Saga Empire/First Order, a White Supremacist Organization

Given the definition of the term and the comical nature of supposing that the already racist Galactic Empire that commits genocide on a cataclysmic scale is somehow made even a little more evil by being white supremacists (when there's no in-universe cultural reason for them to be), I think this is a pretty apt place to use "SJW". That's just my opinion, though.

 

I thought the FO is far less racist and sexist than the empire. In TFA the FO had female and minority troops and officers which the empire in the films did not have. The closet being the female republic pilot who gets blown up in the beginning of TPM. Other than her, the later empire where all white male officers, and I assume cloned male troops. The FO, which is supposed to be much worse and more evil than the empire is strangely more equal, likely due to marketing.

 

Well since the Third Reich eventually conscripted and sometimes enlisted non-Aryan peoples from conquered lands, does show that the Nazis weren't racist?

 

I don't think calling the Empire a racist organization is fair or true, given that in canon, one of it's admirals is a black female, and in Legends, there was a black Moff. Now, would it be fair to say that the Empire, even in the new canon, is still anti-alien (despite employing non-human Inquisitors)? Absolutely, given how Wookiees are treated, although the new canon Empire seems to be a more "equal opportunity oppressor", if you will, as opposed to its Legends counterpart (where there were only two high ranking female officials of note and no alien Inquisitors or Emperor's Hands).

 

Just like real-life racist dictatorships, the empire may recruit minorities out of need, but usually only white males receive the highest ranks, maybe with some exceptions.

 

Well, I am pretty sure I saw a lot of women in the command room at Starkiller base and they looked pretty official to me and there were also quite a few non-white humans there as well. I think the First Order is a Humans-First organization.

 

No, the Empire is not a white supremacist organization, because in current canon, they have not been shown as discriminating against certain members of the human species on the basis of race (as a matter of fact Rae Sloane, a black woman, is a prominent character in the EU and even becomes Grand Admiral post-Endor). As others have said in this thread already, most racism is interspecies rather than intraspecies, and the Empire has never taken kindly to non-humans, although they have made exceptions (i.e. Grand Admiral Thrawn).

 

No I do not agree that both the Legends GE & nucanon GE are a "white supremacy organization".

As pointed out there was a black Grand Moff. There was also a Force sensitive Black Grand Admiral who died at Endor. There was another GA who looked middle eastern at least in the comics.

Of course the nucanon haves Rae Sloane, the "face" leader of the GE!

Someone over a LFL sounds like they haven't gotten over the election.

 

A white supremecist organisation with black Stormtroopers?

Human Supremecist you may be on to something, though Snoke is apparently not human so who knows

 

They have a similar mentality to white supremacists, but I don't think -- in the Star Wars world -- that they discriminate based on color. If they discriminate, I think it would be based on species. Books I have read have mentioned that the Empire is biased towards humans, not white people!

But, in our world......

George Lucas is white, so -- of course -- there was some white bias. He certainly didn't think to include different races in his movies (unlike Star Trek). I don't think, however, that this should be attributed to the worlds in Star Wars.

And, I don't think the writers of Rogue One should bring color into a world so full of other species that people wouldn't logically bother talking about such a trivial topic!

It seems like they're trying to tie Rogue One to today's issues, and it's not even accurate to Star Wars!!!

 

I think we can see the Empire as analogous to whatever set of unpleasant groups and views are prevalent at the time of viewing.

 

Yeah, let's do that no matter how ham-fisted, cringeworthy, impractical and stupid it is.

 

Human supremacy for sure. The only high-ranking nonhuman in the Empire that I know of is Grand Admiral Thrawn. In the case of the First Order, it's the near-human Supreme Leader Snoke. I don't think white supremacy is a factor at all. Just because most Imperial Officers we see are white doesn't mean the Empire is racist. I think it goes to our real-world politics of depiction in fiction, not discrimination by the Empire.

 

Jedha City and one particular American political party have lots in common.

 

I don't know if it's necessary to headcanon the Empire and First Order as [insert group here] supremacist or sexist in the way the modern world is. Modern white supremacy is only about 400 years old, mind you, and it's not like that mindset is everywhere. I personally think it makes more sense to imagine the Empire and the First Order as 'pragmatically evil'. So they'll enslave Wookiees and Twileks, for example, but they won't do it because they think that those are 'lower life-forms', they'll do it because it's practical. They might come up with some 'we are better' ideology to make that more palatable to your average citizen, but I don't think the spin doctors themselves are going to believe it.

And as for the Emperor himself, I don't think he'd be sexist or racist so much as an extreme (and gleeful) sociopath and misanthrope. All other life forms would be 'pathetic' to him. At best, they'd be tools.

Which is not to say that one can't or shouldn't head canon some kind of ideological discrimination in the Empire or First Order, just that it isn't necessary to do so. Since they've both blown up entire planets, that's more than enough evil.

 

Well the designs and weapons were from the Nazis, but nothing StarWars reminds me of white supremacists. The Empire certainly were racist towards Aliens, but before the Empire the Republic were prejudice against Aliens. Palpatine had Ameeda and Thrawn helping him, so I don't feel it racism stems from the Sith. Rae Sloan was Grand Admiral and she was a Black Woman.

 

I don't think the prevalence of white males in the Empire in the OT can be put down simply to a lack of thought in the casting, since the rebellion in those same movies does have some non-white, female, and alien representation. This is especially true in ROTJ, where the rebellion is depicted as finally coming into its own. I think it was a deliberate choice. So is the Empire a white supremacist organization? Functionally, as depicted specifically in the OT (and not considering more modern things like Rebels), probably yes, even if their exact ideology presumably is not one for one match with that of real-world white supremacists (there must be some ideology though or there wouldn't be such a contrast between the Imperials and rebels). Though I think fascist is a better term to describe the Empire, since it also suggests the nature of their political system and the preeminent role of the military in the state.

 

Isn't this entire thread a product of someone's inane attempt at shoehorning modern politics into Star Wars to the detriment of the setting's logic anyway for the reasons that several others and I have stated?

 

Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Sith Inquisitors, are all imperial agents (the Inquisitors only worked directly for Palpatine, but did interact with the Empire). Not to mention that they did associate and hire bounty hunters and various aliens to do off the record work.