PT Why do people say The Phantom Manace is racist?

When it comes to this issue, on the one hand, I can see why some would be offended by some of the CGI characters. But I don't really think that Lucas in any way was trying to disparage anyone. Rather, I think he was likely inspired from older forms of media that had those racist elements. I do know for Jar Jar, for example, Lucas was inspired by not only Goofy but Charlie Chaplin and he does tend to incorporate many elements from older works that he likes and so I can see where some of the racism of the times can carry over.

But when I look at the prequel trilogy, for example, I'm often surprised at how little Lucas gets praised for how diverse it is.

When it comes to the three leads, I think Lucas made the only choices he could there. Obi-Wan had to look like a young Alec Guinness (and Ewan McGregor was perfect for the part) while Padmé was portrayed by a brown-haired, brown-eyed Jewish actress (just like Leia was). And then Luke and Anakin were blond and blue-eyed.

Shmi was also white (being Anakin's mother). And then there were small parts such as the Larses who were also played by white people in the original trilogy.

But then, when it came to other characters (both major and minor), the cast was very diverse.

Mace Windu played by a black man
Bail Organa played by a Latino man
Jango and Boba Fett played by Maori men
Queen Jamillia played by an Indian woman
Captain Panaka played by a Black man
Captain Typho played by a Samoan man

Many of the villains (barring Jango and Boba), admittedly, were less racially diverse. Palpatine, Dooku, and Zam Wessel were played by two white men and a white woman respectively.

But the only major character I can think of who was white when he could have been a different race was Qui-Gon Jinn. And the reason I think that Lucas decided on that was 1: Liam Neeson and 2: Lucas has always been a very visual person and I think he wanted to suggest that Qui-Gon was Anakin's father figure by making him look like his biological father (similar to how Palpatine, another white man, is a father figure). And given that Anakin is white, Lucas thus chose a white actor to portray Qui-Gon.

Like here, Qui-Gon and Shmi almost look like Anakin's parents watching over him:

 

I don't know about that, but I will say one of friends has an equally strong Scottish accent and me and my other buddies have been making him say "Tell that to Kanjiklub" over and over for the last 3 weeks : D

 

correction: people used to be sensitive. now they are oversensitive.

 

I am starting to like you, TJT.

You could be my favourite misanthrope after myself.

 

how dare you!

 

I think the father imagery could still have worked wonderfully even if Qui-Gon was played by a black man, or a man of any other race. I really do think it was just a matter of Lucas wanting Liam Neeson for the role.

That's it. Liam Neeson is white, and Lucas liked him for the role. Nothing nefarious about it. It happens.

 

Liam Neeson is one of the best parts of TPM. He honestly holds the whole thing together in parts where it could have been A LOT worse without him

 

And the rest of the world must suffer for it. God forbids we get to make what we want without fear of the metaphorical gun being pressed against our skulls for not catering to xyz group. Black, white, gay, Jewish, Hindu, deformed, disabled, man, woman, it doesn't matter. Make the CHARACTER likable and well-rounded. If them being different is part of the story, that's OK. If not, if they just so happen to be a gay/deformed/Jewish/woman, that's perfectly fine as well.

As I've always heard told to me in creative writing forums: "Don't make a character xyz for the sake of having xyz in your story."

 

I would say Liam's Qui-Gon is one of the best parts of the entire PT and the Saga. His portrayal just immediately assumed its place among the SW hall of heroes.

 

We live in a world where people get upset if you say "Happy Holidays" like it means you hate jesus or something... the world is a funny place

 

I say Seasons Greetings. People must assume I'm a pagan.

Happy Equinox!

 

i was actually was leaving a doctor's office a couple weeks back and i said, "have a good, uh, whatever" and everyone in the room started chuckling.

 

I'm just gonna say, "Happy Life Day!"



...er...I should start running now, right?

<sighs> Yep. You can always count on people to find the most sinister, insidious, heinous thing in the most mundane/innocent thing ever. <facepalms>

 

Nothing overly-sensitive about it.

The Nemoidans/Trade Federation characters are blatant caricatures of Asian people, accents and costumes in all.
Jar Jar has a Caribbean accent and behaves like something out of a minstrel show.
Watto visually resembles anti-semitic depictions of jews. He's also greedy, etc.

It doesn't mean George Lucas is racist. But these movies do feature characters that perpetuate negative stereotypes about several races/ethnicities. It's an ugly stain on the prequels, future generations of filmgoers will judge them harshly and rightfully so.

That being said, it's not exclusively a problem with the prequels. The "Sand People" of a ANH might deserve criticism, amongst others.

 

Just to be clear here, are there actual Jews, blacks, and Asians who are offended over these characters? And also, are there actual Jews, blacks, and Asians who are NOT offended over these characters? 'Cause here's the thing, saying that everyone from Group XYZ is one thing or another is wrong. Patronizing a group of people, treating them like fragile eggshells is just as offensive as blatant cruelty. You may not be beating the **** out of them, or actively mocking them, but I'm not sure they all want to be treated like walking porcelain dolls. They want to be treated like, y'know, rational logical human beings who can distinguish the difference between blatant racism/bigotry and a bunch of weird looking alien creatures from a sci-fi movie. They probably don't want to have a bunch of people not from their group (usually white folks) getting offended on their behalf.

Just putting it out there: just because a few are offended, doesn't mean all of them are.

 

I asked another user how the Neimoidians clothes are racist but he never replied back so please show me how their costumes somehow are racist?

star wars characters aren't racist because of some characters somewhat over exaggerated accents.

 

I'm a European non-native English speaker. Can someone explain this racism thing to me? Is this something only anglophone people understand? How is characters having accents racist?

 

I'll be happy to explain the best I can:

See, back in the old days, it was common to stereotype Asians as these yellow-skinned, slanted-bugged-eyed people who pronounced their 'r's as 'l's and vice versa: For example, “You creary don't understand how wlong you are. Our invasion is pelfectry regar.” Basically, it was depicting Asians as these funny looking people who talked weird. Sometimes they would even have the caricature characters speak halted English like, “I no take candle. Candle burns up tapestry. Very dangerous.” Over time, as the stereotypes of Asians became a big NO-NO, out pops the Nemodians who have the eyes and a peculiar accent. Some naturally thought this was Lucas taking a dump on Asian people.

As for Jar-Jar, well, this is more of an American thing. See, way back in the bad old days of segregation and Jim Crow (long ass story), it was considered OK among the white population to make fun of blacks in what was termed 'minstrel shows'. White people would put makeup on to make themselves look black and do an over exaggerated walk and talk like they were unintelligent. Basically portraying blacks as stupid, unintelligent people. Now, with the stereotypes being seen as heinously racist, out pops Jar-Jar Binks with his exaggerated walk and “Ex-SQUEEZE me! Meesa called Jah-Jah Binks!” talk and the film shows him to be clumsy and stupid, a lot of people were reminded of the bad old days and dubbed Lucas as racist. The fact that the actor doing Jar-Jar was black didn't help matters.

Hope this helps

 

Not a perfect comparison, but you can clearly see that Nute Gunray's costume riffs on the style of clothing historically worn by Japanese nobility, particularly the robes and ornate headdress.

Also consult pages 13-16 of this article.

But honestly though, the clothing isn't even the worst part; his accent is blatantly Asian, he speaks in a broken English dialect and mispronounces "Rs" and L's." What more would it take to convince you he's clearly racist? Slanted eyes? Buck teeth? I think George Lucas is brilliant, but I have no idea what the hell he was thinking with this one.

 

Stardestroyer.net essay on this subject:

http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Racism.html

It seems to me to be an extremely stretched interpretation - - especially when it comes to Lando and Mace.
It'd be interesting to hear what Cryogenic thinks though.

 

So now Vader is racist as well? And Lando? What kind of article is that and how am i supposed to take it seriously?

Also that hat in your picture barely look anything like Nute Gunrays and his fellow Neimoidians hats. If these clothes are racist, are jedi robes racist to munks?

And like i said in my comment "star wars characters aren't racist because of some characters somewhat over exaggerated accent".

 

Apparently it's a thesis that person wrote as part of their Master of Arts degree.

 

Thank you for the explanation.

I grew up with almost no knowledge of that kind of stereotypes. The only stereotype I was familiar with was the one from Nazi caricatures depicting Jews in my history books. But I don't understand how would Watto represent a greedy Jew given that one of Lucas' closest friends is Jewish. Why would Lucas do such thing? I see no other explanation for the accents except they wanted to show us that creatures in a GFFA speak languages different from the common one or at least they tried to do that with the accents instead of inventing new languages, like those in LOTR or GoT.

 

I'm going to admit:

I don't hear the Asian accent in the Neimoidians, but then again, I was more familiar with the City Wok guy from South Park being the typical Asian stereotype.
I don't hear the Caribbean accent in Jar Jar, in fact he seems more like an oaf than a caricature.
Watto never seemed Jewish to me at all. In fact, growing up, I honestly thought he had more of a Middle Eastern vibe than a Jewish one.

 

Not detected any racist elements in anything to do with Star Wars.