Bingowings:
"Leia is hardly the usual damsel in distress (even in her metal bra) and the aliens in the OT aren't ethnic stereotypes of Earthly humans (with the possible exeption of Yoda who is basically every elderly martial arts master in character even if his voice is more Grover than Master Po).
The PT didn't just ignore PC it practically waved two CGI fingers up at it.
The female characters are there to either get captured or killed, aliens are either childish cartoons or something out of the a Bernard Manning routine and Threepio isn't just questionably fussy but as camp as Christmas."
Absolutely! Maybe they felt social politics had changed sufficiently so that Threepio could now be out and proud, rather than just a bit flamboyant.
As for ethnic stereotyping, I don't know that the PT is so much worse. There are the "black" dudes speaking jive in the cantina. And let's face it, in the OT, Chewie is treated like a smart dog (not Brian, mind) for most of it. Calling a hirsute fella a "walking carpet" is hardly PC, is it? Okay, so the PT has a greedy Jewish businessman, Japanese traders trying to take over, a black, slightly dim sidekick, a black mutha-fuckin' Jedi master who doesn't quite make it (still want to kill Lando?) and a damsel in distress who then is relegated to being a mother...
..damn, the PT really is bad.