PT The Phantom Menace - Is It Racist?

Dandelo · May 13, 2019

topgoalscorer_no11 said: ↑

There's to be plenty of real racism to get justifiably angry about, so there's no need to whip up this kind of thing where it doesn't exist - it also risks discrediting more worthwhile examples of racial stereotyping by making it easy for them to be aligned with this wingnut Watto and Clones stuff. I genuinely believe it's hugely detrimental.
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And that wraps that up

very well said.

Green_Destiny_Sword · May 14, 2019

topgoalscorer_no11 said: ↑

Green_Destiny_Sword said: ↑

Please, please, please. Having “friends” of a certain ethnicity does not exonerate one from doing or saying something racist.
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Perhaps not, but I'm confused as to why you've put 'friends' in quotation marks. What's that meant to indicate? That because some have made a rather tenuous claim that Watto is a Jewish stereotype, Lucas doesn't really have any Jewish friends, only 'friends'? Odd. Anyway...

The actor who played Watto is on record as saying this:

When I got a call there was an audition for loads and loads of voices. I auditioned and asked what they were looking for! I was told that George had an idea of the second hand car salesman. So, I came up with (talks like Watto) “Hey, how yer doing”; that kind of voice. I don’t know why I came up with that, it was the first thing that came out.

In the same interview, he also says he's 'Italian'.

So Lucas didn't come up with the accent, he just rubber-stamped it at a time he was no doubt busy with a thousand other things. If you take the accent out of the equation, then you're really left only with Watto's nose - but it's not a nose, it's really a vestigial trunk, if you look at it properly. It certainly does not align very directly with Nazi propaganda images of Jewish people, which is the conclusion that the 'Watto-as-racist-caricature' theorists are drawing. My verdict? No case to answer for Watto.

I remember when Attack of the Clones came out, some complained that the Clones were a racist stereotype meant to demonise Mexican immigrants - read the link here, the story remains amusing and instructive : http://www.screamingpickle.com/members/SW/detroit_racist_panel_episode_II.htm. The fact that Temeura Morrison is Maori just doesn't register with people who can't escape the recurring nightmare of US identity politics.

There's to be plenty of real racism to get justifiably angry about, so there's no need to whip up this kind of thing where it doesn't exist - it also risks discrediting more worthwhile examples of racial stereotyping by making it easy for them to be aligned with this wingnut Watto and Clones stuff. I genuinely believe it's hugely detrimental.
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With all due respect, nothing you said address my point. Having "friends" of a certain ethnicity does not exonerate one from being racist.

topgoalscorer_no11 · May 14, 2019

Green_Destiny_Sword said: ↑

With all due respect, nothing you said address my point. Having "friends" of a certain ethnicity does not exonerate one from being racist.
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Oh I agree with you - but I think you're making an error with the quotation marks. People can be lifelong friends (not 'friends') with people of other races, and still say and do racist things. The world's a big complex place, with room for nuance.

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PT The Phantom Menace - Is It Racist?

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Green_Destiny_Sword Force Ghost

topgoalscorer_no11 Jedi Grand Master