Italicizing is mine…
You haven’t even seen the fucking movie but you’re still sure that it has racist tendencies? You’re as much of an idiot as the assholes on that lame ass panel.
Haj
Latino?? WTF??? Those people need to get out more! I could tell right away that Temeura Morrison was Maori. I mean, come on!! Haven’t these people ever watched Xena*???!!
As for the child playing young Boba Fett, I didn’t speculate about his origins, except to wonder where the heck he’d been when they were casting for TPM.
*FTR- Xena was filmed in New Zealand, and thus had many guest stars in the show who were Maori (though not playing Maori characters becuase it was set in ancient Greece), some in recurring roles.
If his name was Spik Wetbakk or something like that, I could see a problem. But Lucas wouldn’t be intentionally racist like that.
Hajario, I believe if you actually read what monstro wrote you will see a reference to the last, meaning previous, movie. That would be episode one. Monstro then says he hasn’t seen the latest episode, which would be episode 2.
To be honest, I agree with monstro. I doubt it was intentional, and I see it more as a failure of imagination than anything else, but the aliens in episode one did seem to resemble human stereotypes. Is anyone seriously going to claim that Jar-Jar binks doesn’t talk like mush mouth from the Fat Albert cartoons.
I don’t think it’s anything to get worked up over, but denying that it’s there is silly.
To quote from this site : (Italics Mine)
I suppose that the following characters don’t fit as “stereotypes”:
A. Jar-Jar, the clumsy, stupid, annoying sidekick that sounds stereotypically Jamaican and looks Jamaican as well. A science-fiction version of the Step-n-Fetchitt character of the minstrel era.
B. The incompetent aliens from the Neimoidian Trade Federation (shown in the beginning, working in cohoots with the antagonists) who sound stereotypically Japanese.
C. Watto, the greedy, shrewd, nasty-looking shopkeeper who sounds and looks stereotypically Jewish (Russian accent, big nose, beady eyes).
Upon first viewing, I have to admit that the only stereotype that jumped out at me was the first one. It was only until someone pointed out the others that I noticed them. But are you saying it’s just coicidence that these characters came out matching certain stereotypes and that there’s absolutely no merit to the argument that they could be playing on stereotypes? Even if you’re a diehard anti-PC nut, you have to admit that there might be something going on.
Thanks grendel72. It’s good that someone knows how to read around here. :rolleyes:
OK, now I get it. My apologies.
Haj
Um, NO. Unless you have ever seen a Jew who is blue and flies. His nose was not big, it was OVERHANGING, almost like an elephant. Sorry, that’s just ridiculous.
And I love how the article says that the other “swarthy” (what the hell is that supposed to mean?) actors, Jimmy Smits (who got fat, btw!) and Samuel L. Jackson don’t have many lines. Um, okay, Mace Windu has more lines than Janga Fett, I’m sure. They’re looking for negative aspects, it’s obvious. Plus, Jimmy Smits was Bail Organa, who is pretty much (as far as we know) a completely 100% good guy.
No, they reveal that people are tired of seeing certain stereotypes. For me at least, it doesn’t go deeper than that.
(And make up your mind, Kwyjibo. Do the stereotypes exist or not?)
Jar-Jar had a Jamaican-like patois (his voice was in fact done by a Jamaican). He looked sorta Jamaican as well (his ears hung down like dreads and he had thick lips). I don’t think that saying he was a caraciture people “from the islands” is that much of a stretch (although it might very well be a stretch, depending on how sensitive and aware you are).
He wasn’t a beloved caraciture. He was an ugly, annoying, very much hated one. Perhaps if he hadn’t been so irritating, people wouldn’t have gotten so fired up about Jar-Jar. But he was irritating, and irritating in a way that Chewbacca never was. I think it all rests on how far it goes, and I think Jar-Jar was a little too much.
Really? I’ve known a few Jamaicans in my time and not one of them looks like Jar Jar. Are you saying that Jamaicans are clumsy and stupid?
Interesting.
Again, I’ve known and still know many Japanese and not one of them sounds like a Neimoidian. Not good enough? Mike Wong, who wrote this Racial Rebutal is of Asian decent and even he says the same thing!
Sure…all the Jews I know are blue and fly :rolleyes:
Again, are you saying that Jews are greedy, shrewd and nasty looking?
Dude…you my friend are a racist if you believe that Jamaicans, Asians, and Jews are as you described.
Overhanging? Would that not look like a hook, LaurAnge?
And isn’t a hook nose a feature attributed to Jews in anti-Semitic cartoons and propaganda?
I know I have unpopular opinions sometimes, but I don’t pull everything out of my ass.
Do they exist in the Star Wars movies? No…not unless you believe these stereotypes to be a true representation of the of the people you claim them to be.
But they apparently exist in your mind.
Frankly, I’m more concerned with the indignity perpetrated on the late, great Walter Mathau in having his voice and personality grafted into that gelatinous blob in the diner scene.
FWIW, I didn’t note any examples of stereotyping in Episode II but I agree with Monstro that Episode I was rife with them. BTW, Monstro, you forgot to mention the Southern cracker pod race announcer.
Bullshit! Jamaicans don’t talk anything like like Jar Jar. “Lookie. lookie, itsa Anakin!”, Jamaican dialect? Give me a fuckin’ break! Now if Jar Jar wore a red, black, and green tam, smoked ganja, drank Red Stripe beer, and referred to Chancellor Palpatine as “de Great Lion of Judah, Ras Palpatine Selassie,” then you might have a point about Jamaican stereotypes.
Sorry, Monstro, but you’ve got no case.
Absolutely not. Just try to tell me one more time I look like that fat, deformed blob, and see how I take it.
Of course, if in the next movie Lucas has Jar Jar driving a cab for the Fresh Air Taxicab Corporationwith his best friend Andy, married to a Gungan named Sapphire, and says, “Do de name Ruby Begonia ring a bell?” then you might have a point.
If you cry “Wolf!” too often, pretty soon nobody will believe you when a wolf does show up.
The aliens in episode one matched stereotypes, not actual people. I can believe that it was unintentional, but defending star wars seems to blind some people to the obvious.
If I say that Watto was reminiscent of the character Shylock, does that mean I am racist? No, it means I am observant enough to notice what was obvious.
The aliens in the original trilogy were alien, they couldn’t be compared to any stereotypes because more imagination went into them.
Before you go saying that I’m only seeing what I want to see, let me tell you I saw episode one on opening night. I had heard nothing to the effect that the alien races were stereotypes. I still saw it and was really dissapointed. I haven’t seen episode 2 yet, I will probably see it this week, but episode one was dissapointing enough (on many more levels than what we are discussing here) to keep me away from the opening weekend.
People talking about episode two may be seeing things, it sounds to me like they are. When I see it I can make up my own mind.
Kwjibo, you asked for the stereotypes. I gave them to you. And I’m not the only one who believes that they’re a bit suspicious.
The funny thing about stereotypes is that they are almost never true across the board. But the bad thing about stereotypes is that this almost never matters.
Now if you want to be silly and pretend that it’s crazy for someone to feel that the characters I listed may be just a little too cartoonized, you are entitled to believe so. But don’t make it seem like I’m racist just because I note the stereotypical imagery that might be in them. Knowing that stereotypes exists does not mean you automatically believe they are accurate. Denying they exist because you feel it’s racist to acknowledge them is STUPID.
You have Michael Wong to back you up. I have Peter Chen. The thing about op-ed pieces is that there’s an unlimited supply of them and ultimately they mean absolutely nothing.
Well if you want to make it personal, LaurAnge, make it personal.
I never once said that Watto looked like a Jew.
I said he fit the stereotypical image of a Jew. As in what you would see circa pre-WWII in Germany in certain anti-Semitic propaganda.
Aunt Jemima is a stereotype of black women. Admitting as much does not mean that I confess to looking like Aunt Jemima, red scarf and all. Do you now get my point or are you being dense on purpose?