Lego Accused of Racism With Star Wars Set 514
Ch_Omega writes "According to this article over at The Telegraph, Lego has been accused of racism by the Turkish community in Austria over a Star Wars model that supposedly resembles one of Istanbul's most revered mosques. The anger was provoked by 'Jabba's Palace,' a model of the home of Jabba the Hutt from Lego's Star Wars product range based on the blockbusting series of science fiction films. 'The terrorist Jabba the Hutt likes to smoke a hookah and have his victims killed,' said the statement posted on the organization's website. 'It is clear that the ugly figure of Jabba and the whole scene smacks of racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against Asians and Orientals as people with deceitful and criminal personalities.'"
here we go (Score:4, Insightful)
Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
This objection is silly because Jabba's Palace and the Hagia Sophia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia [wikipedia.org] ) don't look much alike at all, other than having a dome, in which case they'd better prepare for a lot more outrage when they start to see other photos of the outside world...
It follows, then.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Blame Lucas, not Lego (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Multiculterialim[sic] (Score:5, Insightful)
Sucks the life out of everything.
Wrong, it's politically correctness bullshit that sucks the life out of everything.
I'm mad too (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm still mad at the makers of Silence of the Lambs for portraying Hannibal Lecter as a Caucasian male. I am a Caucasian male and it's clear that the whole movie the smacks of racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against Caucasians as people with deceitful and criminal personalities. Movies should stop having bad guys because it always paints some race or culture as having deceitful and criminal personalities and that upsets me.
Re:Blame Lucas, not Lego (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that those racial stereotypes are only obvious when one is actively trying to look for them. Or.... you could just sit back and enjoy the story. Because you know, it's actually quite entertaining when you aren't trying to overanalyze it to pieces.
Allah Akbar, Han Solo? (Score:5, Insightful)
And here I was thinking that Jabba was a caricature of American politicians - fat, stupid, lazy, ready to kill on a whim, and unable to speak anything but nonsensical gibberish.
Re:No It Doesn't (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Blame Lucas, not Lego (Score:5, Insightful)
Enjoy thte story??? Are we talking about the same movie?.
Re:here we go (Score:5, Insightful)
Is there anything left in the world that the big bad white man hasn't destroyed through 'racism'?
...
Porn?
The solution is in your comment (Score:5, Insightful)
The only bad guys you can safely portray in movies are white guys. So what if Jabba's Palace borrows some architectural, decorational and floral inspirations from the Persians. Having a villain with taste Persian trappings doesn't make any Persian a villain any more than owning a Walther PPK makes you a hero.
Perhaps most villains are white, but not all villians are white. And given that Vader and Palpatine where both very white, and Lando, Chewie, Yoda and R2 weren't, if anything I think it's the corn fed Nebraskans that should be offended.
Re:here we go (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Austria's Turkish community (Score:5, Insightful)
I bet most people in the Austrian Turkish community are embarrassed as fuck to be associated with the specific whinging ass-rags..
FTFY. I hope.
Re:Actually Naboo Was Based on Hagia Sophia (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:here we go (Score:5, Insightful)
Hokey religions and old superstitions don't compare to a good blaster at your side.
Re:Actually Naboo Was Based on Hagia Sophia (Score:5, Insightful)
Yea because Muslims NEVER form terrorist groups, blow up innocent people or launder money.
It NEVER HAPPENED.
Are you kidding?
Right so that's why whenever Americans appear in a very popular Vietnamese movie the Americans murder and rape everyone? Because it's not like the My Lai Massacre [wikipedia.org] never happened.
All I meant was there are more blatant "all Muslims are bad" productions in American culture than Jabba's Sail Barge. I'm not saying Muslim based terrorism never happened. I'm not saying all Muslims are good. I'm not saying none of them launder money. I'm saying that the most prominent representations of them in movies and TV happen to be solely bad guys. But you can go ahead and list off all those Muslim turban wearing hero movies that Hollywood puts out every year. That'll show me. Hell, name one Hollywood male lead actor who's Muslim.
Re:here we go (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? Because this seems to have an awful lot more to do with race (and stereotypes thereof) than religion. Heck, the "mosque" in question has been a museum for almost 70 years! (And in the long past if was Christian rather than Islamic.) It has far more meaning at this point as an iconic and history bit of architecture that represents the region.
I know hating on religion is all the rage these day, but racial stereotyping and sensitivity (like this article and discussion are about) have basically nothing to do with it. You'll find plenty of overly sensitive or overly insensitive atheists. Many westerns that get upset about this kind of thing are anti-religion and a lot of hate groups are agnostic. So I quite fail to see where religion plays into this at all.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's all Lego's fault. (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's racist then it's accurate (Score:3, Insightful)
The Star Wars movies, especially the prequels, are riddled with racist undertones that people were too un-PC to realize the offensiveness of at the time. Like Gene Roddenberry's progressiveness, appreciation for the offensiveness in Star Wars will be a series of gifts that will be opened over time for decades to come.
Also they're complaining about... (Score:5, Insightful)
a LEGO Jabba the Hutt as insulting asians and orientals and completely ignoring Jar Jar Binks, who is at least a *RECENT* example of racial stereotyping in a Star Wars theme. I mean shit the Lego Jabba has been around for over 10 years now (maybe nearing 15), and I imagine even Turkey, nevermind Austria, has had access to the original 3 Star Wars films for at least 20 years.
Obviously much like the fundie Christians this guy is just racism-mongering, but still.
Re:Austria's Turkish community (Score:4, Insightful)
The Viennese, in particular, are never going to let the Turks forget it. Take a walk through the city sometime and check out the newspaper vendors on the street corners. It's nobody's idea of a great career move, and the worst of it is that they have to wear these wretched demeaning monkey suits. And notice, they're all Turks. It's not an overstatement to say that they live in a state of public humiliation. It's not subtle. It's almost the first thing you notice as a tourist.
Never mind the right and wrong of it. Some of these people - the ones who aren't completely subjugated - are bound to kick up a fuss once in a while, and not always in a rational, measured way. I expect that's what's happening here with the protest against Lego.
Re:here we go (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:here we go (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't racism - this is ignorance... (Score:4, Insightful)
...and culture clash. Also, possibly trolling.
The original text at www.turkischegemeinde.at [turkischegemeinde.at] also mentions that:
Erschreckend ist auch die rot-schwarze Teufels-Fratze auf der Schachtel rechts oben, die zumindest ein augenfÃlliges Signal ist, dass das Spiel nicht unter dem Christbaum am Weihnachtsabend - Auch Türken feiern Weihnachten - liegen sollte.
Translation:
Also frightening is a grotesque red-and-black devil's face in the right corner of the box, which is at least an obvious hint that the toy is not something one should lay down under the (Christmas) tree on Christmas Eve - Turks celebrate Christmas too.
The "red-black devil's face" is a drawing of - you guessed it - Dart Maul.
Now to me that indicates that the article was written by someone who hasn't actually seen (at least) Episode I, or quite possibly hadn't had ANY contact with the Star Wars franchise until now.
And yes, however unbelievable that may seem to us - there are people out there who've managed to live through the last couple of decades without actually watching or having any interest in Star Wars.
Or science fiction.
Or movies.
Re:Deflection (Score:4, Insightful)
Nice rant, but sadly history completely contradicts it.
For example, the Golden Age of Jews in Europe occurred under Muslim rule in Spain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_age_of_Jewish_culture_in_the_Iberian_Peninsula [wikipedia.org]
Jews under Christian rule have generally been treated much worse.
It is only recent radicalization that has caused the problems.
Most of the sites that you reference put forth a point of view that is just as intolerant, radical and ultimately destructive as that of the radical Islamists.
The idea that the US should adopt a set of laws that specifically prohibits Sharia Law is ludicrous. The Constitution of the United States of America and it's provisions based on the principles of the Enlightment is the correct approach. If something needs to be reinforced it should be provisions against ANY radical religious based laws, Christian, Muslim, Confucian and so on.
Re:here we go (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This isn't racism - this is ignorance... (Score:4, Insightful)
I wish I could go back and un-see Ep 1-3.
Re:here we go (Score:4, Insightful)
This is not to say either of them were motivated by religion, but they most definitely tamed and harnessed the power of religious institutions and used it to suppress internal opposition.