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Melissa Harris Perry on how Star Wars is racist

Never really watched much of Harris-Parry but from what I remember (and this was probably 3-5+ years ago) she was never as nutty as she's been lately. Then again maybe she was and I just never saw it, it'd explain why she is still in the terrible Saturday Morning spot (I think it's aired there? Used to be Hayes then Harris-Parry and don't think she moved up)
 
Seems some like to throw around the word racist far too often at a point it begins to lose it's meaning, maybe that is the intent.
 
She basically recited Hooper X's speech from Chasing Amy. Part of me wonders if she wasn't trying to be funny and just failed miserably, but yeah, MHP is pretty useless.

A good summary of why this is stupid from Mediaite:

Darth Vader first tells Luke that he is his father when he is still in his black armor, or “a black guy” as she puts it. There was never a point where he didn’t “claim his son”; as soon as he discovered Luke was alive, he took steps to reunited the family and “rule the galaxy as father and son.”

The decision to dub over Darth Vader’s voice with Jones’ was made in post-production. He was originally voiced with a Scottish accent.

Of course Vader is depicted as white when his helmet comes off. As the father of lily white Luke and Leia, it would have been a little jarring if he was a Korean dude or something.

The notion that dark is evil and light is good is a well-established literary trope that predates American race politics, and dates back to the Bible.

While there are only three Star Wars movies, rumor has it that George Lucas made a movie where Darth Vader is obviously white and goes around butchering children.
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Shadowless said:
Did you read the book? If not, read it before you speak.
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Read it?? No. Read reviews of it - yes. It's the usual tactic of taking stuff out of context to prove a point. If the point she was making was valid, she wouldn't need to resort to crappy correllation based research and instead would be using actual fact based research.
 
JayDubya said:
Wow. So this lady is a real life version of the black militant comic book writer in Chasing Amy.

Only even within the context of the movie, that character was just putting on an act, and this lady is that crazy for real.
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Ummm... Yes she is.
 
faithful_servant said:
Read it?? No. Read reviews of it - yes. It's the usual tactic of taking stuff out of context to prove a point. If the point she was making was valid, she wouldn't need to resort to crappy correllation based research and instead would be using actual fact based research.
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Facts;

The US holds 1/4 of the worlds total prison population.
Over 60% of that population is black or latino.

How do you explain those facts?
 
Shadowless said:
Facts;

The US holds 1/4 of the worlds total prison population.
Over 60% of that population is black or latino.

How do you explain those facts?
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That black and latino populations commit a lot of crime?
 
Henrin said:
That black and latino populations commit a lot of crime?
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OK David Duke. As a libertarian you should know the government chooses to enforce certain laws more than others in certain communities.
 
Shadowless said:
Let me ask you....when/what situations do you see racism at play?
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Well, how about Lando losing the Millennium Falcon to Han Solo in a sketchy and overtly racist game called Sabacc. After losing his ship poor Lando was forced into hard labor mining the planet of Lothal where he was payed a fraction of what White miners where paid.

And then there's that time someone hung a noose in Lando Calrissian's locker. Eventually Lando ( most obviously George Lucas's token Black guy ) wound up taking a Government job as the Baron administrator of Cloud City where eventually the evil Empire forced poor Lando into turning on Han Solo.

Melissa Harris Perry has reminded us that " racism " exist around every corner. That the people, depending on the color of their skin are not responsible for the choices they make today because their ancestors may have or may not have been slaves. She's reminded us that being the pathetic, powerless and perennial victim of a made up, all encompassing systemic evil force ( racism ) is what empowers people to make better choices.

To grow personally, emotionally and financially.
 
Shadowless said:
Facts;

The US holds 1/4 of the worlds total prison population.
Over 60% of that population is black or latino.

How do you explain those facts?
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Common sense tells me it's because they either commit more crimes, or they're just not very good at not getting caught.

I would say that being raised in a low income household and living in poor, inner city neighborhoods probably has a lot to do with it. Then when you are arrested and don't have the money for a descent lawyer and have to rely on public defenders, you are far more likely to be convicted.

What I'm saying is economic status is the reason, not racism.

.
 
So she pissed in her peanut butter again, did she? :roll:

Well, one would think that sooner or later...when it hurt enough, long enough that the chief honchos around MSNBC would have hired a producer who would have actually reviewed her stuff before she decided to put her "other foot" up her ass. That causes tough landings. And harder to get around.
 
OrphanSlug said:
This is why today's civil rights movement (and those that speak about it like this) is doing such a disservice to the movement from the 1950s and 1960s. Fighting for equal protections and recognition under the law became about a model of designing the appearance of racism as a means to vilify, which has absolutely nothing to do with a desire for social cohesion.
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As always, the greatest threat to any group or movement etc., is from the fringe within it.
 
Shadowless said:
Facts;

The US holds 1/4 of the worlds total prison population.
Over 60% of that population is black or latino.

How do you explain those facts?
Click to expand...

The big lie: African-Americans don't care about black-on-black crime - Chicago Tribune

So Blacks are shooting other Blacks at a alarming rate in Inner City areas because of " Racism " ? Slavery ? Systemic racism ? Whitey ? The Man ?

The choice to pull a pistol and shoot another man TODAY, can be directly attributed to something that happened generations ago, right ? " Slavery ", Jim Crowe ( introduced to the World by Democrats ), " systemic racism ", these explain the increased violent crime in places like Baltimore and Chicago ?
 
Grim17 said:
Common sense tells me it's because they either commit more crimes, or they're just not very good at not getting caught.

I would say that being raised in a low income household and living in poor, inner city neighborhoods probably has a lot to do with it. Then when you are arrested and don't have the money for a descent lawyer and have to rely on public defenders, you are far more likely to be convicted.

What I'm saying is economic status is the reason, not racism.

.
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You're right, it's economics as well. The only thing is, I believe it is definitely both classism and racism combined. There are a lot of poor white people who are screwed over with these kinds of laws as well, especially through selective enforcement though not as often. These tend to be enforced in urban areas, rather than rural.
 
Fenton said:
The big lie: African-Americans don't care about black-on-black crime - Chicago Tribune

So Blacks are shooting other Blacks at a alarming rate in Inner City areas because of " Racism " ? Slavery ? Systemic racism ? Whitey ? The Man ?

The choice to pull a pistol and shoot another man TODAY, can be directly attributed to something that happened generations ago, right ? " Slavery ", Jim Crowe ( introduced to the World by Democrats ), " systemic racism ", these explain the increased violent crime in places like Baltimore and Chicago ?
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If you don't intend to learn and understand the world around you, then all you will have is your bubble. Simply because the system we have is rigged to produce a certain outcome doesn't mean you, or I, or all white people are responsible. We have a responsibility to acknowledge the problem and not add to it.

51% of people in US federal prisons are there for non violent drug offenses.
 
Grim17 said:
Common sense tells me it's because they either commit more crimes, or they're just not very good at not getting caught.

I would say that being raised in a low income household and living in poor, inner city neighborhoods probably has a lot to do with it. Then when you are arrested and don't have the money for a descent lawyer and have to rely on public defenders, you are far more likely to be convicted.

What I'm saying is economic status is the reason, not racism.

.
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Economic status isn't the whole story.

Cops tend to focus most heavily on those areas. That has statistical effects. For example, the most common drug addict is a middle class white male. The most common arrested for a drug offense is ...... you guessed it.

Now, it is obvious that the police should target "high crime areas" more carefully. BUT, this will necessarily have the effect of perpetuating its status as a "high crime are". If you're not regularly stopping middle class white males, patfrisking them, searching their car, etc, then you're not going to catch white middle class males with contraband. If you are regularly targeting black males, then that will be who you catch. Who you catch and who you do not catch creates the statistics. The chicken and the egg.....

One has to question the motivation of race-influenced policies. For example, google the numerous NYT articles documenting the fact that the NYC police targeted blacks for stop & frisks at 9 times the rate they targeted whites, even though a greater percentage of the whites stopped were found with contraband. Were individual officers racist? Were the higher-ups who sent the officers to minority-heavy locations to conduct stop & frisks racist? I don't know specifically, but only an irrational belief can explain the decision to stick with a statistically irrational policy.




Finally, as for the "public defender" remark: These are people who go into the job because they are really pissed off about the systematic violation of rights of the citizens by police, prosecutors, and sometimes courts. These are people who should be supported by conservatives. But their ability to do their job properly is most severely hampered by conservative states, in which slashing the budget is assumed to only result in a loss of "waste". If anyone is more likely to lose with a public defender, it is because that state's legislature deliberatley crippled the public defender system by massive underfunding and laughable salaries. Public defenders care enough that they are willing to eat the laughable salary for a chance to fight government misconduct.
 
Shadowless said:
You're right, it's economics as well. The only thing is, I believe it is definitely both classism and racism combined. There are a lot of poor white people who are screwed over with these kinds of laws as well, especially through selective enforcement though not as often. These tend to be enforced in urban areas, rather than rural.
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It's not that there is more enforcement, it's that there is more crime in urban areas and more crime means a heavier police presence. Law enforcement agencies have to put more police where there is more crime, and less police where there is less crime... That's just common sense.
 
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Shadowless said:
If you don't intend to learn and understand the world around you, then all you will have is your bubble. Simply because the system we have is rigged to produce a certain outcome doesn't mean you, or I, or all white people are responsible. We have a responsibility to acknowledge the problem and not add to it.

51% of people in US federal prisons are there for non violent drug offenses.
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Where are you getting this statistic?
 
I seem to recall that someone was saying that the Lord of the Rings was racist as well.
 
Quag said:
I seem to recall that someone was saying that the Lord of the Rings was racist as well.
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They also said it about "Doctor Who" and any other number of shows....

Meanwhile, Star Trek was clothes-ist against people who like wearing red.
 
Grim17 said:
It's not that there is more enforcement, it's that there is more crime in urban areas and more crime means a heavier police presence. Law enforcement agencies have to put more police where there is more crime, and less police where there is less crime... That's just common sense.
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Picture a snake eating its own tail.

It is difficult to separate whether an area is targeted where more crime happens and whether the reason more crime appears to happen there because more resources are devoted to discovering crimes there.
 
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