MSNBC Host: 'Star Wars' Is Racist Because Darth Vader Is Black
The countdown is on for the seventh installment of the "Star Wars" movie franchise, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," and one MSNBC host isn't particularly excited. On her show on Sunday, Melissa Harris-Perry asserted that "Star Wars" is racist.
She explained that when iconic villain Darth Vader was in his black costume and voiced by African American actor James Earl Jones, "he was terrible and bad and awful and used to cut off white men's hands, and didn't, you know, actually claim his son."
"But as soon as he claims his son and goes over to the good, he takes off his mask and he is white," Harris-Perry continued. "Yes, I have many, many feelings about that."
"Star Wars" fact-checkers quickly took to social media to point out several holes in Harris-Perry's theory, including that Vader was revealed as the father of two Caucasian characters - Luke Sykwalker and Princess Leia - well before his helmet-off reveal, Vader is clearly Caucasian in the three prequel films and the villainous Imperial Stormtroopers wear all white, as opposed to black.