This article from Wookieepedia describes the racist workings of the Galactic Empire. There are a few theories about Emperor Palpatine being xenophobic (one who doesn't like non-humans) and that he carries out this ideology galactically when the Empire comes to power, promoting humans as the dominant species. It could symbolize basically any historical supremacist leader that pushed down other races within society, represented through the classic science-fiction role of reflecting the real world in their fictional universes.
http://www.stardestroyer.net/Empire/Essays/Racism.html
This essay discusses the presence of racial stereotypes within certain characters throughout the Star Wars saga. In addition to the racism suspected to be part of the actual storyline, there are numerous theories and questions suggesting that it is ingrained in the writing and production of the movie. Further than just having a racist galactic dictator, the Star Wars movies have been criticized for inherently promoting the white male over minorities and women. Personally, I'm familiar with the argument about the main characters all being white men (Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker etc.) but this idea about aliens representing racial stereotypes is new and frightening.
I picked these two articles because they relate to something that I am passionate about. Star Wars is unquestionably my favorite object of study, and the fact that it's already been questioned as a "socially unjust" media piece made this project delightful to carry out. I haven't really delved into any other research or personal insight on if the galaxy becomes socially just at the conclusion, so there's some room for expansion there. The presence of racism in Star Wars is important to me because it combines something I enjoy recreationally with what I'm studying in class.
Questions:
- Why is Star Wars the best movie?
- Do you think that the suspected racism in Star Wars was an accidental result of the era it was made in, or a deliberate challenge of the racism existing in our society?
- Does the victory of the Jedi/Rebellion also represent a victory of social justice? Or is it one white supremacy replacing another?
- Are the "stereotypes" mentioned in the second article a valid and unquestionable argument, or is their existence based on individual opinion?
(I'm going to respond primarily to question 2) I think the apparent racism in Star Wars is a testament to how tricky it can be to represent a story of overcoming oppression when you are writing from an oppressive society. It is hard to escape our own deeply ingrained social upbringing, so even though we can see stories like the rebels' triumph over the empire as a victory on the side of the oppressed, the fact that even within the rebellion (at least, it can be argued) there exist internal unjust power dynamics shows that we can't easily transcend the overarching mentality of our time period.
ReplyDeleteSo, I think it is a product of its time, and I think they tried to create characters that challenged the norms--like Leia, a very powerful, assertive, and level-headed political woman--but fell short in a lot of cases.
If you look at Star Trek (I'm sorry, I hope I'm not treading on your toes by bringing that up) Gene Roddenberry--and really, the whole cast and crew--did an exceptional job, especially for the 60s, at being inclusive and portraying characters of different genders, races, and nationalities (Ensign Chekov?? a Russian character played by a second generation Russian immigrant, in the 60s?????) and I think what sets it apart is that everyone involved in the show was extremely aware of what they were doing. I don't mean this as an insult to the Star Wars franchise at all, but they were much more interested in the Space Epic appeal than in being super subversive. It may have been in the back of their minds, but it wasn't their main goal, while with Star Trek, everyone knew that they were doing something revolutionary. Star Trek featured the first televised interracial kiss, for example, and throughout various episodes the crew (of the Enterprise, I mean) confronts numerous issues of ethics and discrimination between alien species of different cultures.
I don't think Star Wars did a whole lot to actively challenge racism, but I think it shows us a lot about the thinking of the time, and what a victory of the underdog sort of meant to us as a culture.
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ReplyDeleteI'm going to start off by pointing out that question number 1 is flawed, sorry Nick Star Wars is not the best movie. Batman all the way. In regards to question number 2, I believe the suspected racism was not intentional, but rather as the author of the article states, "such tenuous reverse racial associations reveal more about your [their] own racism than they do about the subject matter." As mentioned by the author, sometimes people purposely seek out hints of underlying racism contorting things to fit into their beliefs. I agree with the author in that by connecting certain traits, characteristics, and aspects of a certain race those who do this are furthering stereotypes. It is nearly impossible to bring to life a fictional character that is not a human being without inserting human characteristics because they are being portrayed by humans. As Sami mentioned, the movie wasn’t created to put out a political and social statement, but racism was a big theme during the 1990s so it was reflected within the movie. Upon further research, I found out that George Lucas wrote the script in 1994 which was adapted from an outline from 1976. The 1900s as a whole for America was a time when African Americans were struggling to gain an equal status as white citizens. The idea of one group of people being oppressed by another is at theme that has existed since the beginning, so it is not hard to connect a movie about a species being oppressed to historical events. Although the overarching theme may be connected, George Lucas had no intention of creating a species to emulate races.
ReplyDelete4. I think the points that the author makes in the second article are quite valid, and I especially liked the part preceding the star wars piece about how lumping people together as Asian-Americans and African-Americans is racist, even if it is trying to be politically correct. Back to the star wars piece, the author makes good points that it seems like the critics are just grasping at straws. The problem is that the stereotypes (whether they are actually there or not) are quite prevalent in US film and television so it is hard to argue that the critics are always grasping at straws and aren't actually seeing a pattern of underlying racism in media, which there very well could be. But that trend could also be occurring because it is simply what gets money. Getting into the economics of film making, you want to put out what will get people to the box office, and what will get people to spend money on merchandise. The box office is only a portion of how movie studios make money. People want to see the protagonists as relatable, and since the majority of the country is white, they'll relate better to white protagonists. It's also simply easier to vilify characters that aren't relatable. So could there be an underlying pattern of racism? yes, but it could also very easily be a formula that tends to make money and not an undercurrent of racism.
ReplyDelete