POLL: Skids, Mudflap. Racist?

[i_amtrunks]

I voted no, as I took the twins as being more of a stereotype of teens from "the street" (not Sesame Street), rather than being racist.

[Saintly]

damn it! i voted incorrectly!

EDIT: I hit the down button one too many times and clicked submit!

[1AZRAEL1]

It is supposed to be funny and not taken seriously.

I mean damn, anyone here seen Metalocalypse?
That is a piss take on metalheads (I for one am a big metalhead) and I think it is bloody hilarious.

What about Simpsons hmmm? Apu is the clerk at a convenience store, and he's an Indian. Is that not stereotypical?

People in this day and age take things too friggin seriously and wear there hearts in their sleeves.

(Edited bad words out sorry )

[jaydisc]

I can see why people would think otherwise, with their monkey-esc bodies, the jive talking and Skids gold buck-tooth.

Gee whiz. That's racist.

[Sky Shadow]

If people are going to get up in arms about this then the portrayal of Jetfire could be seen as equally ageist and its treatment of Alice was sexist. Personally, I didn't realise/think Skids and Mudflap were even meant to be black, I just saw them as robots that chose to cringeworthily emulate aspects of a particular culture, in the way Ali G does - that they were 'wigga' Transformers who didn't really know what they were doing or that they were embarrassing themselves. When it comes to the movie's treatment of characters who are actually African American, like Sergeant Epps, I'd say it presents him as an upstanding and capable human being.

[GoktimusPrime]

I voted no. They're no more offensive to black people than say the Neimoidians in Star Wars are to Asians.


"One order fried rice chow mein!"

[Robzy]

Well, I guess to most people on this board, this particular issue isn't offensive. But I just read this article over at ENI and I thought it was interesting. The article is called Robots in Blackface, and it made me think about the issue a bit more.

Anyways, just thought I'd post a link to it.

Here are some notable quotes (btw, I'm not sure if the author is "black")

These are robots in blackface, and I call bullshit.

They speak in bad ebonics and their misshapen faces both share bug eyes and jug ears. One sports buckteeth and a prominent gold front tooth. They are dumb, seem incapable of comprehending the moment, and have to be pressured to admit they can read… a little.

They refer to “popping a cap” into a sympathetic human’s ass just before fist bumping and calling him a “pussy.” I.e., a girl, which is the only thing it’s worse to be in this movie than black.

The voice actors say they didn’t mean for this to be the case. Honestly I’m inclined to believe them.

Confronted with the reality that Skids and Mudflap, some of the movie’s most prominent characters, are a simple repurposing of racist humor, Michael Bay had this to say:

"It's done in fun," he said. "I don't know if it's stereotypes -- they are robots, by the way. “

This too (video clip) was done in fun, and Bugs Bunny is just a cartoon rabbit…

So I assume, following that logic, that we should show the above to our kids. It’s a cartoon. Don’t be so sensitive. He’s a rabbit, by the way.

“These are the voice actors. This is kind of the direction they were taking the characters and we went with it," says Bay.

Yeah, those are the voice actors, and Bay is the director. Either he didn’t know what he should have known, or he knew and did not care.

Here is the best part…

“I purely did it for kids.” Bay says. Fantastic, not only have you made a $200,000,000.00 nationally advertised engine of violence, sexism and hate, but you’ve aimed it at children! Genius!

Why should we be surprised? This is a PG-13 movie with misogyny, drug use, violence, alcohol, torture, swearing, tons of onscreen graphic death and a massive toy line that says nice and clear on every package “ages 5+.” Cute. I bet the last time parents could get their kids a bug eyed, jug eared, gold bucktoothed action figure was 1933. What splendid times we live in…


“Young kids love these robots, because it makes it more accessible to them.”

Makes what more accessible?

Here I quote an article by Sandy Cohen, of the Associated Press.

Hollywood has a track record of using negative stereotypes of black characters for comic relief, said Todd Boyd, a professor of popular culture at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts, who has not seen the "Transformers" sequel.

"There's a history of people getting laughs at the expense of African-Americans and African-American culture," Boyd said. "These images are not completely divorced from history even though it's a new movie and even though they're robots and not humans."

Funny, I remember people saying the same kind of stuff about Bernie Mac and Anthony Anderson's characters in the first film.


Is Bay at it again, or is he a moron (another Poll perhaps )

[Paulbot]

I'm undecided on the Twins, but there are other scenes in the movie where the audience is meant to laugh at people who not only are from minority groups but also, get this, wait for you'll laugh so hard, they also have unusual physical attributes (eg the short border guard and the guy in the deli with bad teeth) . But both films also make fun of big buff white guys too.

I think the film would have been better off with out the lame humour and if the new Transformers, like the Twins and Wheelie were allowed to have characters based on more than their stereotypical voices.

[Vector Sigma 13]

Maybe people forgot this is just a movie and its all pretend? My vote is no.

[Kayyasha]

Voted yes, but at the same time have the urge to start siging 'everyone's a little bit racist'. They were meant to be funny characters and yes, they were horrible stereotypes let's face it; Bay knows how to blow thigs up and not much else.