Responses from the Whoniverse

It still doesn't feel right to be posting my "usual" stuff right now, so I'm not going to. In the coming days, I'm not exactly sure how this blog will look, but one thing I've thought about doing is collecting some different social media responses from assorted fandoms. Not that actors' voices are more important than others or their insights more valuable, but I appreciate people using their platforms to speak out about vital issues and amplify others' words. Also, as a fan, I just appreciate seeing that people who've helped make something I care about stand up for what's right.

Since this is the Sunday Who Review, we're looking at Whoniverse cast members today. It feels fitting - Doctor Who and its companion shows are about standing up for others and standing against evil. As it happens, quite a few Whoniverse cast members either don't have social media or only post infrequently, so I wondered at first whether this venture would end before it started, but I found my way eventually. (A couple notes: to the extent that I'm interested in social media, I mostly check out Twitter, so unless, say, an Instagram video/picture was cross-posted as a tweet, I probably didn't see it. Finally, this is my first time attempting to embed tweets; we'll see how I do.)

One thing I appreciated about the posts I looked through today was the demonstration of solidarity shown for Black Americans from people in the U.K., as well as the acknowledgement that the U.K. has its own work to do on racism. A lot of the actors I looked at here were mostly retweeting stuff coming out of the U.S. - tweets, articles, videos, pictures - but there were some comments from the actors themselves as well.

Noel Clarke (Mickey) has been posting quite a bit about this subject (not least of which because, a few days ago, he pointed that he was the only main actor left off the poster for a recent movie he was in - all his costars were white - and he got a lot of "the man who cried racism"-type responses.) Here's one I really appreciated:

People on here acting like this is just a US problem. #Racism is prevalent here too. Embedded in the fabric of society, the industry I'm in. Sometimes it's hard to keep fighting, when whenever you speak up, your silenced or, labelled as aggressive, difficult or "Chippy"

— Noel Clarke (@NoelClarke) May 29, 2020

Anjli Mohindra (Rani from The Sarah Jane Adventures) called on everyone to do their part in dismantling racism. She pointed out that no offhand racist comment is too "small" to go ignored, saying this:

It’s in tiny bits of apathy that racism begins to thrive.

If you hear anything anti-black, however small, challenge it.

When the woods seem too wild to wrangle we tackle it at the roots. #BlackLivesMatter and the problem is all of ours to bear.

— Anjli Mohindra (@AnjMohindra) May 31, 2020

Mohindra also stood up for John Boyega when people got huffy over him expressing his anger about George Floyd's murder.
 
 Mandip Gill (Yaz) and Naoko Mori (Tosh from Torchwood) have both been retweeting a fair amount, and Sacha Dhawan (The Master) shared this graphic on ways to contribute:

#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/0DzmblkDzh

— Sacha Dhawan (@sacha_dhawan) May 31, 2020

Arthur Darvill (Rory) urged white people not to be silent on racism and educate themselves. Here's one of his tweets:

White people, we need to step up and engage with this.. this is all of our responsibility.. we need to be better and learn, listen grow and support #BlackLivesMatter

— Arthur Darvill (@RattyBurvil) May 29, 2020

I also found retweets from Karen Gillan (Amy), Eve Myles (Gwen from Torchwood), and John Barrowman (Jack), along with plenty of comments from Barrowman on Trump's place in all this.