You say, “What I’m most concerned about is that with kids watching this film, seeing degrading racist stereotyping they accept it as normal.”

Are you not as concerned with kids daily exposure to the “degrading racist stereotyping” of gangsta rap? Why the focus on a single movie?

SC made some very good points. And I didn’t note any replies to my original post either. The fact is, if these two HAD been “Italian” mobster types no one would have said a word, if they had been the stereotypical comedic version of “Chinese” then no one would have said a word. As for rednecks, considering Jeff Foxworthy, I don’t think people are all that worked up about the “raceism stereotype” of rednecks. I might have missed the protests but I don’t think I did.

Animated characters usually are drawn from people or popular characterizations, so they have to choose someone of some race, nationality, etc., and some are gonna be “good guys” and others the “bad guys”. For many decades we’ve seen countless gangsters portrayed as Italian, and terrorists as Arab, after a long time being Russian.

Now, IMHO, before calling out something as “racism” you must be able to show that one race is predominantly cast as the “bad guys”, or as “dumb & stupid”. However, as I look around the TV & especially the movie landscape, I don’t see this happening. While Hollywood has not yet reached a point where the actors “reflect America” in terms of proportion of actors being as diverse as the country, but there sure have been a good number of very positive black characters in movies & on TV.

In fact, I think having Dennis Haysbert as president on 24, was an aid in the success of Obama’s candidacy, as it allowed Americans to get used to a competent black president, one who was a real leader, and credible. I don’t really see him being able to be successful, if all images of blacks in movies & tv were only negative, as it would have been very hard to flip people’s comfort zone, in just a couple years of campaigning.

Back to the movie, if the two characters, used for “comic relief” had been inbued with hillbilly stereotyped behavior and looks, would you be protesting the racism of this film? Which ethnic group should be depicted in a humorous fashion, and it is ok? Just wondering…

▶ Reply to This

I was embarrassed and disapointed by the potrayal of Skids and Mudflap in the sequel. This film would of gone through numerous focus groups and will have been scrutinised by dreamworks. They must have realised the negative stereotyping of latino/black people with these two characters. All races of man have positive and negative aspects and with this film being made by white men its no suprise to see such racism.

I mean why not make Skids and Mudflap out to be an inbred redneck?

What I’m most concerned about is that with kids watching this film, seeing degrading racist stereotyping they accept it as normal.

Bay’s comments that they’re robots or comic characters doesn’t wash with me. Filmmaking is an exact, market researched activity.

Maybe he should get some black minstrels in for Transformers 3?

1) Its only offended when its aimed at a culture that we respect. If it is someone else (as the examples I gave) then we are not offended and shouldn’t be.
2) The current presidency really is a cult of personality. Bush was dragged through every kind of mud and crap people could drag him through and people just grabbed the torches and joined in, but a movie might have made a sub sub sub SUB reference to our current President we need to be up in arms. Because somehow it depends on who is in the office that the office earns respect instead of us just respecting the position of President period.
3) Our priorities are completely in the sh.tter. We’ve had young and old “artists” (and I use the term very loosely in this regard) sing about killing cops and “smacking their hos”, I can’t even go to play rball without this crap blasting from someone’s car in the park. But that’s just “expression” and when someone makes fun of the type of people who sing those songs, step on the English language, and disrespect women in general, and the men and women who protect our communities then it becomes “racism”. How about the fact that “ganstah rap” is offensive to race? But that isn’t even talked about, as in I don’t see many (if any) threads on how it promotes a stereotype. Instead we pick on a movie where, quite frankly, I think the writers were trying to be “funny” not “insulting”. I would grant they failed misserably. But I would object to them being any more offensive than “ganstah rap” or any similar form of “entertainment”. This is less of a complaint so much as to show that “offensive” really differs from person to person. For isntance, I find calling someone a “douchebag” because they disagree with you offensive.
4) Since someone asked. In a Rated R movie you can show full frontal or rear nudity as long as there is no erection and no female sex organ showed. In PG-13 you can show partial nudity in a non-sexual way and “suggestive adult themes”. In a PG movie you can show classic nudity (such as Clash of the Titans if anyone remembers that movie). Transformers: ROTF did not warrant an R rating. Personally, I was less bothered by the Decepticon “genitals” than I was by the giant blue penis in Watchmen (Rated R but still not something I ever need to see again). I found the joke stupid but well within the rights of a PG-13 movie.

I didn’t like the movie for what I already stated, to me more important reasons than its “offensiveness” but then I have thick skin. It was badly written and the few people who could act (the soldiers) were given next to no air time whereas the people who couldn’t act their way through a school play (the main non-CGI characters) were given way too much air time. That’s what is important to me.

However, mentioning Obama by name and using that ass representative who consistently mentioning that he was acting on the direct order of the President….subtle but nonetheless intentional. Obviously biased Hollywood fiction at its best. We all know Obama is a hands on person and would have met with Optimus Prime in person and weighed in all opinions before issuing such a directive.

But…still a good observation.

you guys seems to forget about that its EXAGGERATED

its not racism but comedy, why do you have to get so upset about some fictional characters , stop creating racism everywhere.

from your point of view a black guy cant be an idiot in a movie… even worst some robot with a black guys voice cant be an idiot . good thing white people do not think the same way or else alot of movie would have created controvercies .

if all you guys ask is to be treated as equal , which you are, why dont you accept to be mocked like everyone else?

And yes, as others pointed out, every other group gets stereotyped in movies and it’s ok. Crying foul ONLY when it’s the group you belong to is hypocritical.

And let’s take it in context. Yes, they said they didn’t read much, but they pointed out right afterward that it’s ANCIENT Cybertronian text that they couldn’t read. I’m sorry, but I missed what stereotype of humans reads much of any ancient text.

Number 5 is just ridiculously contrived. They’re automotive references because they transform into CARS. Nearly every car part gets dirty. If they had been called Cupholder and Turnsignal, can you honestly say it would have made you feel better? Furthermore, they were existing character names with Skids being a scientist and pacifist and Mudflap being essentially the same character as the giant wheeled Decepticon early in the movie. As seems to be Holywood’s way of doing a movie remake, they pulled the names randomly out of a hat, and invented new, more modern stereotyped personalities to replace the older stereotyped personalities of the characters.

There’s enough real racism going on that inventing more isn’t really necessary. If we’re to move forward as a society and put an end to racism, artificially dividing us will have to stop.

As to the PG-13, that doesn’t mean “kids movie”. That means, as is explicitly stated in the definition and usually printed beneath the label, “parental guidance strongly suggested”. In other words, PG-13 is a warning that it isn’t for the little kids.

1) No one cried racism for the obviously cold, calculating Asian “trade federation” representitives in Star Wars.

2) I suppose you were disgusted by Bad Boys when they made the obvious slap on the shoulder of whites with their “borrowing some sugar” scene?

3) Back to Transformers. Skids and Mudflap were actually Transformers in the traditional series. They weren’t names made up to pick on a culture. What the purpose was in applying the names to these two characters or using the characters at all (I wasn’t all that impressed with them, I did like Jazz however in the previous movie).

I do have to agree with the writing bit, however. It was a little over the top.

I had other issues with the movie. But mostly in letting people that can’t act have more air time to do just that.
If I seem abbrasive, I apologize. I don’t condone racism. BUT, I do notice there is a double standard for it. Black comedians and actors are allowed to make fun of “white bread” but the reverse is somehow more of a sin. For another example, let them come out with a movie called “Black Chicks” and see if there isn’t an outcry.

Just a point on perspective.

However, the most glaring, blatant and mentally damaging form of racism came in the form of attack on ancient Black civilization. The directors played on the old theme that the ancient monuments were the work of aliens or outsiders. The first scene shows “savages” fighting the robots. The pyramids serve as a storage house for deceptacon technology. Ancient temples are superfluously destroyed, and in my estimation, driving home the lack of value for Black civilization.