Star Wars and the Conditions of Ethnocentrism

In this paper, I plan to address and present Star Wars as an abstraction for how we as a society view xenophobia and racism, and how it changes our communities and values surrounding those ideas. I will review the treatment of droids, of aliens, and the value given not only to those who are wealthy and speak the common language, but also the value of humanity and humans as a race. Through the abstraction of Star Wars, we can begin to better understand our own broken society, and understand the methods and means of oppression through language, treatment, and othering.

A continuous theme throughout the Star Wars series, whether the prequels, sequels, or originals, is that of droids as objects. Even with proof of droids being capable of independent thought and emotion – as beings with self-awareness – they are often belittled and treated as lesser beings to humans and other races. This treatment is carried out across multiple generations of droids, from R2-D2 to BB-8. Droids are treated as lesser beings, below aliens and humans alike.

A healthy example of this treatment could be that of C-3P0 throughout the series. He’s often belittled and seen as an annoyance, despite how useful and smart he is. When he is facing death or near certain destruction, he’s seen as little more than a frustrating robot preventing the completion of a task at hand, such as when the crew is navigating an asteroid field[1]. While he could be treated that same way if he were a human, the main characters are quick to deactivate him if he becomes too much of an annoyance, without regards to what he wants or what could otherwise be best in the situation. He is treated as little more than a pawn in the story, to further the goals of the main characters.

An Instance Where We See C3-P0 Treated as a Nuisance

Among mixed groups of aliens and droids, it’s clear which is the dominant group. Even amongst two marginalized groups, aliens still often take priority, likely due to the idea of a heartbeat being superior to metal machinery, even with both being competent and self-aware. The Empire often values humans over aliens, and aliens over droids for their more complex tasks. While the Rebellion does the same thing, it is often to a lesser extent; all of the playing fields are at a more equal level, with treatment of droids being on par for treatment of both humans and aliens.

From the beginning of the series, aliens are ‘othered’ in the Star Wars universe. When they don’t speak the common language, they are sometimes subtitled, but only if there is enough weight to what they are saying for it to be relevant to the viewer and the protagonists. Some of the time, even the important aliens are not given subtitles. Aliens are also portrayed in a way that dictates them as violent and shady, grimy and inferior[2]. This forces the viewer to typically find most of these aliens in a negative light, and can make the viewer predicate or prejudge characters before knowing their motives and alignment. When aliens aren’t viewed in a negative state, they’re sometimes seen as less intelligent and childlike, such as the Ewoks[3], or more minor characters like the Jawas in A Certain Point of View.

An expanded idea could come from looking at how money is negotiated among alien races, both within the canon Star Wars universe, and the expanded universe, coming to include From A Certain Point of View[4]. Monetary relations among aliens further their own lives separate from the main plot that’s continually fed to the audience. In later episodes, we see the effects of gambling from the Empire and how it trickles down to smaller communities, affecting poor and disempowered humans and aliens alike. No creatures are immune to the struggle created by inequality. For alien races, money allows them privileges often afforded only to humans, as seen in The Secrets of Long Snoot from A Certain Point of View; the main character is forced to be a bounty hunter and help the Empire because of situations put in place by the Galactic Empire that forced him into financial strife and separated him from his family[5]. While humans take these opportunities for granted, aliens within the two opposing forces, or beyond those boundaries, are forced to fight tooth and nail to gain basic opportunities. Their sacrifices become so much greater for so much less.

An Instance Where We See ‘Long Snoot’ Forced To Choose A Side for his Family

Humans hold the master position in the Star Wars series, as both the hero and the antihero. They are expected, and fulfill, the positions of leaders and followers more than any other race. They displace alien races easily, and only certain racial groups seem to come into power within either the Empire or the Rebellion.

The Empire is separate from the Rebellion in its specific treatment of other races. It is nearly entirely human, some clones and some typical, an army composed of one single species. The Empire rarely acknowledges race in the same way that the Rebellion does, but it also doesn’t have the need to, as it is the largest commanding galactic force, and it is homogenous. The Rebellion still places humans at the forefront, as seen with characters such as General Organa, Luke, and Han, but it affords aliens in smaller ranks, such as characters like Admiral Ackbar[6] or Chewbacca. These characters are given recognition, but still fall short of the idealization given to their human counterparts and allies, those who are given the full treatment of hero or villain. Even Jabba is not recognized as a villain in the same way the human villains are. While this is due in part to the strength of and harnessed power of The Force, it also has to do with barriers, whether racial, communicative, or otherwise.

To revisit this idea, communication is used as a form of oppression in the Star Wars universe. Those who don’t speak the Galactic Basic are either subtitled or ignored as characters. This is also seen in the case of droids. If a character doesn’t speak the general language in the Star Wars universe, not only are they seen as lesser, they’re acknowledged as lesser[7].  If a non-human character is lucky, they’ll be subtitled in the movies, or in the expanded universe in comics and books.

Droids are used either as communicating workers, or workers without forms of communication except through other droids or humans familiar with their language. They are commodified, seen as nothing more than objects, and oppressed because of their lack of simple communication with human and alien races alike. To extend past droids, other characters that lack speech or lines in general are also typically seen as lesser, whether the audience is supposed to value them that way or not. This can be seen with Jabba, a slimy and truly ugly villain that creates a challenge for our heroes in the original movies. However, this is also seen with friendly alien characters, such as Yoda before he is revealed to be a Jedi master; because of his strange pattern of speech and different ways of life, he is initially viewed as lesser by Luke and the audience[8]. Only after his status is revealed can the audience and Luke see him as an equal or a greater being, primarily due to his cultural life and his way of speaking to others.

An Alien Barters with Jabba in Episode VI

Star Wars can be used as an abstraction for all of these represented concepts. The othering of aliens can easily be related to the othering of immigrants and non-English speakers in majority English communities. In very few areas do we compensate for non-English speakers, and where we do, it’s usually in major urban areas. A good example of this specific problem could be in New York City. The major subway lines are more easily used for non-English speakers because of the multiple safety and instructional explanations both inside and outside of the subway trains. The grid system of the city allows people to navigate the system almost entirely without language, and just through Arabic numbering (a fairly universal concept). New York tries to be friendly mostly towards travelers for capital gain, but in the process, it also ends up helping large populations in the city. Those primarily affected seem to be Spanish and Russian speakers. These larger populations could be stand-in representatives for groups in Star Wars, such as Ewoks, translated through C-3P0 because of their worth, or Chewbacca, translated through Han.

In a broader sense, Star Wars shows methods of ethnocentrism and cultural imperialism, not particularly foreign to the world we live in. Most nations seem to value their own culture over others; European cultures especially have a long history of imposing their own culture onto other foreign nations (i.e the Native North Americans, Aboriginal Canadians, Aboriginal Latin Americans, Aboriginal Australians, etc.)[9]. This can be seen in the case of the Empire especially, with even their presence changing the lives of natives on their home planets. When the Empire is present in smaller systems, it greatly changes the culture and the economy of people around them. This is seen on the forest moon of Endor, and seen on a larger scale on Tatooine in Episode IV. People become much more cutthroat with work when the Empire is offering rewards, and gang violence seems to rise. This is also seen in the context of European nations imposing themselves upon other countries which they see as inferior.

Another example of this is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Many could argue that the disputes over land wouldn’t exist if white Europeans hadn’t decided to divide land that wasn’t theirs in the first place. For decades, there have been war and killings of the Palestinian people that politicians rarely blink their eyes to, as it’s the murder of brown people, of others. The entire Palestinian-Israeli conflict wouldn’t exist if white Europeans hadn’t inserted themselves into the Middle East for their own gains, and it’s likely that if the Empire had done the same, there would be fewer instances of both petty violence and violent crime[10]. Another example that could use an abstraction of the Star Wars universe could be Rwanda; European nations pushed themselves into that part of Africa and forced previously self-segregated groups into the same territories. This forced the hand of these groups and created a massive genocide — all starting because of the Eurocentric view that whiteness is superior to blackness, and the perceived ‘necessity’ to purify the nation[11].

To refine further, there is still the idea of not knowing a general language as making one less intelligent. This is seen all the time, especially within the American education system, both amongst educators and children. Spanish-speaking children are looked down upon enough in the education system that many Spanish speaking parents hesitate to offer bilingualism in their children, at the idea of bullying because of a different language with other children, or a lapse in understanding English creating a problem with educators. This extends to the treatment of Ewoks, and how because of their smaller stature and their inability to speak the general language, they’re seen as childlike. There are other reasons for this view, but there is no doubt that some of the reasoning is due to the language barrier and how they present to humans and other speakers of common.

To conclude, problems of xenophobia and racism won’t be changed through looking in a kaleidoscope. The scope and magnitude of problems that the western world has created cannot be changed overnight, and certainly can’t be changed through casual conversation of abstraction and the subaltern. To execute true change, as a society, we will have to make specific decisions and decide when and where we will intervene, or if we will at all, in solving problems exclusive to the colonial and postcolonial world. While changes in our society did not start with Star Wars, and hopefully will not end with it, we can use it as a force of change, to better understand our current perspectives, and to glimpse on a new tomorrow, in a galaxy here and now.

1. Kershner, Irvin, director. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1980. ; Reference to the asteroid field navigation, no specific time stamp
2. Acker, Ben, et al. From a Certain Point of View: 40 Stories Celebrating 40 Years of Star Wars. Del Rey, 2017. We Don’t Serve Their Kind Here p. 113-122
3. Marquand, Richard, director. Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1983. ; Leia’s treatment of the Ewoks, no specific timestamp
4. Acker, Ben, et al. From a Certain Point of View: 40 Stories Celebrating 40 Years of Star Wars. Del Rey, 2017. p. 35-49 ; Jot’s treatment
5. Acker, Ben, et al. From a Certain Point of View: 40 Stories Celebrating 40 Years of Star Wars. Del Rey, 2017. p. 169-181
6. Marquand, Richard, director. Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1983. ; Differentiation given between human higher-ups and alien higher-ups, no specific time stamp
7. Lucas, George, director. Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1977 , Marquand, Richard, director. Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1983. ; minor characters
8. Kershner, Irvin, director. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1980. ; Treatment of Yoda towards the middle of episode 5, no specific time stamp
9. Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press Inc., 2003., Chapter 2, p. 26-44
10. Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press Inc., 2003., Chapter 3, p. 45-68
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny

 

Bibliography

Acker, Ben, et al. From a Certain Point of View: 40 Stories Celebrating 40 Years of Star Wars. Del Rey, 2017.

Required reading for our class, this was essential in deconstructing A New Hope. It brought up new perspectives that were foreign to me, and helped insert minor characters and their lives as affected by the war. This is essential in deconstructing ideas of race and alignment in the Star Wars universe.

 

Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press Inc., 2003.

This explores the basic reasons of why white imperialism is bad, and extends to other ideas as well, such as displacement of refugees and the land of the subaltern. This is necessary in my analysis and abstraction of Star Wars because it describes some of the key points I use.

 

Lucas, George, director. Star Wars IV: A New Hope. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1977

This is the original introduction to the Star Wars universe. While it follows the same plot line that A Certain Point of View does, it’s important to mark that it truly only follows the main characters. The story sets a stage for future movies but could also work as a standalone, which makes sense structurally, because of the limits of their production at the time. This is necessary in my essay because it’s the most important movie to making my key points, as it introduces the viewer to Star Wars and primes the brain for later opinions on the movies.

 

Kershner, Irvin, director. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1980.

This movie is the peak of the original movies. It’s essential for my essay because of the treatment of Yoda specifically, and then extending to the view of the Empire across the galaxy.

Marquand, Richard, director. Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1983.

This films brings up the conclusion of the final episode of Star Wars, and concludes the originals. It brings the story full circle, and besides resolving the conflict of the characters, also resolves the imperialism brought out around the Empire. While the lasting effects certainly linger, the universe is free of the crushing hold that the Empire had on them. It’s important to highlight this film because it brings up new ideas of imperialism from a different postcolonial perspective. I pulled from this film so that I could give light to the tension and internal conflict that isn’t as easily noticed in the other two films.

 

Abrams, J. J., director. Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm Ltd, 2015.

This film highlights the new direction that Star Wars is taking. It moves from the traditional model of the originals to a more progressive model that suits the time period. While I don’t specifically reference this in my essay, it is important to note it as a new variety of film, especially since it was manufactured under a new production company.

 

“Manifest Destiny.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Nov. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifest_destiny.

This article covers most of the ideas of western imperialism that continue in a lot of European countries, even though the official policy originated in the United States. I primarily pulled from this article to highlight a point on Western Imperialism and forcing ideas upon nations seen as “lesser”.