Space Jews and Sandpeople: Prominent Racism in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film and Television

I watch a lot of TV, and I've seen a lot of movies (I don't know how many, but let's say less than Roger Ebert, and more than Aeschylus). If you're above that, then fuck you. Yes, a lot of TV and a lot of movies suck, but so does a lot of that culture that high society stuffs its collective shirt with (don't you dare tell me it is improper to end a sentence with a preposition). If your life is too "full" for television, you'd never be caught dead reading this, so I won't worry about letting a low-brow joke slip.... hershey squirts. There, now that that's off my chest I can finally end this inane paragraph and arrive at the thrust of this article.

Space Jews! While the term in and of itself is racist coming from an Earth White, it has actually become a somewhat recognized trope in fiction, meaning "an alien, monster, or other nonhuman creature that embodies the worst aspects of a real-world racial stereotype" (according to tvtropes.org). As even a moderate sci-fi loser nerd geek, several examples of the Space Jew immediately come to mind. I am not saying that the filmmakers are racist, I am saying that their work invokes some serious stereotypes. Don't get me wrong, a good stereotype -- like how all Europeans get up for an extended stand at inappropriate times on planes -- can make a man's day. In fact, Dave Chappelle built a palace of comedy on a foundation of stereotypes and subsequently made college better for every one of us. Having said that, some of the following Space Jews just seem a little classless.

No surprises there.

We can go on all day about how terrible George Lucas is, but after he created Star Wars, you couldn't say he lacked creativity. So then why couldn't he come up with something less offensive than..... the Sand People.

Because fuck you, that's why. U-S-A. U-S-A.

In all fairness, they're later known as Tusken Raiders, a name explained in the expanded universe. But the "Expanded Star Wars Universe" may as well be the proverbial pinky-in-the-ass (I don't dabble). No, I am sticking to the movies, and in the movies, these Arabs are Sand-People. And they are just the worst.

Why it might not be racist:

Have you ever seen Tatooine? That bitch is sandy. These were never going to be the Lush Woodland People.

Why it almost definitely IS racist:

Sandpeople! Who are fully covered except maybe their eyes. Not to mention that they are sorta terrorists. Although their plots are nothing like modern day Islamic terrorists. They usually only involve kidnapping any person who is in their country -- even if that person is minding his or her own business but just in the wrong place at the wrong time -- and then torturing said pers.... oh wait. But let's not put the suicide before the explosion here... not all Sandpeople are terrorists, just an extremist sect. Which is why when you launch a full-scale broad-range attack, you're goin' to the dark side.

No but Anakin really did kill them all.

The Sandpeople weren't the only Arabs being thematically lambasted in the film. Meet the Jawas...

Cute right? Wrong.

The Jawas are described as the rodent-like natives of Tatooine who are the quintessential scavengers for new technology. I just saved you the first 30 minutes of Iron Man(Note to You: See Iron Man, it was awesome).

These little scamps are pretty harmless however, as their main goal is to sell or trade whatever they find. You could say they are the Shi'a to the Sandpeoples' Sunni (a sentence which dropped out of my ass). I'm gonna go with NOT RACIST even if it's only because the Sandpeople hogged it all.

Besides the inclusion of Sandpeople, the original trilogy came and went without so much as a whispered epithet, not even fish-belly (I thought long and hard about an Ewok connection to a stereotype. Please enlighten me if it comes to you easier than it did me). Then came Phantom Menace, which apart from the sexual confusion -- an 18 year old Natalie Portman pretended to be a 14 year old (now I know the vice versa can get me into some hot water, but....) -- gave us Watto.



Look at that picture. Do you see it? No? Look again...



Believe it or not those were not the same picture.

Why it's racist:

If you ask any Star Wars fan to describe Watto, they will not speak one sentence without the words "business" or "savvy." Also.... LOOK AT HIM! In creating alien races there are literally endless business sense-nose-hat combinations that could be used. I don't know about you, but if I'm the creator and the first answer is "savvy," I'm making sure the next two aren't "long/hooked" and "that one;" maybe not the first go-round, but at some point during editing.

Why it's almost definitely NOT racist:

In a forced labor situation, when is it the Jew that is the slaver and not the slavee?

A resounding NEVER beats out the "look at that nose" argument, but only by a 9% tip.

Tune in tomorrow for a shift to racism in the Star Trek universe...