Against my better judgement…
TV’s Frink said:
There’s no Israel on Tatooine but Watto is still a racial stereotype.Oh God… where do I begin ? Let’s give it a try :
- there is no jewish race (nazis believed that, sionists still believe that, but this is bullshit), so Watto can’t be a jewish racial stereotype ;
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Chosen-Genes/131481/
But put that aside for a moment. If I’m Jewish, but I’m not religious, what does that mean?
- Israel is a country with jewish people, muslims people, North African immigrants of jewish religion and of semitic ancestry, and European immigrants of jewish religion but not of semitic ancestry; so I don’t quite see the point of talking about Israel here since this is not a “full” jewish country nor a “full” semitic country, and which does not represent any race or stereotype that could be found in TPM ;
“Israel” was shorthand for “country with a lot of Jewish people.” Your point is irrelevant anyway, as my point was that it is irrelevant to state there aren’t any Asian stereotypes in TPM because only the Asian actors are Asian. Earth does not exist in the Star Wars universe.
- so Watto is, AT MOST, a semitic racial stereotype. Watto is a slaver and a bad guy, and he looks like a bad guy you could find in North Africa/Middle East (or in the Steptoe/Sanford reference provided by yotsuya). It’s not subtle (Jabba is a bad guy who looks like a bad guy) but I fail to see why this would be racist/antisemite.
How is a Semitic racial stereotype better than a Jewish racial stereotype? You’re just splitting hairs.
Also, read this:
yotsuya said:
And Watto… seriously? Jewish? Why, because of the hat in Episode II… the Don Quixote metal hat? No, he is Steptoe/Sanford - a stereotypical junk dealer, not a Jewish knockoff. Just look at the pics of Steptoe - the long nose, the frequent unshaven appearance, the bad teeth, the narrow face. Watto doesn’t have a beard, he has stubble. There is a big difference. No, you reading more into this than there is. And there are plenty of people in this world who love money who aren’t Jewish, so claiming that has anything connection is really ridiculous, especially since it is just one of the many parallels Watto has with Steptoe and Sanford.I read it. It’s ridiculous, just like everything else this person has posted on the subject. My favorite in that bit is “hey, Jews might love money, but other people do to, so it’s not a racial stereotype.” It fits right in with “the guy who played Jar Jar says it’s not a racial stereotype so it must not be” and “you can’t have an Asian stereotype if he’s too tall.”
Well, Jews and money is one of the oldest stereotypes around. And it is so not true. Look at Ivanho and Shakespeare vs. Fiddler on the Roof. Then look at Watto. Watto in Ep 2 is supposed to look more Jewish because of the hat and the beard… but it isn’t a beard, its whiskers showing how far he has fallen since TPM and the hat has more in common with Don Quixote than any piece of Jewish cultural haberdashery. I thought it looked like metal when I first saw it and I still think that. I actually thought it resembled a hat often worn by medieval catholic clergy (http://www.basilrathbone.net/films/robinhood/rh526.jpg). And I have to admit that when I think of Watto the only non-Star Wars person that comes to mind is Redd Foxx playing Fred Sanford, though he looks more like the original Steptoe.
And you mistake my small points for being final proof. The stereotype of an Asian is short. Just look at who they hired for Breakfast at Tiffany’s (a cringeworthy portion of an otherwise well made film). But then you closely examine the Nemoidian eyes (they really aren’t indicative of any human eye shape) their role in the movies (they are the bad guys but they have a trade franchise of the sort that is closer to OPEC than anything Asian - and if GL is supposed to be pulling from classic Hollywood you do not find Asians running powerful trade empires during that time). Then their is their accent. Totally not based on any Asian or fake Asian accent I’ve ever heard. And in fact, when you hear the actor playing Nute Gunray speak in his other major role in the PT, that actor delivers the lines of both parts similarly, with Nute’s dropped down an octive or so. So piece after piece when examined just destroys the idea that there was any intentional, accidental, or derived racial stereotyping in the Nemoidians.
And seriously, when you have an actor from the Caribbean who gets to make an iconic Star Wars role to make his own (much as Anthony Daniels did in ANH) and he ends up giving it a bit of Caribbean flavor (though it is far removed from any black stereotype found in Hollywood with unique speech patterns and a body replaced by CG) and he claims full responsibility for all the character traits, yet you blame GL for creating a racial stereotype. See, I can’t agree with that accusation. That is what I mean by what saying that what Ahmed Best says is good enough for me. And Anthony Daniels does not speak like C-3PO. He puts on the attitude of a prissy English butler (his own invention which worked so well that they had him redub the lines instead of another actor… and they tried many) and you can tell the difference in how he talks. Yet that character is safe from calls of stereotyping for doing pretty much the same thing Ahmed Best did.
Basically I don’t find the accusations fair. They are based on overly examining (and not doing the research to compare to real stereotypes) small points of a fictitious alien and then labeling the characters as racist caricatures and Lucas an unintentional racist (letting his love of the classic Hollywood era allow the old stereotypes to seep through).
And as someone else posted, you really have to be from the group being stereotyped to really be in a position to tell if it is offensive. Most of the people claiming it is offensive are from the same pool of White Americans as GL. Not really the group that should be leveling such a charge as that is the very group that has perpetuated these stereotypes.
The other topic in the above quote - about Israel - I don’t agree with. Israel is predominantly Jewish and is considered the Jewish state. There are many different slices of Jewish culture that are each very different but have many similarities (and to many outsiders they seem the same). It is also more of a culture than a religion as the religion is traditionally passed down in the family. Converts happen, but not that often.