Political Correctness in a Galaxy Far Far Away

[stillakid]

I was just browsing through Hasbro Toy Shop.com and ran across this:

Star Wars The Saga Collection - Battle of Endor Rebel Trooper (African American)

http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/Product...&ID=18578&PG=7

How can that figure be an African-American when he's from a long time ago in a galaxy far far away? I don't know for sure, but I haven't heard that there is an "Africa" or an "America" in the Star Wars universe. What's wrong with calling him "black" or just not calling him anything at all?

[Tycho]

I agree with your points Stillakid, but HasbroToyShop probably wanted to differentiate which figure someone was ordering from amongst the variations.

Ethnic variations should continue to be produced with all non-Clone authority figures:

Torryn Farr (female Hoth Rebel)
black Bespin Guard (vintage update)
white mustahed Bespin Guard (vintage update)
black Jabba Palace Thug
white Jabba Sailbarge Thug (shoots Luke's hand)
black X-wing pilot
Asian Y-wing pilot
white B-wing pilot (vintage update)
black Republic Senate Guard
female Republic Officer (Radiant 7 captain)
Silas Carson as Radiant 7 pilot
white Naboo Royal Guard
black Naboo Royal Security
black N-1 fighter pilot
female N-1 fighter pilot
black Club Outlander Bartender

I think that covers it. Rebel Fleet Troopers and Hoth Soldiers, were pretty much all whites. Endor is now well covered, save for the pilots (who had speaking lines even). The Naboo need a bit more variety. Also the upcoming Rebel Honor Guard and the recently released Naboo Flight Technician (Naboo Wave 7, Saga 2) might get ethnic variation updates.

Furthermore, the new Death Star Trooper might get different headsculpts. The Imperials were all white males, but they did hair color / face sculpt variants. The stormtrooper ranks include conscripts, volunteers, and alternative-source clones though. If they insist on making OT troopers with removeable helmets (Storm, Sand, Snow, Scout) then they should at least offer another headsculpt besides Temura Morrison's)

I ask that Louie the Lillac sanction this post.

[bobafrett]

If it truely was an African-American soldier, he wouldn't be caught wearing that bad camo combination.

[mabudonicus]

Man, for some reason all's I can think about is them Black Vulcans on star trek- if the whole planet is desert and they all live in it and wear the same clothes and stuff, how did they end up with white and black vulcans?? Getting much deeper would send this sucker to the Pit, but I thought skin colour was just a long-term adaptation and not some random "you'll be the 'black', you'll be the 'white' ones, you'll be 'green' just cos that how humanoids are and there have to be different 'types' regardless of any reasoning"

Same as when I was younger, from all the bad old sci fi movies I used to watch, I always wondered how aliens often had british accents- does every planet have the same language peculiarities as well?? That would mean that Newfie Ewoks exist, as well as French mon calamari (likely with little moustaches and berets and some with snooty monocles)

Isobaws&

[Slicker]

Same as when I was younger, from all the bad old sci fi movies I used to watch, I always wondered how aliens often had british accents

Isobaws&

They actually explained that SW one away by saying that it's a Coruscanti accent.


As for the "African American" part, once again. Is it against the law to say black (please no South Park references...)? Why do they always call it the "White" trooper? I want them to change it to caucasian* trooper.

Take this picture of this gentlemen. You'd look at him and say "he's African-American", this is where I'd come in and say that you're a presumptuous pr**k because that's a picture of Sir Trevor McDonald and he's from the United Kingdom (England for those that don't know) which is NOT America. See how using that term to TRY and be PC can blow up in your face?

How about this man? You'd jump up and say "he's white!". Once again you'd be wrong. He's African. You say "but he looks white". Believe it or not there are white people in Africa. So that technically if he was of African descent and lived in America he'd be African-American.


BTW, that last picture was of PM Jan Smuts.





*and another insult is the fact that the Mozilla spell checker is saying that I spelled "caucasian" wrong when, in fact, it's spelled 100% correct. Apparently nobody cares if I'm offended because I'm caucasian.

[Mad Slanted Powers]

T*and another insult is the fact that the Mozilla spell checker is saying that I spelled "caucasian" wrong when, in fact, it's spelled 100% correct. Apparently nobody cares if I'm offended because I'm caucasian.

I just looked up "caucasian" on my iMac's dictionary widget. It says that the term is often offensive. I didn't realize I was being offended whenever I filled out a form that asked my race.

Why can't we say "negro" or "colored" anymore? They still have the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and the United Negro College Fund. There was that old Star Trek episode where Abe Lincoln referred to Uhura as a "charming negress", but then apologized when he realized he might have said something wrong. Uhura then said that "in our century, we've learned not to fear words."

[Slicker]

I can see how the term "caucasian" can be offensive.

I don't have a damn lick of Russian blood in me yet they're trying to say that I'm form the Caucasus region?

[Jargo]

my views on this would probably get it sent to the rancor so I shall just say what the hell is tycho on?

[Tycho]

I think this is the origin of us "white people."

Natives of Mesopotamia (Iraq basically) wandered out everywhere and evolved adaptations. The lighter-skinned people wound up in Persia (Iran). These were the first "Aryans."

The Aryans migrated North through Turkey and spread out into Russia, Germany, and France. Some crossed the English Channel and became the Anglos or the Saxxons. I suppose these groups were clans that combined to form tribes.

So from a distance, French, English, and Germans, are related to Russians.

I myself am a mix of Russian and German actually (Austrian in the German), though my family settled in America a long time ago (most of them anyway). We don't have any Native American that I'm aware of though.

Also, while I think humans evolved from primates, I don't think this happened exclusively in Mesopotamia. It's possible that peoples from there wandered far beyond Iran, and darker skinned people wound up in India, and yet another hew in China and the Orient, but couldn't it also be that those peoples came from different monkeys? In any event, science believes that people there crossed a land bridge into the American continents and gradually became the Native (North and South) Americans.

[Tycho]

my views on this would probably get it sent to the rancor so I shall just say what the hell is tycho on?

To which of my ingenious posts are you referring to?

I was working on my origin of the species post WHILE you were posting this one, so unless you've developed foresight into my thought process (this could be a sign of mental illness you know?) I'm not sure where you're coming from today.

Please tell me if there is a loose Mouse Droid within proximity of you.