http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=415956>1=28101Two Transformers characters are being targeted by critics as "The next Jar-Jar Binks." Skids and Mudflap fight with each other, can't read, talk in "gangsta" inspired slang, and one even has a gold tooth. Both characters were largely improvised by the actors (one of whom is black, the other white) with minimal direction from Michael Bay.
However the significant thing to note is that it's primarily film critics (and in the article, two professors) targeting the characters. I've yet to read something from anyone connected with the NAACP or any other actual minority-interest group to have voiced a significant (if any) complaint. And in a bizarre choice of sources, MSN has even quoted an editor at satirical news site The Onion commenting on the place of the characters in the film.
I saw the movie last night, and just to show how eager the media is to whip up a controversy it was probably the African-American members of the audience who laughed the MOST at their dialogue and antics. Additionally, it's the gangsta sub-culture that was being poked fun at (of which there's quite a few members of ALL races) no one race in particular.
The media needs to get its collective head out of its bellybutton and remember that it's COMPLETELY possible to lampoon without being derogatory, and to stop trying to fan flames where they don't actually exist.
