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How Star Wars reinforces our prejudices
Washington Compost ^ | Dec. 23, 2019 | Jeffery C. J. Chen

Posted on 01/11/2020 8:05:36 AM PST by EdnaMode

All fantasy worlds draw from reality, and the Star Wars universe is no exception. As fans flock to theaters to see “The Rise of Skywalker” this holiday week, most of their minds will be on the grand visuals, enduring characters and exciting storytelling, and not on how the films reflect our culture — including its prejudices. But if we take a moment to think about it, George Lucas’s galaxy is, and has always been, far, far away from being an original or an inclusive creation.

Star Wars is shot with “Orientalizing” stereotypes — patronizing tropes that represent an imagined East, or the Orient, as inferior to the rational, heroic West. Think, for example, of the uniformed conformity of the evil Empire vs. the scrappy (American) individualism of the rebel heroes, the vague Eastern mysticism of the Force and its Shaolin-cum-Samurai practitioners, and the uncomfortable racial stereotypes embodied in the hookah-smoking Jabba and the miserly Watto.

Even those who have noted these prejudices could be excused for not noticing the presence of such tropes in another key element of every Star Wars film: John Williams’s iconic musical score. Williams’s music associates the “good guys” with the grand orchestral style of the European Romantics (think of the beautifully hummable melodies for Luke, Leia and Rey), while the themes for the “bad guys” are expressed in the vocabulary of Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern music. AD

This may seem incidental or unimportant. But this music reinforces, even at an unconscious level, the primacy of Western culture against an imagined “other” that reproduces harmful prejudices in pop culture that, given the power of mass media, has larger political consequences.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Music/Entertainment; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: dumbass; fakeracism; imaginedracism; jefferycjchen; johnwilliams; leftism; liberalism; phonyracism; racism; sjw; sjws; starwars
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To: EdnaMode

[eyeroll] What a dumbass. Talk about straining out the gnat while gulping down the camel. The actual problem with the series is that it used to be fun, and it’s become pedantic and preoccupied with checking all the diversity and pc boxes Hollywood is now slave to.


21 posted on 01/11/2020 8:58:15 AM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
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To: EdnaMode

In that same mode...looking for racism in every possible way:

Black Britons Know Why Meghan Markle Wants Out

[You got it]
It’s the racism.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/09/opinion/meghan-markle-prince-harry.html


22 posted on 01/11/2020 9:00:49 AM PST by beaversmom (Trump for Cali gov 2026. Make CA great again.)
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To: EdnaMode

For once, I agree with the WaPoo. Star Wars is a very racist franchise.


23 posted on 01/11/2020 9:02:19 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: rawcatslyentist

Lesbian? That’s so 2000s. Make him trans.

Wait trans might be so 2010s...

Forget it, I can’t keep up.


24 posted on 01/11/2020 9:04:06 AM PST by beaversmom (Trump for Cali gov 2026. Make CA great again.)
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To: EdnaMode

(to the article author) “our”??? ...speak for yourself, coward


25 posted on 01/11/2020 9:06:03 AM PST by BookmanTheJanitor
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To: EdnaMode

How stupid can you get?


26 posted on 01/11/2020 9:07:27 AM PST by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: EdnaMode

That’s funny, I thought it was just the opposite. The whole gnostic “Force” thing is VERY eastern. Yoda is like an eastern sensei. Besides all that, one should consider the possibility that, overall, classical western culture/philosophy IS superior. It shouldn’t be beyond the pale to discuss, provided that two “western” assumptions are granted. One, A cannot equal B and NOT B at the same time. Two, there is such a thing as “best”.


27 posted on 01/11/2020 9:13:20 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: EdnaMode

Some people have way too much time on their hands.

What malcontents, always looking for an offense.


28 posted on 01/11/2020 9:13:43 AM PST by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: EdnaMode

Better headline

“How liberals ruin absolutely everything they touch, for everyone else”


29 posted on 01/11/2020 9:15:13 AM PST by Bob434
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To: Fightin Whitey

He’s got more chins than Chinatown.


30 posted on 01/11/2020 9:17:44 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: EdnaMode

The stupid is strong with this one!!


31 posted on 01/11/2020 9:23:30 AM PST by DarthVader (Not by speeches & majority decisions will the great issues of the daitbe decided but by Blood & Iron)
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To: EdnaMode
Jeffery C.J. Chen (陳俊榕) Ph.D. Student, Stanford University Stanford, California 477 connections Scheduled to get his PhD in 2024.
32 posted on 01/11/2020 9:33:24 AM PST by Grampa Dave (Democrats sue Iran over right to use "Death to America" as their 2020 campaign slogan!)
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To: EdnaMode

It’s a game, called “Woker Than Thou.” No matter how progressive and woke you are, someone is out there trying to find a way to establish that they are woker than you are. It’s the Woke Olympics! Wokapalooza!


33 posted on 01/11/2020 9:35:18 AM PST by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
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To: EdnaMode

They brought back Hamill so he could be a sad old man drinking milk from a tit, then proceeded to show how a SJW Mary Sue is way better than him.

Star Wars is over....


34 posted on 01/11/2020 9:59:04 AM PST by Bobalu (The Golden Globes should just be 3 hours of Gervais roasting everyone)
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To: Bobalu

If I had known this is how it would have turned out, I would have rooted for the Empire.


35 posted on 01/11/2020 9:59:48 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Bob434

That’s much better. :D


36 posted on 01/11/2020 10:00:08 AM PST by EdnaMode
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To: EdnaMode

The story line of “The Empire Strikes Back” was that a Black man would sell out his buddy for a chance at the buddy’s white woman.

The ending of the original movie was cribbed from “Triumph of the Will”


37 posted on 01/11/2020 10:35:29 AM PST by PAR35
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To: EdnaMode
Williams’s music associates the “good guys” with the grand orchestral style of the European Romantics (think of the beautifully hummable melodies for Luke, Leia and Rey), while the themes for the “bad guys” are expressed in the vocabulary of Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern music. AD

What? There's only two scores within the Star Wars soundtracks that everyone knows - the intro/Rebel theme, and Darth Vader's Imperial March. And Lord Vader's doesn't sound Chinese or Indian or Middle Eastern AT ALL.
38 posted on 01/11/2020 10:57:22 AM PST by Svartalfiar
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To: EdnaMode
May the Force spare us from movie critics who are “educated” liberals.
39 posted on 01/11/2020 11:39:03 AM PST by hinckley buzzard (Power is more often surrendered than seized.)
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To: Pelham

“And can you believe it? They paid me a ball of cash _this big_ to write it!”


40 posted on 01/11/2020 12:27:58 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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