Jar Jar Binks: Racism?

[Nealithi]

I don't know about racist. But I think he is rather sad. Possibly mentally challenged and hated for it.
The few gungans we see on the screen seem acrobatic and speak well. He comes across screeching, incoherent at times, and has little control of his limbs.
He gets banished. Sees a threat he can't process and just loses it. Gets intimidated into returning. Then he is on pain of death. Then the life debt thing seems more a fine take him away.
And he comes back again. So put him in the army. Maybe he will get killed. He survived?
Make him a representative. He will be light years away and someone else's problem.

It just seems like he keeps being kicked for being different. But maybe I am reading more into a few movies?

[Beastro]

Is anyone else really fucking tired of people accusing Jar Jar of being a racist stereotype?

I find it sad that people's backs are up so much they will read into things like that, and that reading into the matter itself expresses the racist outlook of the person, even if they claim to oppose racism.

All one has to see of Jar Jar is the fact that people go on about his voice and manner of speech as racist... except the guy who played Jar Jar asked Lucas if he could voice and used one he'd done reading stories to kids.

So a black guy doing a funny voice without anyone derogatory or mean spirited behind it is racist... as if anything to do with a black person is some racial taboo.

I don't like to think of a world where people would be treated in such a manner regardless of the reasons, that their very act of blacks expressing themselves is so sensitive they can't show themselves. It reeks of the victimizing mentality that used to be around women, that they shouldn't be out of the house, not because of anything they might get into, but because they're so fragile and weak it was simply too dangerous that is disabling for the same reasons it's a terrible thing to helicopter-parent kids.

It reminds me of a story Lindybeige, of YouTube fame, put into a video about. Some university kids were strolling through Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and came across a store front with a band of toy monkeys playing musical instruments. They then marched off in a huff and caused a ruckus demanding the store take the display down because, they claimed, it was racist because it was mocking black people.

Lindybeige's take on it was that it takes a certain mind to see such a thing as racist, and that's a racist mind.

Now it's one thing to read some racial stuff into Jar Jar Binks and wonder what's going on, we don't know going in what anything is intended to be at first. But to react with fury over something when it's clearly not intended to be overtly mocking is a situation where one should be looking for the mote in ones own eye before acting againsts others.

Possibly mentally challenged and hated for it.

What? He's just a archetypal misfit and fool and everything that plays into that being excluded and looked down upon, but possessing an open friendly outlook that helps the protagonists and winds up contributing to saving the day in a way none of the other Gunguns would've given their suspicion of outsiders.

Behind Jar Jar is the same old lesson, that for anything new and different to be tried to see if it works, one must risk being a fool and failing until one succeeds. The silliness, clumsy aspect of him is tied to that good open mindedness as well as bits of "blessed fool" for the same reason the fool in a kings court was the only one that could speak his mind.

[Nealithi]

Possibly mentally challenged and hated for it.

What? He's just a archetypal misfit and fool and everything that plays into that being excluded and looked down upon, but possessing an open friendly outlook that helps the protagonists and winds up contributing to saving the day in a way none of the other Gunguns would've given their suspicion of outsiders.

Behind Jar Jar is the same old lesson, that for anything new and different to be tried to see if it works, one must risk being a fool and failing until one succeeds. The silliness, clumsy aspect of him is tied to that good open mindedness as well as bits of "blessed fool" for the same reason the fool in a kings court was the only one that could speak his mind.

Again, his speech patterns don't match those of other gungans, and his clumsiness comes far more often than a typical misfit. His people can make high leaps. But he fumbles dropping from a ledge his arms are long enough to lower his feet to the ground from. Damages an astromech when he got pushed into a closet to keep him out from under foot. Walks down the street and manages to step in excrement. Tries to get something to eat but is shocked at the cost. And causes someone half his size to try and kill him. Warned of the energy binder he still gets his mouth zapped and his hand caught in a way which will cause him serious harm. The only world he was on in the first movie where I don't have a list of accidents or misadventures for him is Coruscant. Not he showed competence. Just they did not show him so he did not get a chance to hurt himself. If someone suggested institutionalizing him so he would not hurt himself I think it would pass within the first few minutes of meeting him. Not racist, concerned.

[Beastro]

Not racist, concerned.

I can see that, I didn't think you're position was a racial one.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that he was just supposed to be a blessed fool type, but the way Jar Jar was handled, like the rest of the Prequels, he wasn't properly presented and was shown as something he wasn't originally intended to be (same as Anakin becoming a moody, petulant, emotionally retarded spoiled brat instead of the greatest of Jedi who fell to temptation in the later films).

[Actarus]

/bump over the Russian.

[Elderdog]

Possibly mentally challenged and hated for it.

What? He's just a archetypal misfit and fool and everything that plays into that being excluded and looked down upon, but possessing an open friendly outlook that helps the protagonists and winds up contributing to saving the day in a way none of the other Gunguns would've given their suspicion of outsiders.

Behind Jar Jar is the same old lesson, that for anything new and different to be tried to see if it works, one must risk being a fool and failing until one succeeds. The silliness, clumsy aspect of him is tied to that good open mindedness as well as bits of "blessed fool" for the same reason the fool in a kings court was the only one that could speak his mind.

Again, his speech patterns don't match those of other gungans, and his clumsiness comes far more often than a typical misfit. His people can make high leaps. But he fumbles dropping from a ledge his arms are long enough to lower his feet to the ground from. Damages an astromech when he got pushed into a closet to keep him out from under foot. Walks down the street and manages to step in excrement. Tries to get something to eat but is shocked at the cost. And causes someone half his size to try and kill him. Warned of the energy binder he still gets his mouth zapped and his hand caught in a way which will cause him serious harm. The only world he was on in the first movie where I don't have a list of accidents or misadventures for him is Coruscant. Not he showed competence. Just they did not show him so he did not get a chance to hurt himself. If someone suggested institutionalizing him so he would not hurt himself I think it would pass within the first few minutes of meeting him. Not racist, concerned.

I believe that Gungans did institutionalize Jarjar through his exile because he crashed Boss Nass' luxury submarine and was deemed to be a threat to their society. However, in terms of him being a character that you could feel sorry for I believe that thanks to The Clone Wars and the Aftermath Trilogy of books he became more like a tragic figure more than the idiot he became in the eyes of the fandom.
My reasoning for this is that while Jarjar may ultimately cause more harm than good through his clumsiness, I would argue that he just wants help people and find his place in the Galaxy. The tragedy
is that no one really tried to elevate his character and he was doomed to become the Tommy Wisseau of the Star Wars universe.