MuthaFunka said:

(My date was a lot older than 16 btw )

no, but I like fighter jets and robots a LOT so that made up for it

ZombieKitten said:

MuthaFunka said:

It's true. If you were an alien that came to Earth, wouldn't you adopt the personality closest to the one that you had on your home world?

And I'm serious. If there were a bunch of white robots and nothing else, people would cry racist. There are two robots who act "thug" or "ghetto" (sadly, there are people who act like the twins), and people are crying racist. There's really no way to win.

Star Trek was the best of the summer flicks!

BenaimanBawkah said:

Uh...I think you're taking this WAAAAAY too far - it's a freakin' movie! Which means the writer or director or producer thought it was "hip" to make these robots into "hoodbots" thinking it would up the "street cred" of the film and they were TRULY WRONG.

BenaimanBawkah said:

So...the only way to represent Black Transformers is to have them act thug and ghetto?

noimageatall said:

No. I'm just saying, they're representing more than just one type of character/personality that way.

Jazz in the first one was all ghetto, and no one said anything about that.

BenaimanBawkah said:

Actually, they did. But since he really didn't talk after his intro, no one cared.

MuthaFunka said:

The point is though, that it's not really racist. I don't get how it could be. People actually talk like that. And besides, most movies are trying to appeal to different audiences. It IS about money a lot of the time, so yeah, they're going to put stuff in there that would appeal to certain groups.

BenaimanBawkah said:

Well, it's either racist or not racist - it can't be "not really racist". And it IS racist to think that the ONLY Blacks that exists are the ones that talk like that, therefore, let's present to the masses that this is the ONLY way to represent Blacks. So, yes, it's racist.

MuthaFunka said:

I agree with you that those characters are ridiculous, but technically, the robots are not "black" characters, they are robots.

And one of the main characters is black (played by Tyrese) so these so called black robots were not the ONLY representations of blacks in this movie.

Just playing devil’s advocate here...

JustErin said:

Well, that's just semantics, because they were obviously based off "Hood/Street Blacks". And yes, Tyrese's representation was cool, which further bothered me that the Ghetto Twins got more screen time than Tyrese did.

MuthaFunka said:

What I was saying was that it wasn't racist. You know how people tend to say "it's not really that way"? That's what I was saying.

And no, that's not the only way blacks talk, no. But that's how the characters were portrayed. Obviously it's not very offensive, or it wouldn't have been a flash in the pan type thing, like it was.

BenaimanBawkah said:

And the portrayal of Blacks in that manner is what has some people up in arms. THAT'S the whole point.

MuthaFunka said:

SOME people. People who actually understand why it was done that way aren't offended in the least.

BenaimanBawkah said:

And those are usually the people who haven't a true grasp on what's considered racist, so of course it doesn't bother them because they're not equipped to understand the insult in that.

MuthaFunka said:

I'm wondering how many people in the world truly understand what racism is to begin with.

Some people however, are nitpicky.

BenaimanBawkah said:

Oh, there's a bunch of people who have no clue - which is exactly why we have discussions like this to open the eyes of those that don't.

What if... what if all the "white" transformers were portrayed as Larry the Cable Guy, or some redneck methhead with no front teeth?...they all spoke in southern slang and kept saying, "Git-R-Done!?"

Trying to appeal to a specific audience by portraying the two "Black" robots as thuggish, ghetto, and gold-toothed says a lot to me.

Are you sure those are the only "black" Transformers?

My friends and I talked about it, and we kinda think that Ironhide and maybe Rachet are also.

Nikademus said:

Interesting...

And come to think of it, was it also as pathetic to make that little remote control robot sound like a stereotypical Italian?

noimageatall said:

Oh, the movie would've never been made then

MuthaFunka said:

Exactly...

Nikademus said:

What gave that impression?

JustErin said:

The one they sent to recover the shard?

MuthaFunka said:

I forget the reasoning behind Ratchet...but we all thought Ironhide had a very "Ving Rhames" kinda vibe to him. We came to that conclusion after talking about who would play the Autobots if live actors were used, not CGI.

Nikademus said:

Oh ok.

MuthaFunka said:[quote]

whodknee said:

That review was better than the movie.
[Edited 7/9/09 18:12pm]

whodknee said:

True dat!