POLL: Skids, Mudflap. Racist?

[Robzy]

white people incorporate black culture (music, look, slang etc) into their own personality because they like it and want to emulate it. from what i see the twins doing by acting black in the movie, its the same concept, they have come to earth and adopted "black" personality because they thinks its cool and they want to emulate it. i honestly dont think it was the twins or creators (writters/directors/ animators) intention of adopting black personality as an insult to black people.

But another key issue here is that it WAS insulting, even if it was done through ignorance!

Here's another more recent example...

The following story is hitting the news at the moment and apparently attracting worldwide condemnation of Australia as a racist country... Now, I didn't see it myself, and I've only seen the reports... but last night this "blackfaces" skit was on the Hey Hey it's Saturday Reunion. Watch the clip, read the article, and listen to the American's opinion of it all!

[SofaMan]

Not strictly related, but certainly plays to similar issues. Seems there was a controversy on Red Faces last night.

I do love some of the comments though - "The guy was Indian, so how could it be racist?!"

[Robzy]

Beat you to it SofaMan!

I've posted a link to the video itself too, so people can watch and judge for themselves.

[SofaMan]

By mere seconds...

[Tiby]

I still don't get the offended thing. It is not my job to prevent other people from feeling negative things. If they want to be offended, they will be, and there is something in them that validates that feeling. If they didn't need that, they would not be offended. It's about time people started taking responsibility for their own feelings rather than projecting responsibility onto others, including the media, "role models", peer groups etc.

As for celebrating illiteracy, look at any mainstream film where the "cool" people shun education and celebrate "coolness", success by diminishing others, etc. This is a fact of the media. Anyone who celebrates education is labelled a nerd, an outcast, etc. Now, people can either accept that or reject that, and in doing so choose whether they should be offended or not.

If the media is to be blamed for promoting prejudice, it is the consumption of that media which validates it. Just because some movie robots are interpreted by some as being racially prejudiced (which I personally did not see until I heard others complaining) does not mean I am going to be prejudiced against African-Americans, gangstas or whatever they were trying to be.

I saw Mudflap as a hero, resilient and competent, for the way he punished Devastator, and the rest of his character was bluster and role-playing, like most people do. Sure, these aren't real people who made this choice, they in my view the Twins represent real people who make that choice.

Forcing people to change their views or take responsibility for what you are feeling can be just as offensive as the reasons for the offence taken by the first person.

Having said that, I too am disappointed in the way the movies are turning out, but the comics have shown oppressive, genocidal Autobots for some time, and this was, after all, a "blockbuster", not a fan film.

[kup]

I can see why people see the twins as racially offensive but I personally did not take it as such. However I am more offended at the toilet humor and soft porn shots.

Having said that, Bay is smart enough to know that his creations, 'the twins' would cause unwanted controversy.

[GoktimusPrime]

And there's been Autobot oppression and genocide in the G1 cartoon as well.
e.g.
+ S.O.S. Dinobots: Optimus Prime authorises the creation of the Dinobots, but when they turn out to be violent brutes, he decides to imprison them in a cave - forever! So much for freedom being the right of all sentient beings eh. (although the Dinobots at the time were arguably semi-sentient)
+ Dai Atlas: _extremely_ violent and genocidal Autobot commander! Kinda reminds me of Lancelot from Monty Python and the Holy Grail; "He killed my auntie!" (yeah okay, Lancelot was more blindly homicidal rather than genocidal - genocide requires discriminate killing whereas Lancelot was very much indiscriminate in his destruction )

[kup]

And there's been Autobot oppression and genocide in the G1 cartoon as well.
e.g.
+ S.O.S. Dinobots: Optimus Prime authorises the creation of the Dinobots, but when they turn out to be violent brutes, he decides to imprison them in a cave - forever! So much for freedom being the right of all sentient beings eh. (although the Dinobots at the time were arguably semi-sentient)
+ Dai Atlas: _extremely_ violent and genocidal Autobot commander! Kinda reminds me of Lancelot from Monty Python and the Holy Grail; "He killed my auntie!" (yeah okay, Lancelot was more blindly homicidal rather than genocidal - genocide requires discriminate killing whereas Lancelot was very much indiscriminate in his destruction )

I don't think Bay had previous fictional lore in mind when he created the twins.

[GoktimusPrime]

The term "blackface" is being thrown around a lot in the media atm following that controversial Hey Hey skit. But anyway, here is the wiki article about it if anyone wants to read about its history.

[GoktimusPrime]

Here's another can of worms: are the twins (or at least one of them) also homophobic? One line that one of the twins (I think it's Mudflap) says to Leo Spitz as he's having a whinge is something along of the lines of "Go cry to your boyfriend."

Is this a homophobic comment? It was delivered as a response to Leo demonstrating weakness, thus implying that any person visibly showing such heightened emotions (i.e.: being a "pussy" as one of the twins also called him) must be homosexual, and therefore implying that homosexuals are highly strung emotional people who are arguably weak in fortitude. In short it's playing along with the gay "queen" stereotype and also using homosexuality as a synonym for stupidity/negativity (as it's like saying to Leo, "Don't be so gay.").