Gina Carano was fired from The Mandalorian after making multiple insensitive, offensive, bigoted, and controversial social media posts. However, some may be wondering if there was explicit racism, specifically, in her social media activity.
Although Carano’s firing occurred three years ago, it has now returned to public discourse due to the actress filing a lawsuit against Disney alleging wrongful termination and seeking to be reinstated on the show. Of course, given how long ago everything happened, many may have forgotten why she was fired in the first place. Back then, a lot of misinformation and rumors swirled around her termination, such as that she was fired for not putting her pronouns in her social media bio. In reality, her firing is most often attributed to one specific post in which she tried to equate the backlash conservatives get for their hateful rhetoric to the experience of Jewish people during the Holocaust.
Was the statement insensitive, ignorant, offensive, and unbelievably stupid? Yes, but it’s not necessarily the kind of thing that would normally get someone labeled racist. It’s also worth noting that Tim Allen once made the exact same comparison with no consequences. However, to fully understand Carano’s problematic ideologies, one must know there is more to the story than just one post.
Gina Carano’s problematic social media activity
Carano was accused of racism multiple times before the post that led to her firing. On August 3, 2020, her Twitter followers were shocked when she shared a photo of a Nazi rally with absolutely no caption or context aside from a red circle over one attendee. Only after commenters expressed confusion did she claim she was highlighting the story behind the man who refused to salute Adolf Hitler.
Given that there was a news article that used that same photo (though it was published five years earlier), it adds up, though many questioned what she was trying to say by sharing the photo and nothing else initially.
Meanwhile, Carano has also shown hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement. Around the same time as she posted the Nazi rally photo, the Black Lives Matter movement was at its height, resulting in many calling on her to support it. Some accused her of being racist for not posting about it. While silence can’t wholly be attributed to racism, it did say a lot when right-wing celebrities with major platforms completely ignored the movement. When users tried to explain that they just wanted to help educate her and make her more aware of these things, she responded with a heated and telling response.
The questions and concerns she was getting did not warrant this response whatsoever. She wholly minimized the importance and impact of BLM once again, somehow managing to turn everything back to herself. BLM is fighting for justice and equality in the face of police brutality and systemic racism, yet here is Carano complaining that she’s being bullied because a few people asked her to take note of this significant movement. Again, it’s very insensitive and ignorant, but not explicitly racist.
Carano’s other hateful behavior adds weight to racism accusations
The instances above only comprise a fraction of Carano’s problematic posts and behavior. At one point, to mock the trans community after being asked to respect others’ pronouns, she put “beep/bop/boop” in her Twitter bio. Then, she once again claimed to be a victim of harassment and bullying after being called out, even stating of the trans community, “They need to find less abusive representation.” Her actions were especially egregious considering her co-star, Pedro Pascal, has a sister who had recently come out as a trans woman.
On top of that, Carano has gone down many dangerous conservative conspiracy theory rabbit holes. She used her social media to spread misinformation, making outlandish claims that the 2020 election was rigged, COVID-19 was a hoax, and that Jeffrey Epstein’s death was some kind of elaborate coverup. These are conspiracy theories nearly synonymous with the alt-right, whose extremism is very dangerous, as seen in the January 6 riot. Meanwhile, Carano has done nothing to save her image since The Mandalorian firing, aligning herself with The Daily Wire and right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro, who has also been accused countless times of racism, homophobia, transphobia, and sexism. She also dropped out of a movie for The Daily Wire because she refused to comply with COVID-19 protocols.
Perhaps some could argue that Carano has not been explicitly racist before. However, she has shown alignment with the far-right’s conspiracy theories and blatant transphobia. She has demonstrated an aversion to supporting the BLM movement, refused to learn from her actions, and aligned herself with very hateful people. The biggest evidence of her racism is her proud support of a political group that is known for spreading racist rhetoric. Being complicit in the hatred, discrimination, and marginalization of others is the same thing as being racist.
(featured image: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty)
