As I said before, the racial element is there - but I don't find it offensive. Now Robzy brings up the argument that it's easy for us to say that we don't find it offensive since most of us here aren't black, so I'll bring up again another example which is relevant to my own ethnic group.
The Neimoidians in Star Wars are commonly seen based on racial stereotypes of Asians. They have slitted eyes, dress in "Oriental" robes (though a lot of characters dress in East-Asian influenced clothing, including the Jedi who are essentially Samurai with laser swords) and speak in a stereotypical "mushmouthed" Asian accent. The poor lip-syncing on the Neimoidian puppets in The Phantom Menace also gave the impression that they were being poorly dubbed as in many Asian films/shows. The stereotypes are plain for everyone to see. In fact, in one photocomic made by ToyFare parodying The Phantom Menace, we see the senators from Neimoidia scoot in on their flying platform delivering Chinese take-out, with the caption reading, "Don't blame us, that's actually how they talk in the movie!"Furthermore, the Neimoidians were portrayed as being a race of cowards - greedy and corrupt.
LinkOriginally Posted by Wookieepedia
...such a comment is about as "racist" (or ridiculous) as saying that all Germans are anti-Semitic or that all Arabs are terrorists.
My Ethics and Education lecturer often referred to things like this as the "hidden curriculum" in children's literature. In one of his lectures he referred to the underlying racism in Tolkien; he argued that except for humans, most races in Middle Earth are intrinsically good or evil (unless they're corrupted by Sauron). For example, Elves are all good and Orcs are all evil. I like how Jetfire in RotF suggested that being an Autobot or Decepticon is an 'intensely personal choice'; establishing that their factions are political, not 'racial' (though it doesn't explain some of the typical cosmetic differences between Autobots and Decepticons, e.g. eye colour)
So as an Asian person, I can see the cheesy and corny Asian stereotypes in the Neimoidians, but I'm not at all bothered or offended by them. I find Jar Jar Binks to be far more offensive, and not because of his racial caricature against blacks but because, like G1 Wheelie, he's just a thoroughly annoying and canonically largely useless character!
Which indicates to me that the problem lies with American society, rather than with Michael Bay, who I seriously doubt would've put any thought that these characters could be perceived as racist; I'm not saying that they're not, but I'm saying that it's just not something that he would've thought about.
I've heard from several people who've travelled to and live in the United States who tell me that racism (and even allegations of racial segregation) is still rife in the U.S. You just look at the huge deal that people are making about Barack Obama being the first half-black President - to me that indicates that race is still a massive issue to Americans. Afaik John So was the first Asian to be elected as Lord Mayor of Melbourne. As a NSW resident I never even heard about it - didn't even notice that was an Asian Mayor until I saw him on the news for something related to Melbourne (and nothing to do with his election victory). In fact, his Wikipedia page makes no mention of this. I think it's simply because for most Australians, the former Lord Mayor's ethnicity is a non-issue. What the wikipedia page does talk about is the fact that he Lord Mayor of Melbourne to be directly elected by the people (previous Lord Mayors were elected by Councillors) - so it seems that Melbournians' affection toward him wasn't based on his ethnicity, but what he represented in terms of democracy.
Disclaimer: My comments about racism in the U.S. is purely based on second hand hearsay. Don't take any of this as gospel. Kaythanx.
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