Is the New Star Wars Movie Racist?
Some of the most impassioned — and downright silly — purveyors of political correctness can spot racism everywhere, even a wildly popular new movie like “Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones.”
According to a panel of community activists convened by the Detroit News, the movie invoked anti-Latino stereotypes by casting a swarthy actor as the intergalactic bounty hunter Jango Fett. Despite the fact that the actor who played the part hails from New Zealand — with no Hispanic background at all — political consultant Martina Guzman insisted “he looked totally Latino” and the planet the character came from, Kamino, sounds like the Spanish word for road.
Ms. Guzman says that even though most viewers won’t see such subtleties, it’s the responsibility of the so-called “intellectual community to call Lucas on what he's doing” — end quote. Which brings to mind George Orwell’s timeless observation: “Some ideas are so preposterous only an intellectual could believe them.”
Bill Maher’s Parting Shots
ABC TV has canceled its late night show “Politically Incorrect,” but the host of the program, comedian Bill Maher, still took parting shots at one of his favorite targets: organized religion. In a monologue explaining why he could never run for office, Maher declared, “I think religion is bad and drugs are good… God doesn’t write books, and Jesus wasn’t a Republican.”
Like so many other Bill Maher comments, this was intended to provoke conservatives and people of faith, but his replacement on ABC hardly represents an improvement: the network plans a new comedy talk show with the host of the raunchy, feeble minded The Man Show.
Despite his outrageous statements, Bill Maher always invited one conservative voice to be part of his panel — and I played that role on occasion. I won’t miss his crude, occasionally sacrilegious humor, but the disappearance of the show represents the elimination of a rare entertainment program that even attempted open discussion of big issues.
Michael Medved hosts a nationally syndicated daily radio talk show on which these editorials were aired. You can visit his website at www.michaelmedved.com.
According to the NAACP, this proves that schools discriminate — an argument that is both absurd and dangerous. Blacks on average earn lower incomes than whites — and poorer kids will generally score lower than children with more resources. African American students are also twice as likely to live in fatherless households — another crucial factor in school performance. In addition, the average black child watches significantly more TV than his counterparts — and more hours in front of the television usually means poorer school performance.
The NAACP should address these tragic causal factors, rather than assuming that every difference in educational achievement is automatically evidence of racism.
