Racism?

Rating: 8/10 (6 June 1999)

This is just a little comment about the supposed racism in this film. I personally did not find any of the characterizations very offensive, and enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It is true that Lucas bestowed on some of the races a very Earth-like culture, some of which were not flattering. However, I did not find the characterizations of Jar-Jar and his people racist, because I did not feel that they were portrayed in a negative way. They were supposed to be brave warriors, they weren't stupid, and Jar-Jar's clumsiness and ineptness did not afflict the entire race. It is true they were supposed to be somewhat primitive, but come on! How primitive can people with shield generators and spaceship-like boats that can go through the planet core be?
The characterizations of the Huts as mobster Italians can certainly be construed as racist, but if a person says that, then they must also condemn dozens of other movies where the gangster types are all Italians. I view the Huts Italian-ness is Lucas' way of instilling in the Huts a culture (or cultural stereotype) that we all know and understand, thus making it easy for us to understand the Huts.
To me, the most racist characterization in the film is that of the members of the Trade Federation, whatever race they are. It appears as if the inspiration behind their on-film culture is Japanese. Yet the members of the Trade Federation do not show any admirable characteristics. In fact, they don't seem to have much personality at all, other than obviously wanting to expand their territory at the expense of others, and being lackies to the future Emperor. Still, I don't believe we're supposed to think they're rotten and evil, so much as opportunists. But I may be wrong on that; maybe they are supposed to be dastardly.
However, I am still not offended. It seems to me that Lucas just wanted to make his different creatures distinct from each other in some respect other than appearance. To do this, he imparted Earth cultures onto them, rather than creating new ones, which would no doubt resemble Earth cultures anyway. The problem in doing this is he has to pick cultures that we can recognise, that are distinct from our own Western culture, and consequently, when his creatures do bad things, some people associate these fictious creatures with real cultures and cry racism. All I can say is that the main characters, i.e. Obi-Wan, Anakin etc., are pretty western, and they aren't all good. Anakin goes on to slaughter all kinds of people, as does the Emperor. However, because there are so many of these western characters in the films, one bad one does not get generalised to the entire group. No one screams that the movies are sexist because all the bad guys are men either. I don't think people should take movies so seriously. Put the Political Correctness alarm away for 2 hours, and you'll find movies are much more enjoyable. If there is something absolutely despicable in a movie, then fine, complain about racism. But I don't think that applies to this movie. But then, I'm just some western white girl, so what would i know?