Jesse Jackson: ‘Star Wars’ Record-Breaking Box Office Success Due to Racially Diverse Cast

Breitbart.com ^ | feb 1 2016 | Kipp Jones

[drewh]

Rev. Jesse Jackson partially credits the casting of black British actor John Boyega for the financial success of Star Wars: the Force Awakens in an op-ed piece about “Hollywood apartheid.”

“For the second year in a row, no actor or actress of color has been nominated for an Academy Award. That is a shameful streak,” Jackson wrote in USA TODAY on Monday. “But the growing outcry over the whitewashing of the prestigious golden statue and the industry it celebrates is a sign of at least some progress.” Jackson wrote that minority performers are the future of the industry.

“By midcentury, America will be a majority minority country. But it is already clear that diversity is good for business,”Jackson stated. “Films with diverse casts, according to the Bunche Center report, enjoyed the highest median global box-office receipts and the highest median return on investment.”

He added: “Indeed, the movie that broke box office records around the world in 2015, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, stars a white woman and a black man.”

To date, The Force Awakens has grossed nearly $2 billion.

[Charles Martel]

Seems like the diversity level is about the same as it was with Billy Dee Williams.

[DoughtyOne]

Please help make FR's voice louder.

Truth, Justice, and the American Way.

click the bottom graphic and support them

[Glad2bnuts]

I am thinking that by mid century, the majority Browns will make sure Blacks are truly second class citizens, along with the Muslims. They get along OK for now, but there is quite a hatred between them underneath it all.

[Charles Martel]

But he wasn't in the first one.

Or maybe Billy wasn't "black enough".

[SaveFerris]

Jesse’s been a one-note Johnnie for a long, long, long time.

[Romulus]

How much did the producers have to pay Jesse to purchase his diversity seal of approval?

[hal ogen]

Isn’t this con-artist dead yet?

[moose07]

List of Black Actors in StarWars:

Billy Dee Williams
James Earl Jones
Samuel L Jackson
Ahmed Best
Lupita Nyongo
Hugh Quarshie
John Boyega

[Thorliveshere]

Gee, I guess that’s why the very first Star Wars movie was an utter failure...

[hal ogen]

I thought he died from his racism years ago...

[gundog]

Introducing Michelle Obama as”Chewbacca.”

[for-q-clinton]

http://southpark.cc.com/clips/155469/go-ahead-apologize

[SampleMan]

It’s full of freaking space aliens. How can you get more diverse than that?

[Jewbacca]

[Jewbacca]

Have you seen my storm trooper token? Cool, huh?

[showme_the_Glory]

Jus the ziggin and the zaggin.

[Steve_Seattle]

The black actor in the new SW movie was ok, but nothing special. He was very forgettable, and the most memorable thing about him was the way the writers gave him a transparently vulgar name, i.e., Effen (”Ha! Ha! Chortle! Aren’t we clever!”), which was changed to Finn.

[x]

Gee, I guess that's why the very first Star Wars movie was an utter failure...

It was a different country back then.

_______

It wasn't "racial diversity" that made the new movie successful.

How much racial diversity is one black Englishman in the cast?

But this movie wasn't going to be made without a woman and a black man in the leading roles.

Especially not with Harrison Ford doing the Morgan Freeman magical old man role.

[ETL]

He’s still alive?

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

Nope. It's because of 2 words that were in the title of the movie:

"Star" and "Wars"

You could put "Star Wars" on a turd and people would buy it.

More important, the success of the new movie was because 2 words were absent from anything to do with it:

"George" and "Lucas"