‘Star Wars Kid’ settles


‘Star Wars Kid’ settles out of court

Mr. Raza — who appears on the video as a chubby, ungainly young man — recalled how other students got on tables and chanted taunts at him. ‘There was about 100 people in those halls. It was total chaos…Any opportunity was good enough to shout ‘Star Wars!’ ‘

He said in one class, where a document was shown through a projector, other students scrolled the text, mimicking the opening of the movie, as they sang the Star Wars theme.

And whenever he was in a public place, he said, strangers would call to him.

“Hey! It’s Ghyslain Raza! Star Wars Kid, hey!”

He left the school and eventually, got a private tutor.

The article is fairly sketchy about the specific torment this kid suffered, and we don’t know how detailed the court case was either, of course. It seems from this piece that being called “Star Wars Kid” was the worst of it. On the face of it, that isn’t necessarily an insult? Of course, an insult is a cultural contruction – we give words power and choose how to parse them. The article doesn’t describe physical harm, threats, or any detailed humiliation besides being called “Star Wars Kid.” The headline of the article, of course, calls him “Star Wars Kid.” I’m not saying it wouldn’t suck incredibly to have a video of you on the Internet (although the article focuses on the humiliation that took place locally, in the school itself, rather than what would happen to this poor kid if he walked down the street in any city). Presumably, since the lawsuit dealt with schoolmates, that’s going to be the focus.

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