While Finn from “Star Wars” didn’t lead the stormtrooper rebellion he deserved, John Boyega pulled a better job and took it to reality. As part of the growing protests across the globe, the actor joined the Black Lives Matter demonstration in London where he delivered an emotional speech to the crowd.
John Boyega previously made his sentiments known online, following the murder of African-American man George Floyd under the hands of a police officer. But on Jun. 3 at Hyde Park, the “Star Wars” actor took it to the streets. “I’m speaking to you from my heart,” Boyega said. “Look, I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this, but fuck that.”
Clips of the London protest spread around Twitter, where a vocal Boyega stood amid his fellow protestors. “Black lives have always mattered,” Boyega said. “We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless. And now is the time. I ain’t waiting. We are a physical representation of our support for George Floyd. We are a physical representation of our support for Sandra Bland. We are a physical representation of our support for Trayvon Martin. We are a physical representation of our support for Stephen Lawrence and Mark Duggan.”
“Black lives have always mattered. We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless. And now is the time. I ain’t waiting,” @johnboyega just told #BlackLivesMatter protesters in London’s Hyde Park pic.twitter.com/P49cbwIp6P
— Haley Ott (@haleyjoelleott) June 3, 2020
“Today is about innocent people who were halfway through their process,” he adds, as he fought back tears. “We don’t know what George Floyd could have achieved, we don’t know what Sandra Bland could have achieved, but today we’re going to make sure that won’t be an alien thought to our young ones.”
The UK has also seen cases of hate crime, with incidents such as Duggan and Lawrence’s. In 2011, rioting broke out in the country when 29-year-old Mark Duggan was gunned down by police under disputed circumstances. Stephen Lawrence was a teenager who was stabbed to death in London while waiting at a bus stop. Boyega also paid homage to African-Americans Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old who was fatally shot by a neighborhood patrol, and Sandra Bland who died under police custody in Texas.
“Imagine this: a nation that is set up with individual families that are thriving, that are healthy, that communicate, that raise their children they love, have a better rate of becoming better human beings. That’s what we need to create,” Boyega says.
Outside parliament @JohnBoyega tells everyone to take a knee and says black people “I love you” pic.twitter.com/2egDZwmBzE
— SymeonBrown (@symeonbrown) June 3, 2020
To know more about the Black Lives Matter movement as well as the social issues that plague the world today, visit this master list here.
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Photo from Inquirer Entertainment