Transformers 2, racist-ish characters, blah blah — what else is new?
Gut reaction: The longest action film ever, but so good. Better than the first. Shia Lebouf is worthy of better things than this, to be honest.
And now the slightly longer, more in-depth look at two new characters that critics have said are “racist” caricatures. Minor spoilers ahead!
So there are two new characters introduced into this movie, named Mudflap and Skids. I don’t know anything about the Transformers universe, so I Wiki’ed the two characters, and the important things I’ve gathered from the characters are that:
Mudflap’s character in the original Japanese version was named Demolisher. In the American animated series, the character had a variation of a French accent.
Skids was originally named Diaclone. “Skids was characterized as the perfect absent-minded warrior. Highly intelligent and always collecting data, Skids is nonetheless always daydreaming. He is a scientist first and foremost, and has made many valuable discoveries.”
In the movie version, the two robots are twins who are hyper, loud, and speak in a ghettoized urban accent/dialect. They provide a majority of the comic relief in all the scenes they’re in, and ultimately, when the two of them get into a playful brawl, it leads to Sam Norwicky (Shia Lebouf) discovering one of the main artifacts that is key to this movie’s plotline. Not only does this sound really familiar to the Hollywood blockbuster norm for PoC — characters who provide comic relief and help the main white protagonist fulfill his potential — there are signs blaring everywhere that are too obvious to ignore.
I’ll admit it, the analytical side of my brain was pretty much shut off for the entire duration of this film because it’s sometimes really hard to enjoy big action blockbusters if you’re dissecting everything. But I mean, even if you went a little, teeny bit farther and looked at the characters and what they represented, and what the directors/writers created them for, it’s hard to turn a blind eye on them. In urban terminology, mudflap is that little flap behind trucks that acts as a barricade between the bottom of a vehicle and pedestrians from debris that may fly. And skids? Wellllll you can go look that up.
To give the only two characters who are hyper-urbanized and ghettoized these names that have to do with mud, dirt, and shit should be a point of discussion. In comparison, the main robots such as Bumblebee and Optimus Prime are presumed to be the “white” robots and those names are kept according to canon, but the PoC robots get different names, different personalities, different actions. Too much of a coincidence, no?
And of course, I love Michael Bay’s response to this. Let’s get real: he’s not the most subtle or the smartest of film directors, but even this is rich, coming from him:
It’s done in fun. I don’t know if it’s stereotypes — they are robots, by the way. These are the voice actors. This is kind of the direction they were taking the characters and we went with it.
I hate these bullshit, fake justifications. First, of course, put the blame on the voice actors. We’ll just forget about the fact that you were director and producer of this whole entire thing. Second, does anyone buy the fact that just because these are robots there can’t be stereotypes?
And I get so tired of having to explain myself to the legions of people who ask why these things have to be dissected. Like, it’s just an action movie, right? Why does there need to be so much taking apart and analyzing? Don’t get me wrong, this is the most intense action film I’ve seen in a while and I really loved it and would probably watch it again at Imax for full effect, but I’m paying my money to be entertained. I am a consumer of these messages. I watch this movie with other consumers who may or may not realize that these things are being thrown at them. I have every right to say, “Look, I think these characters have been caricaturized and that compared to the other characters, they have been modified much more, and for the negative as well.”
I don’t see anything wrong with you analyzing a movie like Transformers for its racial elements.
But why don’t you ever criticize East Asian media for their issues with race?
You watch East Asian media like Korean dramas, films, etc., so you have a good idea by now about what they portray.
They rarely if ever have white or other races represented. And if there are whites, they’re always either clueless, bumbling white man, or evil white man.
Your immediate response, of course, may be that oh there’s just not any white or other races in these East Asian societies. Well if that’s the case why don’t you criticize East Asian governments/societies for not promoting diversity and being exclusionary? If a white person in the US or Europe criticized non-white immigration and called to reduce it, you would rightly call him or her racist and fight against it. But you never say or criticize East Asian governments for their restrictionist and racist policies.
You justly criticize Asian representation in the American media. Well Asians generally have higher incomes in the US than other racial groups. Maybe whites, blacks, and Hispanics should start criticizing Asians for having higher median incomes. You never say anything about this though. To you all that’s important is how Asians are portrayed in the media and how Asians live/are treated in the US. Fair enough. You are Asian after all. But why should whites and other groups worry about fairness and impartiality when that’s hardly your agenda?
Again, there’s nothing wrong with your attitude and outlook. But it is hypocritical when you don’t step back and realize how you don’t critique the other side as well.
Whoa there, personal attacking is not cool.
First of all, this post has nothing to do with Asians or Asian Americans or East Asians in the media. Just to get that out of the way.
Second, I am completely aware that East Asian media has their own issues with race portrayal in their own movies, dramas, what-have-yous. But it is simply naive to say that just because EA media does it, then White American media should do the same thing because it’s “hardly on our agenda.” I’m not denying that racial issues don’t exist in EA, because they do, and it’s extremely harsh at times, but historically, there has not been the sort of racist white/Other dynamic in EA countries. Japanese internment camps. Chinese Exclusion Act. “Chinks,” “orientals,” “gooks.”
East Asian countries are still extremely homogeneous in nature, there’s no doubt about that. America touts itself as a nation that acts as a cultural melting pot — but always reduces PoC to be the foreign, marginalized others. They may be minorities, but they still make up a sizable portion of the population — whereas foreigners in EA countries do not make up a sizable portion of the population.
And why should Asians be criticized for having higher incomes for US than other racial groups?! Because they work really hard for their money?? Why should any race be blamed for doing that? And then on the flip side, why are there barely any Asians in the top-tier incomes of the US? Should we criticize the white people for dominating that spot? It doesn’t make any sense to me.
I will criticize Asian media for racist representation when I come across it. That’s my prerogative. If I had watched Hana Yori Dango 2 during this blogging period, I would’ve talked about the racist depictions of blacks. But unfortunately for you, I’m not watching it now, and thus I won’t do so because it’s irrelevant to my personal schedule.
Great post. I have yet to see this movie, but my brother did not like those two at all. It was tasteless.
“Whoa there, personal attacking is not cool…First of all, this post has nothing to do with Asians or Asian Americans or East Asians in the media. Just to get that out of the way.”
This wasn’t a personal attack. Sorry if it came across that way. And I understand this post isn’t specifically about Asians, Asian Americans, or East Asians in the media. But it is part of the broader topic of race and the media.
“But it is simply naive to say that just because EA media does it, then White American media should do the same thing because it’s “hardly on our agenda.””
Well I never said that white American media should do that.
“…historically, there has not been the sort of racist white/Other dynamic in EA countries. Japanese internment camps. Chinese Exclusion Act. “Chinks,” “orientals,” “gooks.””
There is a racist in group/out group dynamic in EA countries and it’s historically been stronger and remains stronger than in white countries, and that’s one of the reasons among others there’s never been non-trivial amounts of non-EA immigration into EA countries. Germans and Italians in the US were placed into internment camps as well, although the Japanese certainly bore the brunt of internment. How is the Chinese Exclusion Act different from exclusionary/racist historical and current immigration policies in EA countries? Ask a white (or black, Hispanic, etc.) person to try to immigrate to Japan for example and they will tell you how exclusionary and racist their immigration policies are. Actually you don’t even have to tell them to try to immigrate, they can just visit and they will be excluded from certain public places and face racism and discrimination. Every single ethnic/racial group has derogatory terms and epithets for other groups. This doesn’t make them right, of course, but it doesn’t prove anything either.
“America touts itself as a nation that acts as a cultural melting pot — but always reduces PoC to be the foreign, marginalized others.”
The melting pot idea really came into the fore in the post-WWII period. There was a precursor to it during the Progressive Era (see Teddy Roosevelt’s speeches for example) but it was different from the post-WWII and modern variety. Prior to this the US didn’t really conceive of itself as a melting pot, and had a more exclusionary conception of itself as a cohesive ethny sort of along the lines of how EA nations conceive of themselves today. If you can argue that America marginalizes PoC, then it’s hard to see how EA countries don’t do the same to those who aren’t of their respective EA ethnicity.
“They may be minorities, but they still make up a sizable portion of the population — whereas foreigners in EA countries do not make up a sizable portion of the population.”
That’s part of the point. Foreigners in EA countries don’t make up a sizable portion of the population because of exclusionary/racist immigration policies in EA countries. And EA countries rarely if ever get called out on it. Whereas Western nations are racist if they have restrictive immigration, and even if they have open immigration like they currently do (and unlike the rest of the world) there are other reasons sought out that warrant the charge of racism. If you’re going to be evenhanded, then you have to start by criticizing EA countries’ exclusionary/racist immigration policies.
“And why should Asians be criticized for having higher incomes for US than other racial groups?! Because they work really hard for their money?? Why should any race be blamed for doing that?”
I never said that Asians should be criticized for having higher incomes. The point is that you criticize the disparities among the representations of different racial groups in the US media, particularly of Asians. It’s equally valid to criticize disparities among different groups in the US according to other metrics such as income. Income disparities, particularly between whites and blacks/Hispanics are brought up all the time as a social problem so I don’t see why it can’t be brought up here.
“And then on the flip side, why are there barely any Asians in the top-tier incomes of the US? Should we criticize the white people for dominating that spot?”
The Asian population in the US is very small, around 4.4% of the population. So just in terms of statistics, because of the much greater population of non Asians in the US, the top-tier will likely be non Asian. Why can’t the higher median income of Asians be a point of contention? If the average depiction of Asians in the media was very bad, but the top-tier/best depictions of people were those of Asians, I’m pretty sure you would still take issue with this.
“I will criticize Asian media for racist representation when I come across it. That’s my prerogative. If I had watched Hana Yori Dango 2 during this blogging period, I would’ve talked about the racist depictions of blacks. But unfortunately for you, I’m not watching it now, and thus I won’t do so because it’s irrelevant to my personal schedule.”
It certainly is your prerogative. It is your blog after all. And I don’t expect you to begin criticizing or being very concerned about EA countries and their racism. You’ve made it clear that as an Asian-American your major concern is the Asian-American experience and life in the US, and this is of course perfectly understandable.
Anyway, I do enjoy your blog and your take on things, so keep up the good work.
I understand your argument, but again, I really don’t see how I have to address the East Asian side of it just to be even-handed because that’s not what I’m setting out to do. I critique the media as I see it, as I come across it.
If I have to be truly even-handed, I will have to address every single aspect of racism everywhere in the world and I just don’t have it in me to do that. Of course xenophobia is extremely prevalent, but again, I am talking very specifically about American media and how they choose to illustrate the PoC characters in comparison to the characters that are assumed to be white.
The point of my post is to say that within the movie industry in America, it has become the status quo to use PoC characters to highlight the positive potential of the white characters, and that stereotypes like those embodied by the robots in Transformers are so “the norm” that people like Michael Bay fail to even recognize it, or own up to the fact that he uses and endorses those stereotypes.
Going back to your point about Asians/median income:
1. “The point is that you criticize the disparities among the representations of different racial groups in the US media, particularly of Asians.”
Yes on your first point, no on your second. I have not mentioned Asians at ALL in this post, so I do not see why their income levels factor into the argument.
But let’s say they do: like I said, media representation and economic position are not mutually exclusive in terms of mainstream media. Just because there are more higher-leveled incomes of Asians in the US doesn’t mean they get to see more people of their race when they turn on their TV or go to the movies. With that train of thought, if economics is a viable point of contention because of my issue with disparity in media representation, then I should also bring up different metrics like the disparities among gender and power as well? I would not agree with that.
2. “If the average depiction of Asians in the media was very bad, but the top-tier/best depictions of people were those of Asians, I’m pretty sure you would still take issue with this.”
I’m not sure I understand. Do you mean if the depiction of the most wealthy Asians in the media were bad? If so, in that case, I would only take an issue with that if in comparison, the dominating race with the top-tier incomes were also depicted badly in the media.
Great post. I don’t think I can ever get all this from Transformers. Was too distracted. lol. But it does take out all the fun from the movie.
“Well Asians generally have higher incomes in the US than other racial groups. Maybe whites, blacks, and Hispanics should start criticizing Asians for having higher median incomes.”
Whoa that’s effing messed up! You’re comparing two unrelated issues.
I haven’t seen Transformers 2 yet, but I heard from A LOT of people, in fact, everyone who’s watched it that I talked to, that the depiction of those two robots was racist. I thought it was a knee jerk reaction at first but from first-hand accounts, not so much. Good post.