I’m here in your computer (yes yours, Greg) today to talk about two of my favorite things: Star Wars video games and subtle racism. Well, to be honest, I’m actually going to talk about “speciesism”(apparently not a word in my spell check), but I’ll get into that little difference later. Some of you reading this may be aware that many of George Lucas’ movies have come under fire as supporting racist stereotypes. Most famous were accusations that the Gungans (strangely, also not a word) and the Neimoidians were insultingly stereotypical representations of African Americans and Asians, respectively. There are also those out there who tend to think that the entire Star Wars universe sets itself up as a racially driven narrative.
These theoretical racist undertones in the movies are a little hard to swallow, as a lot of assumptions of intention are needed before you can even begin to take them seriously. But for those of you who have spent hundred of hours combing the swamps and bars of Star Wars video games, it doesn’t take much looking to see that race/species is the largest determining factor in the galaxy. One would think that this fact would be a wildfire topic on the internet, but a quick search for related keywords only brought up this colorful/childish post, that ended up just being a dirty joke troll.
So, I will once more take on the daunting task of fixing the world with my words as I discuss exactly how Star Wars video games are some of the most racist popular media available.
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5 Comments
To call the Empire the progeny of the Sith isn’t right. The Sith (the actual species) are alledgely wiped out long before Palpatine joins what is by then essentially a religious order – in fact is has been a religious order since the title Sith was used to apply to anyone descended from people aligned to the original Sith Empire.
Other than that, you’re right. Star Wars does create it’s own stereotypes, but then again it’s not a piece of utopian fiction either. So it shouldn’t be held to ransom for it.
Interestingly, there were some people on the SWTOR forums who were quite upset when the new legacy system meant you could have Sith Pureblood’s become Jedi. They seemed genuinely offended with the notion that Bioware would allow any Sith Purebloods to have motives aligned to the Jedi. It was a very small minority who complained, but even so, it does reinforce some of your points.
There’s a big difference between race in our world and race in the Star Wars world. Their races cannot interbreed, and so they naturally have strong specialisations (Humans have only clines, and while on average some are smarter or stronger than others, there is far more variation within than between.), making some more suitable for jobs than others. For example, humans can’t pod race for the most part as they lack the quick reflexes (SW:E1).
The second thing is that humans are necessary in fantasy/sci fi in order for us to get absorbed into the media. Putting us at the head of the flock empowers us and is part of why Star Wars is so popular. Appropriately, black and white human hold no less significance in the star wars universe.
The reality, of course, is that were we to discover other sentient life forms, they would probably be better than us at some things and worse at others, or even worse or better at everything. This would most certainly restrict employment for each race.
As for life debts – perhaps those species are superior to us in this sense, as they are shown to have a stronger concept of justice and honour than SW humans.
Remember that though humans are most of the heroes of Star Wars, they are also most of the villains.
We’ve all known this since…forever. We still don’t care. So what else is new?
It is your continued support, caring, and engaging feedback that gives me the strength to come home and write, despite being beckoned to my bedroom by my totally supermodel girlfriend laying on a mountain of cash.
hey man,
you do know that lucas based SW on flash gordon/30s scifi serials right?
and 30s scifi stuff due to the time it was made, was inherently racist to begin with?
right?