Professor Peltier
Lit 201
20 March 2012
Black Skin, Wookiee Masks:
Displaced Racial Anxieties and the Plight of Chewbacca
Since the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, as the relationship between African- Americans and the white power structure changed, it has become imperative for the power structure to modify its actions. By the mid-seventies, as Manning Marable explains, while the power structure continued subverting the inroads of the Civil Rights Movement, the majority of African- Americans embraced a sense of optimism. It was believed that “the second reconstruction was on the verge of success. Black freedom would become a reality through gradual yet meaningful reforms within the existing system” (150). It is faith in the “existing system,” however, that led to further oppression and the shift in conventional racist beliefs. By this point, tens of thousands of African-Americans were in middle-class positions, working side by side with whites, slowly gaining status and a minimal amount of acceptance (150). Rather than bringing an end to racism, these small inroads forced a displacement of traditional racist anxieties based on the fear that power/capital was becoming disseminated more evenly throughout society.
The codification of these anxieties is apparent in America, yet, by 1977, “among all salaried administrators and managers, only 3.0 percent of the men... and 5.0 percent of the women... were black” (Marable 150). Although these minuscule percentages had little effect on the control of capital, they, nonetheless, effected race relations. The displacement of these anxieties becomes evident as we look at the Star Wars saga, and specifically at the character of Chewbacca. This is evident because, as Peter Lev asserts, “the science fiction film, as a construction somewhat removed from everyday reality, is a
privileged vehicle for the presentation of ideology” (30). Not only is it a carrier of ideology, but as he later explains, “Star Wars creates an ideologically conservative future” (30).
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The popularity of the films is obvious, they’ve collectively grossed over 1.5 billion dollars in North America alone (Star Wars Insider 15), yet their hegemonic impetus has gone relatively overlooked. In his article “Fu Manchu on Naboo,” John Leo reveals many racist stereotypes in the most recent addition to the saga, pointing to the Neimoidians as “stock Asian villains out of black-and-white B movies of the ‘30s and ‘40s, complete with Hollywood oriental accents, sinister speech patterns, and a space-age version of Fu Manchu clothing” (14). He continues by explaining the Anti-Semitic characteristics of Watto, the greedy, junk dealing, owner of Anakin Skywalker. He then discusses Jar Jar Binks, towards whom the loudest criticism has been directed, based on his Caribbean accent, his child-like behavior, his pseudo-dreadlocks, and his broken English.
After illustrating the stereotypical characters in The Phantom Menace, Leo claims Lucas “seems to have fallen back on some tired Hollywood ethnic themes mostly avoided in the first three [films]” (14). However, by assuming the original trilogy bi-passed the racial anxiety found in The Phantom Menace, Leo overlooks the importance of Chewbacca’s marginalized character, and the ways in which it reflects cultural trepidation in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement. He is portrayed in much the same way as Jar Jar Binks; however, in the case of Chewbacca, the supposed racial inferiority is coded so as to hide these stereotypes under a guise of friendship and equality.
In “Freaks in Space: ‘Extraterestrialism’ and ‘Deep Space Multiculturalism,’” Jeffery Weinstock explains Chewbacca is big-foot in space, the freak show hirsute man in orbit, the missing link between man and animal. However, if we cast Star Wars in the mode of the traditional American romance, a tradition structured, as Fiedler notes, by the homosocial pairing of the white hero and his non-white companion,1 then the depiction of Han Solo’s furry sidekick as an ‘inarticulate,’ ape-like brute incorporates some well known and particularly nasty racist stereotypes of black men (331). Of course, this also raises the issue of “nasty racist stereotypes” of Native Americans as well. Not only is Chewbacca like Jim and Quee-Queg, but he also resembles Tonto. While Han Solo’s clothing is much like the clothing of cowboys with their vests and low-riding holsters, we are first introduced to them in a
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“Cantina.” This thin characterization not only plays on the viewers racism, but it masks the “racist stereotypes of black men” that the power relations in the Star Wars saga rely on.
The first, broadest, example of Chewbacca’s marginalization comes in the form of the construction of the Wookiee race in general. His home planet, Kashyyyk, is described in the Star Wars Encyclopedia much like the jungles of Africa. Wookiees live in trees, they swing from vines, and they practice a pantheistic religion similar to the religions portrayed in older films endorsing imperialism1. However, if living in trees and swinging from vines isn’t enough to clarify how we are to read his race, they are covered from head to toe with hair; resembling primates as closely as they resemble humans.
This association with primates has long been used to reaffirm racist hegemonies. For instance, it is seen in traditional children’s books like Little Brown Monkey (1949) and Curious George (1941). In Curious George, The Man With the Yellow hat, a figure representing white imperialism, captures George, telling him “I am going to take you to a big zoo in a big city. You will like it there. Now run along and play, but don’t get into any trouble [emphasis mine]” (Rey 10). The implications are clear, and as Chewbacca is depicted as a monkey, African-Americans are again equated with this racist imagery, endorsing the culturally constructed ideological stance that blacks are sub-human. This age-old belief has obviously not disappeared in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, rather the power structure has simply found new forums for its manifestation. New tools have been developed to ensure the basic indoctrination of racial difference, while simultaneously hiding this indoctrination behind a veil of equality.2
This veil of equality is represented in the Star Wars saga by Lando Calrissian, a character developed due to complaints that the “Star Wars universe” was all white. Peter Lev argues that “Star Wars’ rebellion in no way challenges gender, race, or class relations. White male humans are “naturally in positions of authority” (33). However, Lando’s character seems, on the surface, to challenge this idea. As we are introduced to him in The Empire Strikes Back, we see the black administrator the mining colony, Cloud City. Again, only 3.0 percent of these types of positions were held by African-Americans men at
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the time these films were made. As administrator, he has seemingly attained equal status, realizing the “American Dream.” Lando Calrissian, a onetime gambler and smuggler, in a classic case of upward mobility, rose beyond his station, entering bourgeois society. In fact, his first conversation with Princess Leia revolves around his problems with labor disputes and the fact that Cloud City is small enough to avoid having to join the “mining guild” (Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back).
The reasons for Lando’s focus on class relations are two-fold. First, it establishes his dominance of capital which necessitates the persecution of the lower classes. As Lando gains power/capital, he in turn gains the anxiety that goes along with it. The acquisition of power/capital implies its inevitable loss, forcing him to protect it at all costs. As Marx explains in Alienation and Social Classes, “the proletariat and wealth are opposites” (Tucker 133). In modern capitalist societies, this proletariat must be understood, not only as working class whites, but as a conglomeration of the working class and the many different minority groups. Marx continues by spelling out the anxiety felt by the bourgeoisie in general and by Lando in particular, asserting the proletariat is “compelled to abolish itself and thereby its conditioning opposite - private property - which makes it a proletariat” (133).
This connection between the oppressor and the oppressed illustrates their dependence on one another: power is always-already shared. They define each other in that the power/capital of the bourgeoisie is always relative to the lack of power/capital of the proletariat. Lando is fully aware, just as the white power structure is, that any attempt by the oppressed to gain power places the lines between them under erasure. In his position, Lando obviously sees Chewbacca as a threat. In an attempt to protect his power, Lando strikes a deal with Darth Vader, supposedly ensuring that the Empire will ignore his operations. However, in the terms of the agreement, we are introduced to the second, more important, reason for his focus on class relations. As Darth Vader orders Princess Leia and Chewbacca to be placed upon his ship, Lando says, “I thought Leia and the Wookiee were to stay with me,” emphasizing his insistence on racial superiority. He doesn’t refer to Chewbacca by name, only by race. In refusing to acknowledge Chewbacca’s individuality, Lando assumes an inherent difference, one apparently important
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enough to justify his actions. He sees Wookiees as a group to be suppressed, just as the American power structure has institutionalized the suppression of, along with all other minorities, African-Americans.
Although the modern institutionalization of racist programs is extremely common, it is our sympathy for characters like Lando Calrissian that enables us to accept the differences. Viewers understand his representation of the “American Dream;” a dream we were all raised to believe and to expect. A dream represented by the existence of Cloud City, a floating, outer-atmospheric image. A dream spelled out by Eldridge Cleaver in his speech to the “Peace and Freedom Party” as he said “in your education you were given to believe the melting pot theory, that people have come from all over the world and they’ve been put into this big pot and they’ve been melted into American citizens” (Smith 166). This theory implies that we will all succeed as Lando has, that there is nothing to stop us, that there are no lines between races or classes. It endorses Lando’s rise to power, while simultaneously hiding the oppression his rise relies on. Regardless of the fact that we are aware, as Cleaver is, of the absurdity of this theory, as he points out, we have been indoctrinated since we were children and this propagandizing not only forces us to accept Lando’s actions, but those of Princess Leia as well.
In the first meeting between Leia and Chewbacca, they are walking down a hallway in the “Death Star” as she asks (in reference to Chewbacca), “will someone get this walking carpet out of my way?” (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope). Of course, this is, first and foremost, comic relief, but it is only comical because we are able to marginalize Chewbacca, overlooking how it affects him, seeing him as a lesser life-form, in the same way she does. Her comment can also be explained away by claiming she has never met a Wookiee, and is somehow ignorant of its racist undertones. However, this defense doesn’t work because Leia is a member of the Galactic Senate, a governmental body upon which, in The Phantom Menace, we see Wookiees sitting alongside humans. She is obviously acquainted with Wookiees, yet something still prevents her from accepting him.
Leia’s racism protects, as Lando’s does, her elevated class status. Like Lando, she also fears the loss of power much like the American bourgeoisie, yet the bourgeoisie has an easier time identifying with
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her fears than with Lando’s. Her class status, like theirs, is personally, arbitrarily defined. It doesn’t come from her position on the Galactic Senate because, by this point in the saga, it has already been disbanded by the Empire. It comes solely from her title, a title that is, at best, questionable.
If we are to accept Leia as a princess, we must determine what she is princess of. Her mother was the queen of Naboo, but that is an elected position, and elected positions are not hereditary. Her adoptive father, on the other hand, was King of Alderan, but it was destroyed, making her a princess of a non-existent world. She is, in a sense, self-declared royalty. Her title carries unwarranted cultural capital so as to wield empty symbolic power over the likes of Chewbacca. This self-declared royalty, although awkward, is easy for the American audience to accept. William Randolph Hearst portrayed himself as a king, building himself a castle, and more recently, we witnessed this with the Kennedys3.
Leia’s racist attitude is not an isolated incident either, but rather, an ongoing presence. At the end of A New Hope, for instance, after the Death Star has been destroyed, Luke and Han are awarded medals as a token of gratitude for the roles they played in its destruction. Yet Chewbacca, Han Solo’s first mate, is given nothing. He walks with them in the ceremony, but, upon reaching the stage, he stands behind them, His role in the battle is over-looked. Once more he is marginalized based on race, which again, reinforces the hegemonies, showing the audience it is acceptable, and even expected, to show preference in this manner. Attitudes that continue to affect job placement, education, social relations, and the American justice system, as African-Americans are still commonly over-looked.
Considering the marginalization of Chewbacca, it is imperative to discuss his language, a language that, according to Star Wars Encyclopedia, consists of “a series of grunts and growls, and while they can understand other languages, their limited vocal ability makes it impossible for them to speak anything other than their own” (338). This hinders their communicative ability, seeing as the language known as basic (A.K.A. English), has been established within their galaxy, as it has here in the United States, obstructing the rise in social status of all non-native speakers. Just as the treatment of Chewbacca is a hegemonic tool, so is the portrayal of his language.
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The debate over Ebonics as an educational tool, as an acceptable language, originated in the 1978 court case, Martin Luther King, Jr. v. the Ann Arbor School Board. The ruling states the use of Ebonics in education is acceptable (Perry 4). However, twenty years later in the Oakland Resolution of 1997, it became an issue again, proving the court decision had little effect on educational institutions. Just as viewers expect Chewbacca to be hindered based on his language, they also assume African-Americans
should be as well. They are led to see, so-called, Black English as a dialect, or more precisely, as a deviation from the standard language, despite Ernie Smith’s argument that it is not a form of English at all, but a language all its own. He explains, linguistically, languages are defined by their grammar and syntax, not their vocabulary, aligning Ebonics with the language systems of Western Africa, rather than English and Germanic (Perry 49). As people ignore this understanding, they reaffirm the notion that Ebonics is simply a derivative of their own, culturally superior, language.
While the characterization of Chewbacca supports and reaffirms established racial hegemonies regarding class relations and language, it also puts forth traditional beliefs pertaining to sexuality. In this case, his relationship with Leia is again important as he represents what Henry Louis Gate, Jr. refers to as the “stereotypes of the oversexed black... male” (290). Gates explains how African-American males are often portrayed as sexual predators: to be both feared and eroticized. When Leia claims in Empire Strikes Back that she would “rather kiss a Wookiee” than kiss Han Solo, she accomplishes two things. First, it is, again, clearly comic relief. We are meant to laugh at both Chewbacca and Han, understanding the horrific implications of sexual relations with a Wookiee. While we equate this with the implications of interracial relationships in the United States, our cultural, ideological hatred for these relationships is reinforced. Our laughter at Chewbacca, reminiscent of our laughter in A New Hope, enables Leia to reaffirm her dominance, for, as Foucault asserts, “pleasure and power do not cancel or turn back on one another; they seek out, overlap, and reinforce one another” (48).
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Secondly, we find out she really would “rather kiss a Wookiee.” In dealing with her sexuality, Lev argues “in Star Wars there is simply no sex... the one prominent female character, Princess Leia, does not appear in sexual terms” (35). His claim is reinforced by Vivian Sobchack in her argument that Leia is “simultaneously protected and desexed by her social position (princesses are not to fight for, not to sleep with) and by her acerbic and pragmatically critical attitude” (106). Lev continues, claiming that the only sexual image in Star Wars occurs as the torpedo enters the Death Star, overlooking the phallic image of the light saber, a cylindrical object that hangs from the waists of the Jedi Knights as a symbol of their ultimate power.
Leia’s sexuality, although ignored by Lev and Sobchack, is of vast importance to the films as well. It defines her relationships with Luke and Han as well as with Chewbacca, (and we must remember that her action figure dressed in a metallic bikini from Return of the Jedi is the only female action figure to sell as well as Luke and Han figures, implying it is not only important to the films, but also to the fans). Not only does she fear the lower classes, but as the Foucauldian pleasure/power relationship is played out, it becomes apparent that she desires them; a desire realized in A New Hope. After they escape from the Death Star, she cheers “we did it” and she and Chewbacca quickly hug; however, the look on her face shows she understands the broken taboo and she quickly sits down, pretending it never happened, while simultaneously reveling in the fact that it did. Through these relationships, Leia, and others in her position, are able to assert their power4. By seeing Blacks simply as sexual objects, they, like women, are relegated to subordinate positions. Positions the power structure relies on in order to protect their capital.
While we watch the power relations in the Star Wars saga, our understanding of power relations, and, in turn, race relations, in our society is authenticated. We, almost unwillingly, accept the stereotypes and the marginalization within the films, simultaneously applying them to our own lives. Although these beliefs had been in place for centuries before the Star Wars movies were made, the films are important because the Civil Rights Movement worked so strongly against them. As old systems began to crumble, new ones were established in order for the power structure to maintain its control. The Star Wars
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films fill a void left by new legislation, they uphold many long standing beliefs. The character of Chewbacca as “missing link and subordinate nonwhite companion reifies the position of white male as top of the evolutionary ladder” (Weinstock 331). They preserve the ideologies brought into question in the 1950s and 1960s, ideologies that still codify racism, only now this codification is hidden behind a thinly veiled system of propaganda supporting integration.
Notes
1) i.e, the Tarzan movies, Jungle Jim, King Solomon’s Mines, et.al.
2) It must be remembered that the association between blacks and monkeys is not, by any stretch of the imagination, obsolete. In a recent radio interview, Chuck D, the leader of the rap group Public Enemy, was told by a caller to “go back to Africa,” while another caller wondered why the radio station even paid homage to African-Americans by “putting these monkeys on” (qt. in Public Enemy).
3) In an interview, only days after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Jackie Kennedy attempted to prevent the spread of rumors concerning her “less than fairy-tale romance,” by starting rumors of her own. She insisted Jack’s favorite song was the theme to Camelot, quoting the refrain “don’t let it be forgot / That once there was a spot / For one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot” (Endewelt). This association authenticated the romantic qualities of their marriage, and in turn, the romantic qualities of JFK’s years in the White House. The simple act of referring to herself as royalty, made
it so, cementing her place in American cultural history and granting herself the power/capital that goes with it.
4) These power relationships are represented often on pornographic Internet sites like “cyansex.com,” where a page exists labeled “gallery/niggers.”
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