So, I know I may be late on this, but I wanted to call attention to what many perceived as racism in the 2007 blockbuster, Transformers. As you probably know, Transformers is a movie where alien robots can disguise or "transform" themselves into other forms. In this version (and in many others) they choose to transform into cars.
Now how can you be racist in a movie about alien robots transforming themselves into cars? I thought the same thing, but it's possible. The series is based around a war between the Autobots (good guys) and the Decepticons (villians). While most of the Autobots show very little personality, one in particular had plenty of it. This was Jazz. Not only does his main dialogue go "What's crackin lil bitches", but he's portrayed as flashy and foolish. Watch the clip below for an example:
That's right. Need more evidence that Jazz was black? True to Hollywood tradition, Jazz becomes the first and only Autobot to die. Plus he's voiced by Darius McCray, a.k.a. Eddie Winslow.
Even in the 1980's version of Transformers, Jazz was often speaking in "black" dialect and breakdancing. I'm not hatin on the 1980's homage, but couldn't the creators find some other way to show his ethnicity without relying on stereotypes.
I didn't notice the first time I saw it. I was finally informed when I classmate brought it up during a Public Speaking presentation. Regardless of this controversy, I still like the movie. I believe it's somewhat over-hyped (it has many obvious flaws that fans tend to ignore), but is generally entertaining.
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I noticed his "jazzyiness" but didn't read too much into. Black characters were portrayed pretty positive in this film...first, the super nerd was Anthony Anderson. I loved the part when the Australia* computer nerd says something along the lines of "he's my mentor". Way cool. Seeing black nerds on film excites me way too much. And then you had Tyrese's character who was a pretty solid military man. Bottom line I thought this movie was awesome! Shia and Megan Fox were great leads.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't go as far to say the black characters were portrayed positively. Yeah, Anthony Anderson was a nerd, but he also lived with his mom and was there for comic relief. Bernie Mac (also comic relief) had no problem calling his mother a bitch, whom also fit the MAMMY caricature (i.e. the stereotype black families are dysfunctional). Tyrese didn't have any negative, no positives either. I don't the characters were anything to out of the ordinary to cause a ruckus about, but in my mind they weren't portrayed positively.
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