THE RACISM AWAKENS: George Lucas Speaks Out on New ‘Star Wars’ Film
I’ve often written that liberals have the uncanny ability to find racism even where it doesn’t exist. It’s true. For them, racism is like the mysterious “force” in the Star Wars series. Think about it.
Imagine a bunch of liberals sitting around someplace. One says “Tony, feel the racism” and the one called Tony closes her eyes, clinches her jaw, and then determines that the blinking colon separating the hours from the minutes on the digital clock in the room is evidence of racism. “The racism is strong…it’s near”, she Obi-Wans. They quickly tweet to #BlackLivesMatter, shout a few of the standard line items from the “Hey Hey Ho Ho (insert catchy slogan here) Songbook”, and then dash a hasty retreat to the nearest Safe Zone.
So it goes with Star Wars creator George Lucas. In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, the otherwise highly talented film-maker lamented his sale of the series to Disney thus:
“I sold them to the white slavers that takes these things and…”.
And what, George? They take them, make The Force Awakens, and entertain millions of people around the globe while earning a nice profit for their efforts? Was that it? Maybe part of it. In the same interview Lucas admitted that Disney was less than receptive to his ideas. Maybe that’s what he was going to say before he realized he sounded dumb enough already.
He sounded dumb because the words he strung together are unintelligent.
To begin with, he failed to follow the carefully constructed narrative MSNBC host (and Wake Forest professor) Melissa Harris-Perry put forth on her show. According to Sister Citizen, Darth Vader represented the racism within Star Wars because Vader’s costume was all black. Black bad. White good. So explained Dr. Perry, as she posed ironically with an image of the Empire’s Stormtroopers all clad in shining white as her background. Maybe George was confused.
Narratives aside, where is Disney enslaving people? Is there some sordid backstory Lucas was referring to? Was he asleep one night at Skywalker Ranch when a troop of Disneyists led by Mickey Mouse himself broke through the gates, reached the main house, and forced him to sell Star Wars to them in exchange for $4.05 billion? Nope. Rather, it seems that Mr. Lucas entered into a fair and square transaction in which he gave them Star Wars and they gave him lots of money. Which isn’t slavery. No one made him sell his film series. He could have refused. He could have negotiated a deal more to his liking.
Unless he was referring to the cast. They, too, could have opted out. No one forced them to act in The Force Awakens. They all made out pretty well too. Harrison Ford’s (Han Solo) paycheck was somewhere between $10 and $20 million. Mark Hamill (Luke) and Carrie Fischer (Princess Leia) were paid more than a million for their roles. (In Hamill’s case, his role in the film consists of one scene that lasts no more than a few minutes towards the end). John Boyega (Finn) and Daisy Ridley (Ren) were paid in the low six-figures and Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron) mid six-figures. Not seeing any evidence anyone was placed in irons and forced by the master’s whip to read their lines and swing their light-sabers on demand.
And before the usual suspects emerge in the comments section to angrily note disparities between what established actors like Ford and what newcomers like Ridley took home, it’s called experience. Harrison Ford made more because he is an experienced veteran of the silver screen. Ridley made less because she isn’t. By appearing in the movie, Ford gets to maintain his brand while Ridley’s career is set up very well for future growth in the entertainment business. Both, along with the bulk of the cast, are card carrying labor union members (Screen Actor’s Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). Take any further complaints up with their union.
Or complain to George Lucas. No doubt when he was master of the Star Wars plantation he didn’t pay each and every thespian under his yoke the same. No doubt he took creative liberties with his product that others might not have liked. Whatever sins Master George assigns to Disney are probably little different than the things he did when he owned the series.
Oh wait, he didn’t just say “slavers”. He said “white” slavers. Can’t forget the self-loathing some white people feel and how that factors into all this.
Quentin Tarantino comes to mind – he’s a big Black Lives Matter guy. He’s not the only one. Hollywood is rife with such self-hating attitudes. Consider how easy it is to find in entertainment, examples of white people typecast as racists, buffoons, or simply uncool when contrasted with those of color. In the rarefied atmosphere of like-minded thinking that is Hollywood, it’s wouldn’t have been hard for George Lucas to develop such beliefs over a lifetime spent making movies.
So when it comes to Star Wars, George Lucas sees himself as neither white – even though he’s as white as the driven snow – nor a slaver because he thinks his version of the series was cool. And Disney’s version of Star Wars is “white”, and they are “slavers”, because the movie they made wasn’t as cool?
Pretty much. That’s racism, awakened.
So it goes in our day and age in which racism is The Hero With A Thousand Faces*. For the left, racism is an underlying monolith that branches out into all aspects of life and manifests itself everywhere. A matter of personal opinion – even if it’s an opinion of a movie – can even be treated as an example of racism. It’s there whenever it’s needed. In the same way Gotham City could activate the Bat Signal so that Batman and Robin would spring into action and crush the villains, crying “racism” mobilizes the left to act out against anyone they’ve vilified.
But only liberals get to use it. Only liberals “cool” enough to distance themselves from all things white and western. Even if today’s villain is Disney.
* The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, first published in 1949, influenced early development of Star Wars. In this book, Campbell puts forth the idea that all religions and mythologies derive their subject matter from a singular “monomyth” as the underlying theme.
Image: Flickr, courtesy of https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Lucas.jpg