Children often learn language through association. “Moo says the cow” we tell them as we present a picture book with a cow. Mom, Dad, apple, spoon, cow, and so many words are learned with objects in front of them.

Remember Helen Keller making the connection that W-A-T-E-R traced on her hand was associated with the water flowing over her other hand? She stated at that time “the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that ‘w-a-t-e-r’ meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!”

But what about conceptual words? Words like justice and mercy, cruel and kind, even right and wrong? How are these learned? 

A child -we’ll call her Rachel- is being tucked into bed, and told a story. A story of noble knights, devious lies, beautiful princesses, fierce and wondrous difficulties, loss – and recovery. Rachel hears a new word in the telling of this tale: the word of justice. Earlier that day, a friend had taken something from Rachel, leading to her wails and cries. Though it takes time for Rachel to draw the connections, as she grows she will have more connections, more experiences, and more understanding. Thus, Rachel  comes to determine what “justice” means. Language is connected, even derived from, story. Words that we don’t know can never bring us to smile, to cry, to gape, to feel. But words that we know are words connected by story. And that is what gives the pen its might.  

Thus the words I use are related to different stories than yours -and thus we might mean different things with the same word.

If story underlies our very language, the very way we reason and communicate, then clearly the stories of a society are critical to understanding both where we are and where we’re headed.

At another time I will more fully explain the histories of our country, and how they affect us today.

Right now, I seek to reveal something that I think needs to be brought to light:

Gina Carano’s Story

In modern culture, one of the most widely recognized, cherished, and debated stories is Star Wars, with all the films and comics and series set in this world.

In 2020, Gina Carano, who was playing Cara Dune in the first Star Wars live action tv series The Mandalorian, posted some things that caused Lucasfilm to say

“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future. [H]er social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.” 

Keep these exact words in mind. We’ll look at them again soon.

What was it she had said? 

Previously, she had already raised some ire for not publicly supporting Black Lives Matter, and then again by putting her pronouns as beep/bop/boop. She removed that though and apologized. 

But the final straw for Lucasfilm? It was posting this, which was not even her original comment: 

“Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors…even by children. 

“Because history is edited, most people today don’t realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?”

Maybe this was inaccurate and inconsiderate, or even—through a special kind of perspective that assumes the worst of a statement—denigrating as Lucasfilm claimed, but the fact that this is a story that was canceled is quite alarming. It wasn’t explained as a false story, it was simply, deleted. Censored. Canceled.  We shouldn’t attempt to draw connections and lessons from the events of Nazi Germany? 

That’s a story that we relegate to the past as an anomaly? 

Why? Should we cancel things for fear of denigrating people based on cultural and religious identities? 

Why is this story unacceptable, to the point it brings cancellation by Disney, the biggest producer of stories in our world today?

Amandla Stenberg’s Story

More recently, another Lucasfilm live action tv star, Amandla Stenberg, who plays the twins Osha and Mae in The Acolyte, released a video on X that was an indictment on all the fans of Star Wars who had spoken out against the series. The series had started out with fairly positive reviews but plummeted as it continued, with viewers claiming that it was changing the timeline, and even the way the force works, to push an agenda.

“I’m going viral on Twitter again / open up the news to find some interesting things / 20 million views / interview from 2018 / with Trevor the king when I was a teen / I was running from city to city to speak on a story / you know the one: police murdering a black boy / my people cried in theaters finding release / white people cried they could see us as human beings / 

Trevor ask what I want the people to know / I say white people crying was the goal / If they could take one thing what would it be? / I say empathy / ooooo that’s why they mad at me? / they splice lines make hate they recognize / make it look like the same propaganda they spew / cuz they conflate our pain with violence / and try to weaponize everything that we do / the desperation of oppressors is rising / and now they holding onto any ol’ thing they can use / If you rely upon misinformation / that tells me you’re afraid of the truth.” (emphasis added)

And then a repeated sentence-long chorus: “We so bored don’t **** with yo discourse.” 

There’s so much I could say, from the fact that her father was also white, to the idea of splicing lines to make them hateful—a line after a sly comment that rather follows the same tactic.

But I’m focusing on the sentence I bolded.

If we are to accept Amandla’s story, all white people are oppressors.   

I don’t know about you, but that seems to me like a social media post denigrating people based on their identities. 

But Lucasfilm has given no statement on this video. 

Apparently some stories are more accepted than others.

It ends with:

“My sis said don’t let it get down my spirit / but i’m sick and ****in tried of suppressing my rage / 400 years of taking their bulls***/ to compartmentalize like my ancestors had to encage / if you don’t confront the pain that you live with / it’ll manifest as addiction disease and hate / i’ve seen the infection repressing can give ya / I’m not goin to be the next one sent to an early grave.“

This story was not only accepted, but celebrated by multiple prominent news sources. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining or wishing that this story was canceled. No, that’s not the problem. The problem is the alarming conclusions drawn by this story are very divisive, leading to drastic consequences. However, though I think it is full of false assumptions and misleading propositions, I am not seeking to silence this story.

Rather, I am asking myself, as I ask you, why this story is acceptable to Disney, news sources, and media at large, while Gina Carano’s wasn’t.

The Story of our Future  

It is an interesting side note that they both agree on one point: 

In the wake of this, Gina Carano posted that 

“I think people need to remember the media twists and turns your words into what they interpret it as and not the words that were actually spoken in the moment. Great thing is. There’s video proof and it shows how corrupt and slanted the ‘media’ and people who call themselves ‘journalists’ can be. 

If you didn’t hear it from my mouth. Don’t believe the headlines. Look at the full story, not their sound bites they use for cheap attention. Distinguish good journalism from the posers pushing agendas.”

Amandla Stenberg in her song said 

“journalists I’m looking at you / did you forget it’s your job to provide the truth? / spreading divisiveness mining the metrics and data / seem you gave up all your ethics for money and views / and I can tell that the people are tired / and the kids don’t trust anything that they view / we can learn something from their discernment / the future’s coming and it’s always the youth.” 

But I see a double standard in Disney, this great and spacious media company. 

Apparently, stories of current oppression are allowed, but stories of oppression in the past are stifled. 

This is a standard that speaks of an agenda. 

Carano’s post was much less flagrant, retaliatory, and inciting than Stenberg’s. 

And yet the inflammatory post is heralded and the warning was removed. 

So what is to be done?

  • It starts with being aware of the stories you are consuming, whether they are overt or covert, and the way they are shaping your language and reasoning. 
  • Try to help others to see which stories are surrounding us, which are being promoted and which are silenced. 
  • Help yourself and others to see all the stories, and in some cases, to see both sides of the same story. 
  • Find the truth from stories, discarding the assumptions and falsehoods before the values and definitions embed itself into your mind.  
  • This is also a call to create more stories, more warnings, more connections to the past! 
  • Make sure the stories you create and share and pass on are kind while being realistic, seeing what is often unseen