LEGO's Jabba's Palace, Star Wars, and accusations of racism

[ticktockclock]

Edit by Rufus - Original thread title: LEGO accused of racism for Jabba's Palace resembling a mosque &

...minifigs resembling "terrorists, criminals, and murderers."

http://www.dailymail...sed-mosque.html

"It is clear that the ugly figure of Jabba and the whole scene smacks of racial prejudice and vulgar insinuations against Asians and Orientals as people with deceitful and criminal personalities."

Edited January 28, 2013 by Shadows
Adjusted the title to reflect the thread's direction

[Front]

Don't worry, only 0.000001 % of of the population in the country are part of that community, the rest find these accusations just as absurd as 99.9999 % of the people in the rest of the world.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Front

[Repeter]

I bet Lego is pretty worried.

[Jargo]

ERMERGERD!! by total coincidence a building toy model with a dome vaguely resembles a real world building!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone should point them in the direction of George Lucas.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Jargo

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

You've gotta be kidding me. Has anybody read the comments after that article. Unbelievable.

[CMP]

They're about 30 years too late on this.

[strangely]

I wonder if anyone will have the heart to tell these people that Naboo is a planet of domed buildings and towers.

Seriously though do they not realize this is based on a movie. It literally resembles the palace as seen in the movie, why exactly are they going after Lego on this.

And why single out the weapons in this set, when just about everything in the toy aisle focuses on something violent. If these people don't think the violence is appropriate than why exactly were they buying star wars for their children in the first place. If you don't find the toy appropriate than certainly the movie can't be appropriate either.

I'm sure the Disney lawyers are preparing a comeback, they're not going to let anyone bad mouth that 4 billion they just spent.

[Aanchir]

Most hilarious news I've read in quite a while. Tell me, was there ever a controversy like this over the actual Star Wars films, and this is just being used as a platform for bringing it up again, or are the people protesting this set simply completely out-of-the-loop?

A case could definitely be made over the actual portrayal of Jabba's Palace in the Star Wars films having offensive cultural undertones... if not for the fact that it basically is just an extension of the already-established architecture of Tatooine, which was chosen for geographic (desert setting) rather than cultural associations.

In any event, I can see how this could quite rightly outrage a person who had never heard of the Star Wars setting it's based on and simply saw this being given as a gift to a similarly-unaware kid. That would definitely be more than a bit awkward. However, you'd think that a bit of research would reveal this to be just a wacky misunderstanding and nothing worthy of organized protest/petitions.

[Bobsy]

Hahaha what an absolute crock. The sheer absurdity of that article brought a smile to my face. D'awwww. They're clearly doing their absolute darling best to poke out a reaction by comparing the set to the Hagia Sofia of all places. Their determination to get a rise out of people has clearly affected their ability to count - one of the most notable features of the Sofia as a mosque is that it has - hmm, let's just make sure: one, check, two, check, three, check - FOUR MINARETS. As opposed to the thousands of mosques around the world that only have one.

Oh, and while I'm feeling reasonable about this, two points:

1. The Hagia Sofia is not a mosque any more, and hasn't been for quite some time.
   
2. The Hagia Sofia was not built as a mosque, but an Eastern Orthadox church. That distinctive dome shape? Based on the Byzantine architecture of the period. In fact, the style became so beloved by Turkish muslims over the years that when the Blue Mosque was built next door, it intentionally mimicked the Sofia's architecture. But no-one in that article mentioned the Blue Mosque, so I guess it should really be the Byzantines who ought to be offended? The Emperor Justinian must be spinning in his grave.
   

That said, they have a point about the flick-fire missiles. They have no place in a Hutt's summer home.

Ahem. For non-Brits who aren't aware, The Daily Mail is not known in the UK as a paragon of journalistic integrity. It's known for it's strong right-wing bias, use of papporazzi, heavy hyperbole and demonstrable lack of ethics. Sadly this isn't a recent development either, as the paper was in favour of Mussolini back in the 20s and 30s, hedged its bets about Nazism in Germany and loudly trumpted the growth of Oswald Mosley's fascist movement in the UK. It should be noted that this story is not being widely reported - the Daily Mail thrives on sensationalism and percieved outrage. Where they can't find real outrage, they have a tendancy to try and create some.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Bobsy

[strangely]

In any event, I can see how this could quite rightly outrage a person who had never heard of the Star Wars setting it's based on and simply saw this being given as a gift to a similarly-unaware kid. That would definitely be more than a bit awkward. However, you'd think that a bit of research would reveal this to be just a wacky misunderstanding and nothing worthy of organized protest/petitions.

See that's the big problem right there. Who is spending such a large amount of money on something they've never heard of. And with the way they accuse Lego it makes them seem a bit crazy since Lego is only depicting what was in the movie.

[1974]

Dailyfail

Yeah, it's true that Jabba is not portrayed in the most flattening maner. I await the Hut class action lawsuit

Anyway, they're just selling papers and rehashing what GL have been taunted about since .. oh .. '77?

What I'm REALLY waiting for are all the feminazis complaining about CITY (well all LEGO 'cept Friends) is aimed solely to boys and thus is 'unfair', 'too masculine', 'fvcks up gender roles', 'and contains not enough pink' ... afterall it's been like this since TLG started, right?

Newspapers .. if they didn't contain ink, I'd use them in the toilet

[Vindicare]

Wooooow. Someone has WAY too much time on their hands. It's like the dude measuring and complaining about getting an 11 inch sandwich instead of a foot long at Subway.

How does Jabba resemble, in any way, that of a terrorist?! And yeah, they're a few years too late on this bus. Honestly, ate people really THIS stupid? Unbelievable.

[cortman]

Lame. Just lame.

Political correctness standards seem to have leaped drastically...

[Sir Walter Maugham]

If this random "Turkish community" wants to sue because they think they look like Jabba the Hut, I say let them.

Lego should pay them for giving everyone such a good chuckle.

Edited January 23, 2013 by Sir Walter Maugham

[Legoman]

This honestly made me laugh. Reading through the article reminds me of those pathetic conspicy theories looking way too hard into things in an attempt to put meaning into co-incidence. Good article for a laugh, but not much else..

[Mr_Malfoy]

The set doesn't even resemble the mosque at all! Thanks for the laugh though. It's as idiotic as people complaining about 11 - inch footlongs at Subway and how Beyonce lip-synched at the Inaugaration.

[Meatman]

I fail to see this racism.

The set doesn't even resemble the mosque at all! Thanks for the laugh though. It's as idiotic as people complaining about 11 - inch footlongs at Subway and how Beyonce lip-synched at the Inaugaration.

LOL, no kidding. It would be very interesting to see how this world would react to and survive some type of Alien invasion or other crisis.

[BrickG]

Put this in the section of people who think the moon landing was staged.

There's no point in giving these people any serious thought. There's no point in mentioning them. Move along... move along.

[Vindicare]

The muslims have pick on the wrong people this time. Star Wars will show them the meaning of the word fanatical.

! This reply had me rolling! These comments are great. I too hope that LEGO doesn't apologize or even make a reply to his group.

[Mister Phes]

Just wait till they discover the Prince of Persia sets...

[Faefrost]

Oh look, this story just showed up on Greta Van Sustern. Once again propagating the idiotic claims, without showing a picture of the actual movie. Yeah. That's gonna end well. (And apparently it is the "Austrian, Turkish Community" that is raising the fuss. /sigh

[CorneliusMurdock]

It would be very interesting to see how this world would react to and survive some type of Alien invasion or other crisis.

Well, first they would sue TLG for making light of the situation by putting out the Alien Conquest theme...

[Jedi master Brick]

This made me laugh. The protesters don't have a leg to stand on. The set is based on a building in a movie which coincidentally has a domed roof and a tower. This could be associated with several cultures. Any way I made no association between mosques and the set before.

[Mister Phes]

The inhabitants of Naboo should also lodge a complaint...

[Marvelfan120]

what makes me sad about this is that there are so many real problems in the world (many of them involving racism and real forms of prejudice/discrimination) that are not being addressed. the fact that anyone is taking this seriously is pathetic.