Is America's Most Popular Movie Racist?

For over twenty year's George Lucas's epic vision has inspired millions of Americans. Despite mixed reviews, his newest contribution to the story of the battle between the Force and the Dark Side is even more successful than the first three movies. Excited fans camped out on sidewalks to ensure that they would have opening night tickets. Audiences remembered and relived the first time they encountered Luke, Han, Leia, R2D2, C3PO, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Darth Vader. Customers gobbled up action figures, t-shirts, and collectibles. Everyone, it seemed, wants to be part of the Star Wars universe. 
But what kind of universe is this? Might there be a phantom menace to The Phantom Menace? 

Characters

  • Jar-Jar Binks--easily the most exaggerated (and hated) character in the film, this clumsy Gungan seems to combine a Jamaican accent and Rasta hairstyle, bell-bottomed pants and a "pimp walk," with a Sambo or Step-in-Fetchit eagerness to please. That his "Mesa" sounds like "Master" adds to the problem.
  • Watto--Anakin Skywalker's owner has features evoking Nazi depictions of Jewish merchants. He has a raspy voice and cigar, like a Catskill comedian. He is greedy and preoccupied with money.
  • The Trade Federation--these two evil commericialist incorporate imagery from Western representations of "oriental" bureaucracies and Charlie Chan accents.

Structure

The stereotypes are not the only racist dimension of The Phantom Menace. Its very structure places two white men at the center of the story, surrounding them with characters and aliens with pronounced ethnic and racial features. Humans seem white--and the presence of some non-white humans is simply the exception that proves the role, a kind of tokenism. In this world, robots are at the bottom of the social hierarchary, reminding viewers that some folks serve, and others are served. 

Context 

But isn't this just a movie--and a kids' movie at that? Maybe. But it is important to remember that America is a racist society, a society that still uses race to determine who gets what. Although popular movies can't avoid this, they should be more responsible in their use of stereotypes. In other words, that some people laugh at racist jokes is no reason to use them in a film. Lucas gets the audience to identify with the flat characters in his film by drawing from stereotypical and offensive images to which many have strong, visceral, perhaps even unconscious reactions. 
At the dawn of the 21st century America is venturing into a new age of multiculturalism and globalism. One of the risks of a commericial vision of multiculturalism--like the one Lucas offers--is that it treats history and ethnicity as so many accessories we can buy and wear. Like Queen Amidala's costumes, this vision of multiculturalism is one increasingly offered up as a utopia, one based on corporate sponsored entertainment with American consumers at its center. As it forgets history, however, as it ignores the contexts out of which its racist images are drawn and the continued hierarchies that make the many serve the few, this multiculturalism is itself a phantom menace that movies like The Phantom Menace lull us into accepting. 

It's Easy to Talk about Star Wars. It's Hard to Talk about Race.
This article originally found at http://www.aliensinamerica.com/menace/