They actually surprisingly entertained me. If the black people sitting in my row were laughing their asses off, I don't know why people are so uptight.

 

I don't want to repeat myself since we have 2 near-identical threads about this.

Here: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-movie-discussion/242791-robots-racist-4.html

ctrl-F my comment on that page.

Well of course not. I can imagine it's difficult to get an audience with the emperor of all black people.

- Coeloptera
(That's what he told me, anyway...)

 

You mean the self-appointed authority on black culture?

 

Don't they get personalities from human culture? I think Jazz did that in the first movie.

 

just saw it, and i stand by what i said earlier-not racists, just idiots who smack eachother around and talk tough-human culturists.

 

I don't know, I definitely felt a negative "black" stereotype vibe from the twins.

I would have much preferred a 3 Stooges homage if they would have made them talk like Larry and Curly with Bumblebee being the silent Moe.

 

That would be racist.

 

After reading over some of this, I'm of two minds on the subject.

When I first saw the designs for Skids and Mudflap, my thought was "hick", as were many other people's, along with some other observations... let's be honest, we've all see the "Down's syndrome bots" lines before.

Then, when the vocal performances came through, then the talk of racism began, with the features of the robots being added retroactively. I think, to some degree, that speaks to how much of it is an interpretation and perception issue.

My take was that Mudflap and Skids were essentially kids, trying to talk in a way that made them sound cool, in their minds. I really didn't think too much of the reading line, Wheelie couldn't read it either. Apparently neither could Bumblebee. That's just the way I saw things.

At the same time, it's sort of like the Palin joke on Letterman. What's important, the intent or the perception? Does it matter if the RotF team meant for them to be seen in such a way, or do we just concern ourselves with the idea that someone's angry, regardless. You could make an argument there could be latent racism at play, though I'm not sure it's the case.

In my experience, as a Native American, I find the name "Washington Redskins" to be terribly offensive. I've been told I'm overreacting and that it's not a big deal, but it's not THEIR place to be offended, and they should respect the opinions of others.

I honestly don't see Skids and Mudflap as racist in any way. However, I do think it's something worth looking at, if so many people feel they are.

 

sc:

I take that line partly as a "Holy smoke, they DID learn to speak from the Internets" moment, and it makes it less awkward. I still think "glitches" would have been funnier.

His transformation is supposedly influenced by capoeira,but I don't know enough about that martial art to agree or disagree, so it ends up looking like breakdancing to me as well.  

What bugs me about it is that it doesn't jibe well with his intended character. He's projecting a carefree attitude, but the filmmakers clearly intended him to be the conscience of the team...as we barely see later.

These conflicting elements would imply that Jazz is a deep thinker who puts on the carefree attitude...perhaps as a cover, perhaps striving to quash doubts. War is especially hellish for such people. It's tantalizing...the movie has enough to suggest that this dichotomy must exist, and in death he is literally torn in half...could this too be a metaphor? But in the end it's just frustrating, because the filmmakers had this potential and didn't draw it out.

 

So the old, reliable 'some of my best friends are black and they aren't offended by ________, so why should you be?' has now devolved to 'I happened to see some black people, and they weren't offended by ________'.

Unless you want to peg the people sitting in your row as somehow representative of an entire race (or even just people in general... it is possible to be offended on someone's behalf), this argument is pretty silly. Not everyone is offended by the same things.
I'm whiter than white, and when a black comedian does an imitation of a white guy, at least when it's done well, I usually think it's funny as hell (it's true, we're so lame!), but there is a certain segment of the white population that still takes offense to it (or at least, concocts a facade of offense in order to further a political point, but that's neither here nor there). Does the fact that I don't take offense mean that they: Don't? Shouldn't? Something else?

 

This.

They're kids tagging along with their idol, Optimus Prime. They think they're cool, and they try to act in a certain way based on what they've learned of Earth.

I sincerely doubt Bay likes to don a pointy white hat in his off hours. At the very least, this would strike me as unintentional offense, but not malicious racism. I didn't really see anything terrible about the way they were portrayed.

 

Back when Attack of the Clones was released, a paper in the US (of which I have since forgotten) had some sort of multicultural forum about the alleged racism in the film. A hispanic lady was offended by Jango Fett and the clones, and called him "totally hispanic" because of how he looked and it was some sort of comment by Lucas about the hispanics "invading America" like clones.

She continued with this despite it being pointed out that Jango Fett's actor was a Maori New Zealander. Sigh.

 

The same argument also works against critics who are claiming racism. No one person or group can rightfully claim to represent the views of an entire ethnicity or race.

 

Some people will just look for a reason to pile on why...Because it's popular,in the news because it's the premiere week and because it's going to make $$$$$$. If this movie fell on it's ass we would not here jack shit about any of this crap...

 

Seriously! People have way too much free time on there hands. During the school year, i go to a local high school in Irmo South Carolina and i hear teenagers of many ethnics talking like the twins do. I hear it everytime im there. How about, those of us that live in america call ourselves americans and we say they talk like americans! I dont care what color you are. You live here legally and are a citizen, you are an american!

Im sure there are alot more topics for those folks to try and do something about then talk crap about a movie! Its a movie! Deal with it!

 

How could they possible be racist?

Skids and Mudflap make no negative comments about any race.

They are not black people, they are robots from another planet!

As discribed in TF1 the Aubots learned Earths languages from the World Wide Web. This is where Jazz got his way of speaking from and probably the Twins as well.

The Twins are not so bright (and annoying) but that has nothing to do with their way of speaking, which they got from the internet. So they may speak in a way rap-people might do (but there are white rap people too) they are still alien robots and not blacks.
When learning English from the WWW they learned this way of speaking.

They sound mostly like stupid teenagers (which could be either white or black).

By the way. I read that the personalities were pretty much created by the people that did the voices for Skids and Mudflap and that 1 of them is black (not sure which one he did). So a black voice actor actually created the personality and aparently was OK with it.

 

I can't actually see him as an Earth ethnicity. I really can't because to me he's supposed to embody all that is noble and good in the universe, qualities it is possible for anyone to achieve that his ethnicity or lack thereof is irellevant. I choose my next words carefully: I judge him on his character and see nobilitiy, honour, integrity, courage, kindness and a strength like nothing on Earth.


By the same token, I didn't find Skids and Mudflap as racist or ethnic stereotypes (which I hasten to add only even exist for a reason), I just found them fucking annoying.