Looking for Social Justice in STAR WARS

By MIZ MANNERS, THE SLEDGEHAMMER OF BLOGS

We can't deny the impact that the Star Wars films have had on our culture. It formed a foundation for much popular entertainment for generations. I'm here to rock the foundation.

After re-watching the films recently, I have determined that the racist, sexist galaxy that they live in is nowhere I want to be.

1. Where are the women? The Rebellion seems to only have one or maybe two women working there, and while they have some responsibilities, they rarely get their hands dirty. They don't fly the ships, and they get treated like pieces of ass by everyone around them. And don't even get me started on Jabba's palace. If you can stomach watching Episode I: The Phantom Menace, you will notice that Jabba has a smaller female companion with him. Where is she in the rest of the films? The Rebellion could have used her. And the female Jedi who gets killed in the second trilogy has an exposed midriff. Maybe the cast-iron brassiere and panty set hasn't come into style yet.
2. The black guy gets killed first. In the history of film, the black guy has always been killed first in any horror or sci-fi situation, and Star Wars was the first big film to show it. Would it be so wrong to let the black guy live?
3. The only black guy who survives the trilogy is good old Lando Calrissian, who has a distinct Colt .45 kind of charm when he first arrives on the scene. He is a corrupt politician, pimp, and he seems to have arrived at this station in life by having fast hands at a dice game. He is the first black guy to arrive on the scene, and as far as we know, he is the only black guy in the whole galaxy. So we have a serious shortage of black people and women. Darth Vader has a black man's voice, but he's white! What's happening here? You're not my father, Darth Vader!
4. The ethnic stereotypes are so thick you can cut them with a knife. George Lucas gave us a taste of his racial prejudice in the first three films. Sand people, for instance. Sand people? And by the time the third trilogy is done, we have a whole new batch of thinly-veiled cultural types. The 'trade federation' are made to sound like Asian-Americans, and the flying thing that owns Anakin Skywalker talks like a shifty Jewish landlord. It's scandalous. Only one black person, and he seems to disappear after Episode I. He just disappears.

In our time, we have The Lord of the Rings, which has no black people, and almost no women. No wonder it's become so popular among young dorky white guys.

You may think I'm the offensive one. You might say that this is just science fiction, and I'm reading too much into it. This may all come as a shock to you. You have been raised in a galaxy controlled by white guys.