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Kelly Marie Tran, Rose in ‘The Last Jedi,’ deletes all Instagram posts following racist, sexist harassment

Kelly Marie Tran stars as Rose Tico in 'The Last Jedi.'. Disney/Lucasfilm

Kelly Marie Tran, who starred in Star Wars trilogy movie The Last Jedi, has deleted all of her posts on Instagram after months of racist and sexist harassment from so-called fans of the franchise.

Tran, who’s of Vietnamese descent and is the first woman of colour to play a major part in the Star Wars trilogies, was known for her positive and inspiring Instagram account. While it remains live, it’s now just a blank page.

(While Tran hasn’t verified if the harassment is the reason why she took down her photos and videos, her account has been targeted relentlessly by those “upset” about the Star Wars movie.)

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Indeed, ever since it was announced that Tran, 29, was cast in The Last Jedi, she has been on the receiving end of brutal fan commentary about her racial background and gender.

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In December, the Rose Tico page of the Star Wars-oriented reference site Wookieepedia (modelled after the user-generated Wikipedia) was altered by an unknown user into a melange of racist statements. [You can see the page, unedited, at that link. Be warned, there is foul language.]

The anonymous person renamed Rose Tico to “Ching Chong Wing Tong,” and referred to her as “stupid, autistic and retarded.”

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Rose Tico’s homeworld — actually called Hays Minor — was renamed “Ching Chong China.” The user also attributed a fake quote to Rose: “Heil Hitler and I don’t know why I was casted in a good movie like Star Wars.”

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The page was changed back and it is now locked, preventing any further editing, said Fandom, the company in charge of Wookieepedia.

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Examples of the racism Tran faced can be found on Twitter as well. (As of this writing, Tran doesn’t appear to have an official Twitter account.)

The majority of Star Wars fans, including Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, are voicing their support for Tran on social media.

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https://twitter.com/SteveOgdenArt/status/1004071762731110402

Tran’s Star Wars co-star, Daisy Ridley, deleted her Instagram account in December of 2016 after she too was inundated by trolls.

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“I was at [the Teen Choice Awards] and people weren’t nice about how I looked. And I was like, ‘I’m out,'” she said. “Simple as that. That is not what I signed up for … and I didn’t sign up for people to go, ‘You’re amazing!’ but I didn’t sign up for them to say things like, “Your skin is s**t,” either.”
‘I’m just not equipped for [Instagram],” she said, adding that she never opened a Twitter account. “I’m super sensitive — not too sensitive — but I really feel things.”

Global News has reached out to Tran’s reps for comment and/or confirmation.

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