A necessary exploration of the role that race plays in one of the biggest film franchises of all time: Star Wars.

Talking about race can be awkward, but it doesn't have to be! We often restrict ourselves from fully participating in these necessary conversations because of a profound fear of “saying the wrong thing.” In A Disturbance in the Force: Making Space for Race in Star Wars, Frederick Gooding Jr. guides readers through understanding how race is leveraged through an idealistic fantasy space. If Star Wars transpired “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” then theoretically it should be unencumbered by any racial frictions that we know within our current society. Yet, beneath the hyperspace drives to distant locations featuring a vast array of alien diversity coexisting with humans intergalactically, tensions and assumptions surrounding race relations within contemporary mainstream America nonetheless remain manifest and present.

Gooding Jr. reveals such racial tensions hidden in plain sight in the media we consume and asks readers to reconsider and think critically about both the quantity-and quality-of nonwhite images circulated throughout the Star Wars films. By focusing on Star Wars, one key barrier to constructive conversations about race is removed by focusing on a well-known product that serves as a common denominator. When it comes to race relations and Star Wars, there is no need for to “force” the issue. Readers will learn and appreciate that similar to the force, the topic of race is also an “energy between all things, a tension, a balance that binds” us together, whether for better or for worse.