Rooster Teeth and Gizmodo Staffer Charles Pulliam Accuses Star Wars Fans Of Engaging In “Bigoted Dogpiling”
John F. Trent
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Rooster Teeth and Gizmodo staffer Charles Pulliam recently accused Star Wars fans of engaging in “bigoted dogpiling.”
Pulliam’s comments come in response to a number of tweets from Star Wars: The High Republic host Krystina Arielle where she calls white people racist.
In one tweet she wrote, “White people: f***ing stop it. Your racism won’t save you. Your ignorance is not an excuse.”
In another tweet she wrote, “Just a reminder that White Women are just as complicit in the upholding and enforcing White Supremacy.”
Following Bounding Into Comics’ coverage of Arielle’s tweets, the official Star Wars Twitter account announced they supported her and her tweets calling white people racists.
They wrote, “Our Star Wars community is one of hope and inclusivity. We do not stand for bullying and racism. We support Krystina Arielle.”
In response to this, Pulliam took to Twitter where he shared an article he wrote for the Wall Street-owned Gizmodo’s i09 publication titled Star Wars: The High Republic Show Host Krystina Arielle Is the Fandom’s Embattled Future.
In his tweet he wrote, “Star Wars fans have always hated change, which is why what happened with Kyrstina Arielle wasn’t surprising, and why more brands committed to diversity need to be ready to defend their employees against bigoted dogpiling.”
In a subsequent tweet, Pulliam would share a screen shot of his article, where he attempts to paint people being rightfully upset at Arielle’s tweets targeted towards white people as simple jealousy.
He writes, “This is part of why I tend to steer clear of doing a lot of video-focused things or streaming. The whole culture around video content makes people act absolutely wild, and it seems like an invitation for unnecessary stress.”
In the article, Pulliam writes, “In Arielle’s case, the situation is further complicated by the fact that her path to working for the Star Wars franchise – covered in an interview won StarWars.com that was released today to tie into the launch of the Star Wars: The High Republic Show – in many ways maps onto the aspirations of people within the larger Star Wars fan base, something that likely played a role in people feeling emboldened to level baseless accusations of racism against her.”
He then adds, “Petty, jealous ugliness is just as much a part of fandom toxicity as a lack of on-screen representation is.”
Then in a third tweet, Pulliam doubles down on his assertion in the article.
He writes, “You can see why people are mad, though. She’s good at what she does. Jealousy’s a b**** like that.”
Looking further into the article, it’s clear Pulliam’s entire argument is based on a lie.
Pulliam ignores Arielle’s tweets where she calls white people racist. He ignores the tweet where she says white women are complicit in white supremacy. He ignores the tweet where she targets white conservatives.
The article is riddled with lies.
First he claims the tweets people took issue with were from June 2020.
Pulliam writes, “Specifically, a handful of trolls resurfaced and took issue with a number of Arielle’s tweets from June of 2020, in which she very plainly states some basic and easy-to-understand feelings about white people’s relationships with racism—anti-Black racism, in particular.”
As you can clearly see above, the tweet where she calls white people racist is from March 2020. Not June.
Nevertheless, he attempts to excuse the tweets because of Black Lives Matter protests. He writes, “At the time, Black Lives Matter protests across the world were drawing increasing attention to the presence and harms of systemic racism perpetuated by organizations like police departments, and everyone watched as different segments of society attempted, in different ways, to address the topic a hand.”
Even if Arielle’s tweets were just isolated to June, which they weren’t, using Black Lives Matter protest to excuse calling white people racists is wrong. It’s wrong no matter when you say it.
Pulliam doesn’t care. He excuses her tweets. He writes, “Though Arielle’s tweets made a causal generalization about white people as a whole, nothing about what she said was either incorrect or particularly incendiary considering what she’s talking about.”
Again, calling white people racist is wrong. Saying white women are complicit in white supremacy is wrong.
Pulliam would then deceptively try and and claim that the people being rightfully upset about Arielle’s racist tweets are the ones who are racist.
He writes, “The larger problem of massive fandoms acting hostile toward Black women especially—but also women as a whole, people of color, queer people, and anyone else not traditionally thought of as belonging within genre fandoms—still persists.”
It’s just a bald faced lie.
He then encourages other brands to do what Disney has done and support individuals who call white people racists.
The io9 writer states, “It’s worth repeating, however: it’s very likely that this sort of thing will happen again. When it does, though, the brands involved need to be ready to do the right thing, by dismissing the bad actors and doing right by the creators working to help make those brands more inclusive.”
Pulliam concludes his article by trying to drive his readers to the Star Wars: The High Republic Show. He writes, “The Star Wars: The High Republic Show is now streaming on YouTube.”
As Jon Del Arroz pointed out earlier this week, Pulliam’s article appears to be part of Disney’s marketing strategy to sell Star Wars: The High Republic. And the strategy is to call their own fans racists.
Del Arroz explains, “I think it is a marketing stunt because nobody is interested in this Disney High Republic stuff. If you’ve gone through and even perused it, it just looks like an awful outing and it’s very clear they are pushing people in there as diversity hires intentionally. It’s sort of an Al Sharpton shakedown, but with science fiction. And nobody is going to want it.”
The A.I. Wars comic author elaborates, “And so because nobody is in advance going to want it, they are going to try and make a political cause out of it in order to generate sales.”
He later states, “But, yes, this is just a marketing gimmick for Disney at the end of the day because there is no talk about The High Republic that is positive. Nobody is interested in the comics. Nobody is interested in the books. Nobody is interested in the show discussing the comics and books. And so they have to try to make some sort of cause about it in order to get people interested. It’s a tired tactic at this point.”
What do you make of Pulliam attacking Star Wars fans and appearing to engage in this marketing stunt to generate
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