friday. Rogue One writers Chris Weitz and Gary Whitta took to Twitter to announce a new campaign: Star Wars Against Hate. Both writers changed their Twitter icons to the campaigns insignia: the Rebel Alliance symbol with a safety pin stuck through it. The safety pin has recently come to light online as an anti-Trump symbol.
Weitz noted that the Empire — first introduced in A New Hope as a domineering intergalactic power ruled by, literally, a black-and-white-colored dictatorship “is a white supremacist (human) organization.”
Moments later, Whitta added to the conversation with: “Opposed by a multi-cultural group led by brave women.”
“Star Wars against hate,” Weitz tweeted. “Spread it.”
The core of the Star Wars story has always been about hope and the ability to rise above adversity when people come together. So, these newest members of the Star Wars family seem determined to bring some of that hope to people in our own world. Now, we just need a Leia.
