Anti-Alien Racism in the Rebel Alliance?

[TedShatner10]

While the Galactic Empire has the appearance of xenophobia judging from its homogenious staff onboard Imperial Navy flagships and the Imperial military/political leadership, do you think the Rebel Alliance are also racist to a certain extent even if they have more non-humans serving in its ranks? While the EU has overplayed the Empire's evil up to cardboard panto villain proportions, I wouldn't be surprised if the Galactic Empire distributed anti-alien propaganda through schools and the mass media, while the Galactic Empire's military likely indocrinated into its young recruits a feeling of detached aloofness, especially towards non-humanoids. The Seperatist leadership being dominated by alien merchants and rulers wouldn't have helped either.

And for Imperial personnel defecting to the Rebel Alliance the negative feelings generated by omnipresent Imperial propaganda would've been hard to dispell and even for civilians recruits who were subjected to the "Us Vs. Them" sentiments generated by Imperial officials they used to pay their taxes to. And the Galactic Empire did not happen over night, since most of the Empire's components were already long in place for Emperor Palpatine to put together: the Old Republic was already human centric and its core leadership was dominated by humans, with the Core Worlds historically colonized by human civilizations. The Core Worlds' own armies, navies, and police forces that eventually formed the back bone of the Galactic Empire's behemoth military must've harboured anti-alien sentiments going back millennia, although more authoritarian individuals like Wilful Tarkin would've been thankfully constrained by the Old Republic's more fragmented, smaller, and regionalized military forces.

And on the subject of Tarkin, when he demolished Alderaan, that was when the Imperial citizens really started to turn against the Imperial leadership. The Empire had destroyed one of "its own" when it destroyed Alderaan, a Core World that founded the Old Republic, so was part of the old boy's club. Were there bigger outcries when the Wookies were carted off into slavery or when Outer Rim alien worlds were routinely turned to glass from towards the end of the Clone Wars onwards? Imagine BDZs being done out of grim necessity to flatten planetoids or space habitats that were turned into giant shipyards and battle droid factories, with few or no cities, but then it gradually morphed into punishing civilian populations of the alien variety.

 

[Spiderpope]

If there was any racism amongst the ranks of the Rebel Alliance, then they hid it well. Without the support of races like the Mon Calamari, the Alliance wouldnt even have a fleet, let alone the resources to wage war on a galactic scale.

Pre-Empire racism seems to be less Us Vs Aliens, than Core Vs Outer Rim. The Outer Rim has always been presented as marginalised, with the Core Worlds like Coruscant or Kuat getting all the fancy pants stuff whilst Outer Rim worlds like Tatooine are left to fend for themselves. The rise of the Seperatists, with its abundance of Non-Human leaders and members, likely allowed Palpatine and his cronies to refine this sentiment to suit his purposes.

As for outcry over the Wookies, no doubt there were complaints and protests. But those who did have complaints were likely suicided soon after they voiced them.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

The perception of the Empire changes in light of the prequels. So little was revealed that one could think the Empire was largely human inhabited worlds with some nominally controlled outer rims places like Tatooine and worlds with primitive peoples like Ewoks, the Empire largely ignored.

IIRC, the Mon Calamari were said to be a race encountered and attacked by the Empire. Now we know they were a part of the Old Republic.

Now I just thing any racism was Palpatine's doing, because he needed enemies. Sith are sick in the head. They could have all the power in the universe and would find or invent opponents out psychotic boredom.

 

[matthunter]

The kind of humans typically supporting the Rebel Alliance are those either removed from too much Imperial propaganda (fringers, who also tend to meet aliens a bit more), former criminals who would also have a lot of contact with aliens (like Han) or "old-guard" types who may have worked with aliens prior to Palpatine's "reforms". The few newer Imperial types who switched sides were often those with a strong sense of either morals, honour, or both... even if they might have had some indoctrinated racism, these are the types most likely to overcome it quite quickly once exposed to the truth.

Interestingly, the novels set after RotJ show a distinct amount of anti-human racism on behalf of some alien races, since Palp's New Order was almost pure human and many of the New Republic's "top" leaders were also human.

 

[blaXXer]

Well, let's look at it like this: the RA leadership is mostly composed of (former) royalty and/or former influential senators who felt the rise of our beloved chancellor palpatine to be the stewart of this new, prosperous empire would cut in unduly on their large profits by backhand deals and so forth. are they bigots? hell yes. racist? very probably. elitist? you betcha!

 

[Peter the Younger]

I can't speak for the whole rebellion - they made Ackbar their CINC, that's gotta count for something - but there is definitely some racism in the organization's leadership. I submit:

"Will somebody get this walking carpet out of the way?"

"I'd just as soon kiss a Wookie."

-- Leia Organa, Racist

And let's not get started on their attitude toward artificial lifeforms. Hellooo, slavery!

I think a lot of it do with the inspiration for the films. Lucas lifted the SW: ANH plot from Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress (which, being feudal Japan, has lots of class distinctions built into the plot) and drew heavily from 1930s adventure serials for the rest (and those puppies contain boatloads of racist stereotypes.) It got a lot more obvious in the prequels of course, but yeah, it's always been there. That was Orson Scott Card's big objection to the series, that it depicted a very medieval religious worldview. There are the powerful elite people blessed by God - er, The Force - and the pee-ons who don't really matter.

 

[exodus]

^^Droids aren't lifeforms and aren't slaves because they aren't sentient.
R2 & 3PO can't funtion without serving a master. They don't have the desire to be free. R2 does everything he does because he is serving the will of his master and his masters best interests. C-3PO surrenders to any higher authority because droids are subservient. Droids are not slaves anymore than ones iPod is.

 

[Peter the Younger]

^^Droids aren't lifeforms and aren't slaves because they aren't sentient.
R2 & 3PO can't funtion without serving a master. They don't have the desire to be free. R2 does everything he does because he is serving the will of his master and his masters best interests. C-3PO surrenders to any higher authority because droids are subservient. Droids are not slaves anymore than ones iPod is.

I don't want to hijack the thread with another "are machines sentient?" debate," (after four years of BSG, I've had about all of those I can take), so I'll just say this: whether the SW droids are sentient or not is an open question at best.

 

[Trent Roman]

^^Droids aren't lifeforms and aren't slaves because they aren't sentient.

Of course they're sentient. They're reasoning, self-aware entities with the potential, if not always exercise, to decide for themselves. There have been several droids who have broken free of their programming and bondage to a master, and who live independantly. In-universe, it's not seen as slavery (although I do believe Courtship of Princess Leia mentioned a droids-rights movement, and of course liberated droids often see it as a kind of slavery), but it's an alien galaxy and we can't expect that their ethical precepts will match ours in all respects.

Regarding the alien thing: it's worth keeping in mind, without excusing some of the racism that we did see, that the Rebel Alliance was just that: an alliance between rebel factions from a variety of worlds, and as such demographics also determined who we saw. The rebels in the first film were supposedly recruited from human-majority worlds; the Mon Cal cell could be speculated to be made majoritarily of Mon Cals, the Sullust cell Sullustans, etc. When all the rebel groups got together in the third film, that's when one started to see more diversity and integration across the organization, although Ackbar's ship, as we saw, was still mostly crewed by other Mon Calamari.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[CommodoreKong]

Just like the lack of aliens in Starfleet, the main reason for the lack of aliens in the Rebellion is because it's cheaper to put a human in a costume then dress them up as an alien.

 

[Gaith]

The perception of the Empire changes in light of the prequels. So little was revealed that one could think the Empire was largely human inhabited worlds with some nominally controlled outer rims places like Tatooine and worlds with primitive peoples like Ewoks, the Empire largely ignored.

Agreed, the PT went way overboard on nonhumans. But then, the PT went way overboard on just about everything, except the one thing we wanted: massive saber fights (not charges, though that was cool, but fights.)

Sigh.

 

[Morpheus 02]

Aside from the budget reasons...i might suggest that it was dangerous for other races to get together.

With humans...they were more populous, and of such a variety (some rebel, some imperial, many who neither or "both"). So they they could be anywhere. A bunch of humans traveling wouldn't cause suspicion.

The non-human races seemed to tend to think in one direction, whether Imperial or Rebel. Knowing that say, some Mon Calmari were travelling to certain planet or part of the galaxy, would tip off the Empire to a possible rebel gathering.

Being a Rebellion, vs. its own empire, meant that the Rebels had to be more subtle to not tip off anyone.

Also, the other Aliens may have a low level of physical tolerance with other beings such as humans , due to temperature for example (Mon Calmari might die on Hoth), or smell, or whatever.

In regards to Princess comments, such as about Wookies....if she was like her mother, she was involved in politics (which by that time, was vicious for anyone anti-Palpatine) at a very young age, and thus pretty hardened toward anyone. Didn't she have quips about Han and Luke, too?

 

[nx1701g]

Just like the lack of aliens in Starfleet, the main reason for the lack of aliens in the Rebellion is because it's cheaper to put a human in a costume then dress them up as an alien.

Pretty much it exactly.

 

[pheonix]

Never really thought about the empire being "racist" till I saw people talking about it on the internet. But yeah it does seem like both the empire and the rebels have some race issues. The empire is more obvious but with mostly humans in the top positions in the rebel alliance it does make you wonder. At least the rebels try to be more inclusive though...

In regards to Princess comments, such as about Wookies....if she was like her mother, she was involved in politics (which by that time, was vicious for anyone anti-Palpatine) at a very young age, and thus pretty hardened toward anyone. Didn't she have quips about Han and Luke, too?

Maybe you could say the rebels feel there in a post racial society so they don't need to be as PC. Or maybe humans and aliens don't have the same history as whites and none whites?