Are Aliens and Predator Racist?

[Elder_Predator2]

Sure they do..........Asian POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Elder_Predator2]

I'm just joking. And yes it's just a ^^^^ing movie, no need to read that much into it.

 

[Migwit]

"Are Aliens and Predator Racist?"

No.

Is the question "Are Aliens and Predator Racist" racist?

Yes.

Oh, and women over 40 rule!

 

[abnpredator]

i think he's trying to justify all the money he spent on his education by writing sensationalistic hyperbole to sound controversial and important.

LOL! Can't put it any better than that!

/ thread

 

[gdb]

Okay. I had to read this article by C. Richard King and David J. Leonard for my literary criticism class. It's titled "Is Neo White? Reading Race, Watching the Trilogy".

Here's a quote from it regarding Aliens and Predator:

"As a case in point, the imaginary worlds of science fiction easily translateed the panics about urban (read black, Latino, and poor) America in the 1980's...Aliens displaces concerns about unwed black mothers, welfare queens, and the urban underclass onto the hyperfacund, threatening body of the grotesque black alien that the white, nurturing heroine literally exterminates. And Predator uses a dreadlocked, savage, estraterrestrial warrior-hunter who kills for sport in the war-torn rain forests of Latin America to work through the growing uneasiness about the black gangsters and purshers of a mythic urban jungle during the escalation of the war on drugs."

So what do you guys think?

I think C. Richard King and David J. Leonard are revealed to be talking out of their *****.

In addition they don't seem to be aware that almost anything can be seen where it isn't if someone wants to see it badly enough. Case in point: Jesus on a grilled cheese sandwich.

 

[creecher]

These people have to come up with something controversial or it would read like, bland blah blah. It doesn't matter if it's true or not, it just has to start people talking. Just like this thread has done. It falls into their laps, these type of threads, just as posting a reply does. You read crap like that and you ignore it, not post asking what we think about a pile of sheet. It perpetuates something which is not worth being read at all. I would never have even come across this, had it not been posted. I am sitting here reading threads to waste my time, and now I have wasted time I had put aside to waste reading other crap. Good one.

Now if they had had a scene with aliens or predators wearing hoods over their heads, we would have to wonder if there were different coloured aliens and/or predators, and what exactly they had against their own race, and why they bothered to come to earth and prey on us, instead of themselves, but they don't. They come here to seek us out and discriminate as to whether of not any particular one of us could possibly be a threat to them and exterminate any that are. It's as simple as that. Kill or be killed. Just how we like our movies to be.

 

[King Darkness]

I always thought Jews were much scarier than aliens or Predators.

 

[lord_raptor]

what about the fact that the people that the alien and predator attack were multiracial ?
in predator 2 theres only one white guy , 2 latinos and the main caracter who is black by the way
what other movies besides alien , predator and the matrix would be racist then?
star wars ? (lilke the joke on chasing amy ?)
lort of the rings ? (the were no black or latino hobbits )
back to the future ?
i just dont buy the whole "racism in sci fi" stuff , this guy is just tring to showoff

 

[Vader AL]

I just realized all my t.v.'s are black....am i racist for only using them for entertaining me....if I buy all white t.v.'s am i racist then for not having black ones? what if i have one white and one black t.v. but the white one is in the living room and the black one is in the guest room...am i subconsciously saying the black t.v. doesn't deserve to be in the living room. wait a minute they don't make white t.v.'s! that's it, the t.v. manufacturers are racist!!!!

 

[King Darkness]

I have a grey TV

 

[Vader AL]

I have a grey TV

hide it....hide it now. you should be ashamed!

 

[Boba Ben]

I agree with the majority of the posts on this particular subject.

I posted this topic here because my professor is constantly trying to shove this false-intellectual garbage down our throats and I'm getting fed up with it. Racism is promoted through the portrayal of articles like this one as some kind of deep philosophical truth.

He really has no evidence that back up his argument other than dreadlocks on an extreterrestrial and the alien's black color. My professor constantly presents articles like this that have no real support or significantly validating point and promotes them as truth. In reality they're just self-promoting trash that has no greater meaning than to allow the writer to pat him or herself on the back.

I say watch Aliens and watch Predator. Enjoy them for what they are, great sci-fi movies about cool monsters that allow for the creation of awesome toys like the Hot Toys model kits. My professor and the writers of this article can go get facehugged or plasma-castered.

 

[pjam]

This Professor guy must be hung like a light switch... to need this kind of (pseudo-intellectual) attention.

His argument is baseless. At best.

Sorry, but I rate this thread dog poo, and it doesn't belong here anyway. (other discussion or sandbox)... I keed. Not really...

 

[creecher]

Tell your professor to get an update on his degree, and you want your money back for him wasting your year. Hang on, what is he a professor of? He may not be getting his message through, to think for yourselves, to all the students in his class, so until you all do he has to keep handing out this garbage. A case of some dim wits holding up the rest of the class. To thine own self be true. So keep dismissing irrationality with valid rational arguments. What else can you do?

 

[galactiboy]

I always thought Jews were much scarier than aliens or Predators.

You are right to fear us King!!! We'll snip your foreskin and take your money

Although in seriousness I really find these threads very funny, especially how people get so twisted that someone would have a theory about the societal meaning and impact of a film. You are not forced to believe a point, but that individuals get defensive so quickly makes me wonder what the fear is about?!?

 

[Boba Ben]

Tell your professor to get an update on his degree, and you want your money back for him wasting your year. Hang on, what is he a professor of? He may not be getting his message through, to think for yourselves, to all the students in his class, so until you all do he has to keep handing out this garbage. A case of some dim wits holding up the rest of the class. To thine own self be true. So keep dismissing irrationality with valid rational arguments. What else can you do?

You're right creecher. Most people seem to buy into his garbage. He walks around the classroom with his self-important attitude and seems to intimidate the majority of the students. I don't play into his crap and thankfully I only have to deal with him for about another week. I wish he was trying to promote independent thought, but if anyone tries to take the discussion in a different direction than his own, he simply passes it off the argument as unimportant or refutes it.

However, he seems to really love articles by the academic elite such as this one. I flat-out stated I didn't agree with the argument about the films and he said that he definitely agreed with the Predator argument. I said "Why, because he has dreadlocks?" and he responded with "yes". I said nothing else.

 

[galactiboy]

Hmmm... that is unfortunate the professor is passing it off as truth. Its an interesting idea, but would be better used as a point of topic, not a statement of fact. Bad teaching move on his part.

 

[Boba Ben]

Sorry, but I rate this thread dog poo, and it doesn't belong here anyway. (other discussion or sandbox)... I keed. Not really...

Can a mod move this thread to the sandbox or other discussion. I do not wish to offend or promote any degredation of the Alien and Predator franchises through this thread, I personally love the films with a passion. If it is more agreeable in another area I would be more than happy to have it moved.

If it is offensive I would also be more than happy to have it deleted as well.

Thanks

 

[hairlesswookiee]

this thread is funny. i like the philosophy-debate type classes. i always try to be the devils advocate and turn people against what the professor is stating.
~~i'm currently in a government policy class and we have these discussions in every class. i really like it because we discuss different policy and how they need to addressed / changed and what we would do if the decisions were in our hands. my professor still has not figured out what political party i support.

 

[Karatka]

What's particularly interesting to me is that the Alien and Predator movies - with the exception of AVP-R - are emphatically NOT racist, especially in the context of the 1970s/1980s. Admirable, strong, well-spoken black characters abound - Dillon in Predator is clearly the intellectual and ranking officer of the group, even Alien has Parker. Hispanics (rightly) dominate the numbers in Predator 2, but again there are good characters in Predator and Aliens. The only argument you've got is that in Alien and Aliens there is a certain amount of tokenism in the black & hispanic characters.

While there is general a lack of Asian characters, Aliens was (IIRC) intended as a Vietnam parable where the technologically superior, over-confident western soldiers find themselves outmaneuvered by a more cunning enemy.

Finally, the Predator's design went Masai because the producers wanted it to look more noble and elegant. Again, hard to find fault there.

Boba, I'd love to hear how your professor would react to a query on his statement. I'm sure that the members of this board would be happy to help out with sources of information for your use.