Is "Attack of the Clones" racist?!

[Glenn X]

I have yet to see Attack of the Clones, so would those who have kindly do me a favor and answer the following question: Which character gets cloned in the film? Is it the guy seen on the right in the pic below?



If so, I just have to laugh.

I was watching The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News this week, and O'Reilly had a professor on from Wayne State University in Detroit, a one Mr. Jose Cuello, who was making the claim that Attack of the Clones was "racist." According to Cuello, a "dark-complected" character in the film (who Cuello was unable to identify by name) was cloned, giving rise to an army of "mindless brown people" who "represented America's fearful image of the rising tide of Hispanic migrant workers in the U.S."

Cue Dr. Evil soundbite: Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Cuello then went on to say that his claims were founded because the cloned character he was referring to was "obviously Hispanic or Third World-looking."

Third World-looking?! If a caucasian person went on national TV and declared that someone appeared to be "Third World-looking," they'd immediately be excoriated and dismissed as a racist. But Mr. Cuello, as a person of color, gets a free pass with regard to making such ignorant comments, I guess.

And make no mistake -- they are ignorant.

The above identified gentlemen in the pic from Attack of the Clones is actor Temuera Morrison, who is neither Hispanic nor from a Third World nation. He is of Maori ancestry and was born in New Zealand, which isn't a Third World country the last time I checked.

No worries, though, Mr. Cuello. Don't let a pesky thing like the facts get in the way of a good rant.

[Skins24]

LOL!!!!
Wow...
Someone buy that man a life!
I wonder what Lucas did to him to make him so jealous.

an army of "mindless brown people" who "represented America's fearful image of the rising tide of Hispanic migrant workers in the U.S."

:lol:
The quote of the century folks...

[gbear]

Yeah well, there were complaints about Episode 1 too. Evidently, people thought JarJar Binks character was made to sound too much like a black slave. Oy!

I guess there is somebody to complain about everything.

[Talent Wasted at a Desk]

My roommate thought the bounty hunter was Hispanic, too, although he is obviously Moari.

The trade federation aliens talk rike they're Chinese, and the banking federation alien looked "stereotypically" Jewish. And Jar-Jar speaks in a black Caribbean pidgin. And some of the elite death-star troopers in the first trilogy had helmets based on those of the Wehrmacht.

Besides, I always thought one of the beauties of sci-fi or fantasy is that you can easily escape any common prejudices. Lucas went in the opposite direction, one could argue.

[Golgo-13]

Hey...he said it, we didn't. Who's the mindless idiot?? It's pretty clear what this "Professor" is professing. Well I had my choice of law schools narrowed down to Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Wayne State, I guess this puts Wayne State out of the picture now.

[Funkyalligator]

With todays PC society anything can be taken out context and deemed to be racist or biased? It is sad part of society when a proud and honorable name such as the Redskins can be deemed racist.

[Glenn X]

Originally posted by Talent Wasted at a Desk
My roommate thought the bounty hunter was Hispanic, too, although he is obviously Moari.

The trade federation aliens talk rike they're Chinese, and the banking federation alien looked "stereotypically" Jewish. And Jar-Jar speaks in a black Caribbean pidgin. And some of the elite death-star troopers in the first trilogy had helmets based on those of the Wehrmacht.

Besides, I always thought one of the beauties of sci-fi or fantasy is that you can easily escape any common prejudices. Lucas went in the opposite direction, one could argue.

Firstly, I must confess that I knew Morrison was Maori because I'm somehwhat familiar with the man and his career, going all the way back to 1994's Once Were Warriors, where Morrison plays a violent, alcoholic husband and father struggling to reconcile the specter of his people's proud Maori warrior past with their decidedly dubious present as outcasts in modern-day New Zealand society.

To me, the Jar-Jar criticisms always struck me as the most grounded. If I close my eyes and just listen to Jar-Jar speak in The Phantom Menace, I can't help but conjure up in my mind those old, ignoble black minstrel images of Jim Crow and Sambo. However, I'm just as willing to admit that I hated the (deeply irritating) Jar-Jar character from the very first, so I may be going a tad overboard here in trying to find fault with him.

Overall, though, the charges of racism that have been levelled at both Episode I and Episode II strike me as being specious largely because George Lucas is about the most liberal, P.C., Bay Area/Northern California type of guy you're likely to come across. If there's any filmmaker who'd be apt to jettison or eschew some character and/or story element on the grounds that it may be perceived as racist, it's Lucas.

In the final analysis, I am reminded of something I once heard about the Bible: "When people give you their interpretations of the Bible, they think that they're telling you something about it. However, what they're really telling you is something about themselves, how they think and so on." I think the same is also true of any attempt at interpreting books, films, and other media. When Mr. Cuello slams Attack of the Clones as racist, what he's really telling us is less about the film itself and more about himself and his own views.

[GrimReaper21]

LOL. Great Stuff. Good find Glenn. And i suppose the Dark Side represents how colored people are evil, right DR.?

[Park City Skins]

Shortly after the original Star Wars,(Episode 4 ), came out, there was a charge of racism against George Lucas because there weren't any black major charactors,(or really any for that matter), in the movie. Needlessly to say, George vehemently denied the accusations. As for racism in episode 2, whatever. If one is looking for it or see's it, than it's possible one is as guilty of a certain amount of predjudice as the the next person, unless of course one is an offended party in question.....Yeeesh. If memory serves, Jar Jar's voice and occasional stand in on the set, (which was digitized over later), was and is done by an African American.

[Romo]

Originally posted by Glenn X
Firstly, I must confess that I knew Morrison was Maori because I'm somehwhat familiar with the man and his career, going all the way back to 1994's Once Were Warriors, where Morrison plays a violent, alcoholic husband and father struggling to reconcile the specter of his people's proud Maori warrior past with their decidedly dubious present as outcasts in modern-day New Zealand society.

I actually knew that too because I have seen that movie as well. Very good movie for those who havnt seen it. I was actually excited to see him in the movie.

Its kinda ridiculous to tie this to Hispanic migration. Im sure this same guy would be complaining if Lucas only had Whites in his movie. The precedent set by this statement could basically say that no directors should cast hispanics in "bad-guy" roles for fear of similar criticisms.

[The Evil Genius]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...kson_jar_jar_1

Well, here is the voice of reason. I think.


Jackson: Jar Jar Uproar Was 'Stupid'
Tue May 28, 9:13 AM ET

Samuel L. Jackson said he can sum up his feelings about the controversy over "Star Wars" character Jar Jar Binks in a single word — "stupid."

The actor, who has played Mace Windu in the past two "Star Wars" films, doesn't understand why people bristled at the gibberish-spewing comic foil who first appeared in "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace."

Some fans and film reviewers complained that the character echoed old Hollywood racial stereotypes. In reviewing "Phantom Menace" in 1999, Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern called Jar Jar "a Rastafarian Stepin Fetchit on platform hoofs, crossed annoyingly with Butterfly McQueen."

Jar Jar is back in "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones," but his role is diminished. He's also more serious, because in the 10 years between "Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones" the character has become a senator.

Jackson said people have read more into the part racially than they should have because the animated character was voiced by a black man, Ahmed Best.

"I thought it was pretty stupid," Jackson told reporters. "The fact that Ahmed was doing that character may have sent people to that place. But people want to find things, or they want to assign things to everything. And that's not always necessary."

Co-star Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin Skywalker in "Attack of the Clones," agreed.

"I think he's a fine character. Hopefully after seeing 'Episode II' they'll sort of realize his purpose in these films. Sometimes you need silly characters to do silly things," Christensen told reporters.

"They're aliens," Jackson said. "Let it go. Enjoy the movie."

[Henry]

If anyone actually WATCHED the freakin movies, they might notice that the evil Empire is made up of only white men, while the good Alliance is made up of men, women, blacks, whites, asians, and aliens of all shapes and sizes. If anything, Lucas goes out of his way to show how diversity is a strength and exclusion a weakness. Maybe that was too deep for the PC crowd.

[Terry]

If anything, Star Wars is racist towards the English.

All the really nasty (non-alien) characters are obviously English or have English accents - The Emporer, Dooku, even Vader's voice was English.

The officers of the death stars and star destroyers are all English.

The biggest moron - C3PO - is English.


Apparently, it's OK to imagine an Empire run entirely by English accented villains, yet except for a few Jedi (the really indoctrinated ones) the heroes have American accents.

[Yomar]

have you guys seen Encino Man? Here you have a caveman frozen in ice for thousands of years and when he gets thawed out he is the coolest, hippest dude around. Sorry, but if cavemen were really that hip and cool, those cats wouldn't have worn out the last of their 9 lives you dig? Just another example of the mis- and dis-information of the propganda machine as it churns out cheap treats like some bull Ezy-Bake Oven.

[Glenn X]

Originally posted by Terry
If anything, Star Wars is racist towards the English.

All the really nasty (non-alien) characters are obviously English or have English accents - The Emporer, Dooku, even Vader's voice was English.

The officers of the death stars and star destroyers are all English.

The biggest moron - C3PO - is English.

Speaking of the depiction of those with English accents in the Star Wars movies, anyone remember how Leia originially sounded in the first movie? She was running around with an English accent at first. Then she gets rescued by Luke and company, and all of a sudden she's speaking with an American accent. What was that all about?