By Chris Taylor
It was the lightsaber practice heard 'round the world, and one of the earliest viral videos online. It spawned a dozen parodies. But for one teenager, it meant years of hell. Now he's finally speaking out.
Ghyslain Raza, a ninth grader in Quebec, tried out some moves with a golf ball retriever in his high school's TV studio. He recorded the result. It was gawky and uncoordinated; it was, after all, just something he was trying out for a Star Wars skit at a school gala.
"I was goofing around," Raza told Canada's Macleans magazine in his first and only interview, 10 years later. "Most 14-year-old boys would do something similar in that situation, maybe more gracefully."
Unbeknownst to him, some classmates found the tape and posted it online via the file-sharing service Kazaa. It's hard to estimate how many people saw the result, universally known as "Star Wars kid." The YouTube video shows more than 27 million views, but this was May 2003: The video predated YouTube's founding by nearly two years.
After the New York Times picked up the story of the video's success, Raza's world collapsed. "That was the turning point," he said. "Reporters were knocking at my door, calling so often that we had to unplug the phone. I figured if I started to give interviews, I would only make things worse."
At school, Raza suffered endless mockery. He lost his friends. Students would exaggerate his moves from the video and climb on to tabletops to insult him. "It soon became impossible for me to attend class," he told Macleans. But worse, far worse, were the comments he read about himself online. One commenter called him "a pox on humanity." Others suggested he commit suicide.
"On the Internet, there are no limits," Raza says. "It was poison." Though he never considered suicide, "I couldn't help but feel worthless ... it was a very dark period for me."
Raza did his exams in a high school affiliated with a local hospital, sparking rumors that he'd been sent to the psychiatric ward. His family hired a lawyer that sued the kids who uploaded the video, seeking damages of $160,000; the settlement, however, didn't even cover the Raza family's costs. Meanwhile, Ghyslain got a private tutor. Finally, he was able to return to a regular high school for senior year.
Today, aged 25, Raza has made peace with his past. He's a law graduate from McGill University and the president of a local conservation society. Why did he decide to come forward now? Because of recent high-profile cyberbullying cases where the victims were driven to suicide.
His message for kids who are in the same position he was in: "You'll survive. You're not alone. You are surrounded by people who love you. You have to overcome your shame and get help."
As far as these Jedi knights are concerned, Raza never had anything to be ashamed of. "Despite his hardships, Ghyslain Raza helped blaze a trail for other Star Wars fans," says Alain Bloch, who leads the San Francisco class. "We weren't laughing at him as much as we were laughing at ourselves. We have all picked up a broomstick and waved it around like a lightsaber.
"That's why his video become so popular: It was funny and awkward but ultimately we connected to him. That made us feel more comfortable with our own awkwardness and dreams of being a Jedi."
Link to article http://mashable.com/2013/05/10/star-wars-kid-interview-cyberbullying/
It was the lightsaber practice heard 'round the world, and one of the earliest viral videos online. It spawned a dozen parodies. But for one teenager, it meant years of hell. Now he's finally speaking out.
Ghyslain Raza, a ninth grader in Quebec, tried out some moves with a golf ball retriever in his high school's TV studio. He recorded the result. It was gawky and uncoordinated; it was, after all, just something he was trying out for a Star Wars skit at a school gala.
"I was goofing around," Raza told Canada's Macleans magazine in his first and only interview, 10 years later. "Most 14-year-old boys would do something similar in that situation, maybe more gracefully."
Unbeknownst to him, some classmates found the tape and posted it online via the file-sharing service Kazaa. It's hard to estimate how many people saw the result, universally known as "Star Wars kid." The YouTube video shows more than 27 million views, but this was May 2003: The video predated YouTube's founding by nearly two years.
After the New York Times picked up the story of the video's success, Raza's world collapsed. "That was the turning point," he said. "Reporters were knocking at my door, calling so often that we had to unplug the phone. I figured if I started to give interviews, I would only make things worse."
Parodies and Cyberbullies
The parodies kept coming. They hit TV on Family Guy and Arrested Development. In 2006, there was "drunken Jedi," which added special effects to give Raza a real lightsaber; it got 12 million views. He was later shown fighting Yoda (4 million views) and Agent Smith from The Matrix (2 million views).
At school, Raza suffered endless mockery. He lost his friends. Students would exaggerate his moves from the video and climb on to tabletops to insult him. "It soon became impossible for me to attend class," he told Macleans. But worse, far worse, were the comments he read about himself online. One commenter called him "a pox on humanity." Others suggested he commit suicide.
"On the Internet, there are no limits," Raza says. "It was poison." Though he never considered suicide, "I couldn't help but feel worthless ... it was a very dark period for me."
Raza did his exams in a high school affiliated with a local hospital, sparking rumors that he'd been sent to the psychiatric ward. His family hired a lawyer that sued the kids who uploaded the video, seeking damages of $160,000; the settlement, however, didn't even cover the Raza family's costs. Meanwhile, Ghyslain got a private tutor. Finally, he was able to return to a regular high school for senior year.
Today, aged 25, Raza has made peace with his past. He's a law graduate from McGill University and the president of a local conservation society. Why did he decide to come forward now? Because of recent high-profile cyberbullying cases where the victims were driven to suicide.
His message for kids who are in the same position he was in: "You'll survive. You're not alone. You are surrounded by people who love you. You have to overcome your shame and get help."
'He Showed Us the Way'
Meanwhile, the activity Raza was goofing around with has become a business in its own right. Every week in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, a group called the Golden Gate Knights meets to practice lightsaber choreography. The intense, three-hour sessions are serious stuff, something like a mixture of fencing and yoga.
As far as these Jedi knights are concerned, Raza never had anything to be ashamed of. "Despite his hardships, Ghyslain Raza helped blaze a trail for other Star Wars fans," says Alain Bloch, who leads the San Francisco class. "We weren't laughing at him as much as we were laughing at ourselves. We have all picked up a broomstick and waved it around like a lightsaber.
"That's why his video become so popular: It was funny and awkward but ultimately we connected to him. That made us feel more comfortable with our own awkwardness and dreams of being a Jedi."
Link to article http://mashable.com/2013/05/10/star-wars-kid-interview-cyberbullying/
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