[Slade]

Yeah, they look like stupid, stupid robots to me. And everybody knows the Japanese are all smart.

[Rhubarb]

jariten - Ummmmmmmmm why?

[jariten]

Ummmmmmmmm why?

Why do I find that comment offensive? Are you serious?

[Chefelf]

How are the Trade Federation "obviously Japanese"? I find that comment far more offensive than anything in Lucas' universe.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't know. I've never understood why people think they're Japanese. I thought they were doing lousy French accents the first time I saw the movie.

At any rate they're just plain dumb.

As far as Lucas being a racist, they've been saying this for years. You can read racism into ANYTHING if you try hard enough. Aside from Lucas not doing the best job of casting minorities I see no indication (other than reading things into it) that he has any ill feelings towards any race.

Anyone in his position will be criticized unjustly for things like this. Things that Lucas undoubtedly hadn't given a second's thought until people started bringing it up.

[Rhubarb]

As far as Lucas being a racist, they've been saying this for years. You can read racism into ANYTHING if you try hard enough.

Yeah, sure. But with Lucas' latest, you don't really have to try very hard. I don't usually pick up on this kind of stuff until someone points it out to me, and I certainly never saw anything especially racist in the three original films. But watching Phantom Menace I was squinting at the screen going, "Dude... what the fuck?" Not to disbelieve your claim that the TF sounded like they had French accents, but when I first heard them, I totally thought Lucas had been trying to characterise corporate Japanese. It didn't occur to me that he might be making Japanese out as evil. I just thought he was doing some really bad stereotyping joke. I didn't see any evil Jewness with the slaveowner, I just thought he sucked. And I didn't see that much black stereotyping with Jar Jar on my first viewing, but he did totally remind me of the annoying wacky black comic relief in films like Rush Hour.

And Jariten - bite me. If I point out that Fagin is a pretty stereotypical interpretation of Jews, does this make me racist for drawing comparisons when more innocent and pure-minded people would have seen no similarity?

[civilian_number_two]

And Jariten - bite me. If I point out that Fagin is a pretty stereotypical interpretation of Jews, does this make me racist for drawing comparisons when more innocent and pure-minded people would have seen no similarity?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Trade Federation aliens are not Japanese; they are generic "yellow peril," possibly Chinese or Korean as well as Japanese. They round their 'r's and 'l's, and worry about being impetuous, they are cowardly but obsessed with money. That is pretty characteristic of the depictions of Asians prevalent in the 30s and 40s. And nobody could pick on you for mentioning that Fagan was Jewish; Fagan was Jewish, and a thief, and that's Dickens's problem, not yours. In Dickens's defence, though, Bill Sykes was worse in just about every way, and Christian, so you can go a long way saying Fagan's Jewishness is a character trait, not a caricature. Lucas's aliens are all uniformly racial caricatures, right down to the slanted eyes and the coke-bottle glasses; Christ, they even wear the long robes and headdresses of Ming the Merciless.

[Ham Salad]

Who the hell cares? Stereotypes exist, and every color, creed, race and ethnicity has one. One suggestion: deal with it. I like GL for not being PC or even better, oblivious to the PC BS.The Empire are detrimentally arrogant, evil royal obsessed war mongering Englishman hell bent on being overlords. I'm going to go cry, how insensitive! BUT HOW G_D DAMNED TRUE!

Stop whining already...

[jariten]

slanted eyes and coke bottle glasses?

Theres a big difference in saying the Feds are "typical Japanese" and a "typical portrayal of a stereotypical Japanese" (they arent either, by the way). How are the Feds "obsessed with money"? They are greedy, but greed in the bad guys is everywhere, from Anakin to the Feds to Sidious. Lucas has staked that particular facet of human nature out as the thing that brings the galaxy, and Anakin down.

They wouldve have been greedy characters regardless of the accent Lucas gave them, not because of it.

[barend]

How are the Trade Federation "obviously Japanese"? I find that comment far more offensive than anything in Lucas' universe.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yeah... they were totally Korean!!!



-----------

look, to suggest that Lucas interweaves some racially biased agenda into this story is proposterous.

he's not that smart.

i won't deny there is an obvious narrow view of the world that is inherintly finding it's way to the surface of his work, but i don't think it's intentional.

ultimatley, your talking about a story written from the perspective of a white middle american farm boy... who grew up in the 50s and 60s when a majority of white america was portraying everyone else in a sinister or submissive manner.
it's social conditioning, and no amount of superstrength shampo is going to completely wash that shit out...

i'm not completely absolving him of responsibilty, i just think he has bigger things to answer for... because aat the end of the day the hero is going to be someone he can identify with....

i don't know if you guy's have ever watched any hong kong kung fu films, but if there's a white guy in them, he's ALWAYS a bad guy... (excluding John Saxon).
why? because the local boy is always going to be the hero!

it's human nature, i wouldn't call the makers of all those golden harvest films racist, would you?

it happens in all films everywhere...

George Lucas using racial stereotypes as architypes for alien races isn't racism, IT'S LAZINESS!!!

(and don't anyone even think about starting to bash tolkien...)

[civilian_number_two]

slanted eyes and coke bottle glasses?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes. Remember I didn't say they were Japanese, but "yellow peril." Japanese people look like people. "Yellow peril" are caricatures of people from Asia, and slanted eyes, buck teeth, coke bottle glasses, are among the many caricatures. Look at some comic books from the 40s. Lucas's TF aliens look just like the guys that comic book artists were drawing back then to depict Asian men.

The TF aliens may not be a racist caricature, but what an aesthetic to replicate. Hard to draw any other conclusion.

[Ham Salad]

Yes.  Remember I didn't say they were Japanese, but "yellow peril."  Japanese people look like people.  "Yellow peril" are caricatures of people from Asia, and slanted eyes, buck teeth, coke bottle glasses, are among the many caricatures.  Look at some comic books from the 40s.  Lucas's TF aliens look just like the guys that comic book artists were drawing back then to depict Asian men.

The TF aliens may not be a racist caricature, but what an aesthetic to replicate.  Hard to draw any other conclusion.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Conclusion: It's a cheesy sci-fi franchise for children that bored adults want to dissect and extricate deeper meaning from.

Yeah, because we all know that Lucas has been busy sketching all the alien creatures in the time between ROTJ and TPM. Man, that guy never delegates creativity, no wonder why we had to wait almost 30 years.

Some advice:
Put your tin foil shovel down and quit digging.

[Patrick Bateman]

Fuck that, I like digging

The Star Wars films are undeniably rascist.
Perhaps in the next re-re-re-release he should correct all this and spend less time pissing himself over Han Solo's Jabba tail antics

[barend]

the important thing is, out of all the stereo types that the storm troopers are always white.

[Slade]

Hear hear!

[jariten]

You've got a strong argument Civ, the problem is that it bears little resemblence to what actually goes on in the film.