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Lego Accused of Racism With Star Wars Set
Ch_Omega writes "According to this article over at The Telegraph, Lego has been accused of racism by the Turkish community in Austria over a Star Wars model that supposedly resembles one of Istanbul's most revered mosques. The anger was provoked by 'Jabba's Palace,' a model of the home of Jabba the Hutt from Lego's Star Wars product range based on the blockbusting series of science fiction films. 'The terrorist Jabba the Hutt likes to smoke a hookah and have his victims killed,' said the statement posted on the organization's website. 'It is clear that the ugly figure of Jabba and the whole scene smacks of racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against Asians and Orientals as people with deceitful and criminal personalities.'"
Is there anything left in the world that the big bad white man hasn't destroyed through 'racism'?
This objection is silly because Jabba's Palace and the Hagia Sophia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia ) don't look much alike at all, other than having a dome, in which case they'd better prepare for a lot more outrage when they start to see other photos of the outside world...
.... that their objection should be with Lucasfilm (or Disney, now, I suppose)... since the concept is actually theirs. All Lego does is license it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
If Star Wars Legos represent offensive racial stereotypes, then they're an accurate representation of the films. The Phantom Menace was quite striking in its overt caricatures of Japanese (Trade Federation), blacks (Jar-Jar), Jews (the flying blue dude who was Anakin's master). So it doesn't surprise me that Jabba is an offensive caricature of someone, too. Par for the course.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
Sucks the life out of everything.
Wrong, it's politically correctness bullshit that sucks the life out of everything.
I'm still mad at the makers of Silence of the Lambs for portraying Hannibal Lecter as a Caucasian male. I am a Caucasian male and it's clear that the whole movie the smacks of racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against Caucasians as people with deceitful and criminal personalities. Movies should stop having bad guys because it always paints some race or culture as having deceitful and criminal personalities and that upsets me.
Huh.
And here I was thinking that Jabba was a caricature of American politicians - fat, stupid, lazy, ready to kill on a whim, and unable to speak anything but nonsensical gibberish.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Too bad Lego responded to this nonsense and even offered an apology. Were I in charge of the company, I'd have offered a different reply: "We at the Lego company do not usually offer the following advice, but in this case we will go ahead and suggest that you grow up.". Seriously, some people...
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
The only bad guys you can safely portray in movies are white guys. So what if Jabba's Palace borrows some architectural, decorational and floral inspirations from the Persians. Having a villain with taste Persian trappings doesn't make any Persian a villain any more than owning a Walther PPK makes you a hero.
Perhaps most villains are white, but not all villians are white. And given that Vader and Palpatine where both very white, and Lando, Chewie, Yoda and R2 weren't, if anything I think it's the corn fed Nebraskans that should be offended.
I bet most people in the Austrian Turkish community are embarrassed as fuck to be associated with the specific whinging ass-rags..
FTFY. I hope.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
Yeah. I'm Greek Orthodox and you know what? That doesn't offend me at all. The Hagia Sophia and all the churches and mosques inspired by it are largely beautiful buildings. There's no reason they shouldn't inspire buildings for "the good guys" and "the bad guys" in fantasy settings. There are far worse things that could be done the Hagia Sophia.
Yea because Muslims NEVER form terrorist groups, blow up innocent people or launder money.
It NEVER HAPPENED.
Are you kidding?
Right so that's why whenever Americans appear in a very popular Vietnamese movie the Americans murder and rape everyone? Because it's not like the My Lai Massacre never happened.
All I meant was there are more blatant "all Muslims are bad" productions in American culture than Jabba's Sail Barge. I'm not saying Muslim based terrorism never happened. I'm not saying all Muslims are good. I'm not saying none of them launder money. I'm saying that the most prominent representations of them in movies and TV happen to be solely bad guys. But you can go ahead and list off all those Muslim turban wearing hero movies that Hollywood puts out every year. That'll show me. Hell, name one Hollywood male lead actor who's Muslim.
My work here is dung.
In Phantom Menace, the evil guys are clearly parodies of Japanese samurai, while the comic relief is given by stupid Jar Jar and friends, clearly parodies of Rastafarians. The Star Wars movies have all sorts of fodder for the ultra-sensitive.
The Star Wars movies, especially the prequels, are riddled with racist undertones that people were too un-PC to realize the offensiveness of at the time. Like Gene Roddenberry's progressiveness, appreciation for the offensiveness in Star Wars will be a series of gifts that will be opened over time for decades to come.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
a LEGO Jabba the Hutt as insulting asians and orientals and completely ignoring Jar Jar Binks, who is at least a *RECENT* example of racial stereotyping in a Star Wars theme. I mean shit the Lego Jabba has been around for over 10 years now (maybe nearing 15), and I imagine even Turkey, nevermind Austria, has had access to the original 3 Star Wars films for at least 20 years.
Obviously much like the fundie Christians this guy is just racism-mongering, but still.
The Turks in Austria today find themselves at the short end of the stick. As immigrants and members of visible minority in a host culture known for harboring a certain degree of racism, they're at a distinct social disadvantage. But the situation for Turks in Austria is exceptionally uncomfortable because Austria withstood 150 years of war with the Ottoman Empire.
The Viennese, in particular, are never going to let the Turks forget it. Take a walk through the city sometime and check out the newspaper vendors on the street corners. It's nobody's idea of a great career move, and the worst of it is that they have to wear these wretched demeaning monkey suits. And notice, they're all Turks. It's not an overstatement to say that they live in a state of public humiliation. It's not subtle. It's almost the first thing you notice as a tourist.
Never mind the right and wrong of it. Some of these people - the ones who aren't completely subjugated - are bound to kick up a fuss once in a while, and not always in a rational, measured way. I expect that's what's happening here with the protest against Lego.
Parity: What to do when the weekend comes.
...and culture clash. Also, possibly trolling.
The original text at www.turkischegemeinde.at also mentions that:
Erschreckend ist auch die rot-schwarze Teufels-Fratze auf der Schachtel rechts oben, die zumindest ein augenfÃlliges Signal ist, dass das Spiel nicht unter dem Christbaum am Weihnachtsabend - Auch Türken feiern Weihnachten - liegen sollte.
Translation:
Also frightening is a grotesque red-and-black devil's face in the right corner of the box, which is at least an obvious hint that the toy is not something one should lay down under the (Christmas) tree on Christmas Eve - Turks celebrate Christmas too.
The "red-black devil's face" is a drawing of - you guessed it - Dart Maul.
Now to me that indicates that the article was written by someone who hasn't actually seen (at least) Episode I, or quite possibly hadn't had ANY contact with the Star Wars franchise until now.
And yes, however unbelievable that may seem to us - there are people out there who've managed to live through the last couple of decades without actually watching or having any interest in Star Wars.
Or science fiction.
Or movies.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Nice rant, but sadly history completely contradicts it.
For example, the Golden Age of Jews in Europe occurred under Muslim rule in Spain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_of_Jewish_culture_in_the_Iberian_Peninsula
Jews under Christian rule have generally been treated much worse.
It is only recent radicalization that has caused the problems.
Most of the sites that you reference put forth a point of view that is just as intolerant, radical and ultimately destructive as that of the radical Islamists.
The idea that the US should adopt a set of laws that specifically prohibits Sharia Law is ludicrous. The Constitution of the United States of America and it's provisions based on the principles of the Enlightment is the correct approach. If something needs to be reinforced it should be provisions against ANY radical religious based laws, Christian, Muslim, Confucian and so on.