There's white people, black people, and Asians in Star Wars

[Mad]

On a related note how come we never saw black Imperial officers?

Maybe blacks are relatively rare. When a species has been traveling in space for over 25,000 years, they don't get out in the sun quite as much. Less sun means less need for pigmentation. For those family lines that didn't spend much time on starships, modern conveniences would help limit the exposure to sunlight, as well.

[PainRack]

In a galaxy with millions of different humanoids i doubt ppl really can be bothered to give names to the so-called "Sub-species".

On a related note how come we never saw black Imperial officers?

Or the fact that they can't speak proper,ennunicated,British english be the cause

Frankly,with such a small subsection of the Empire to look upon,does one expect to see "black" officers?

[Slartibartfast]

Dialogue example:

"Please, describe the saboteur that fled the hangar."

"Dark-skinned, white hair, about 1.8 meters high. I'd say he was about 50 years old."

I doubt they'll use words like caucasian, asian, black, etc. Specially since Asia doesn't exist and black isn't actually a human skin color.

The differences are tiny. Would they say that Han and Luke are different races because they have different hair color? Maybe uncle Owen is a different race because he's overweight, or Ben is a different race because he's very old.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

You're not seriously suggesting that they wouldn't even bother indicating skin tones, are you?

[Ender]

On this topic, Saxton theorized that Chiss are an offshoot of Humans.

And this was confirmed in SW Gamer #5, Guide to the Chiss. They are a lost colony that redeveloped on their own after an ecological disaster happened and evolved a bit on the way.


And there is no race for people in SW. In the words of terry prachett, "Why bother with racism when specism is so much more interesting?"

[Biddybot]

I have to confess that seeing the racial term 'white' on a board dedicated in part to science makes me wince just a bit. There's no such thing as a 'white' race of humans--the term really ought to be Caucasian. I hope you wouldn't be so silly as to present a typical chap from India as 'white'...and yet you'd have to if you're using the term as a substitute for Caucasian. Human race as defined by science really has much more to do with bone and hair structure than pigmentation anyway, and the last time I checked, there were only three to five genuine races of Homo sapiens depending on whether one was a 'lumper' or 'splitter'. Anyhoo, minor rant over. Like I said, I couldn't help but picture snagging a guy from the Indian subcontinent as your typical 'white' representative in the Star Wars universe.

And speaking of...with all the aliens running around the Star Wars universe, I sincerely doubt that the humans there even acknowledge racial differences. I'm more surprised that there's still much differentiation at all. You'd think that once people start moving around, meeting, greeting and mating as they go, that you'd see a lot of folk with blended traits. Maybe Tiger Woods should guest-star in the next movie. Just a thought!

[Utsanomiko]

That last one about relevancy of racial terms applies to other races besides 'whites', I assume. Names are names, I say. You deal with em.

[Biddybot]

I don't like the term 'black' either, but at least most people picture the full range of humanity the term refers to when I hear it. The term 'white' I've unfortunately learned to associate with bigots--a lot of people, when they say white in reference to a person, I've found that they really do mean white--pale-skinned. It never seems to occur to them that the vast majority of so-called 'whites' around the world are actually brown-skinned to some degree. I'm sure it wasn't meant in that way here, though. (I hope not.)

Picture me introducing you to my chocolate-coloured Labrador retriever and calling it a 'white' Lab and you'll get a sense of how silly I find applying the same term, any colour term really, to human beings.

Somebody's post above probably had it right for Star Wars--no race referred to, just the facts, as in "Master Jedi, help! That pale-skinned male human with the short curly brown hair just pinched my butt!" Not that I'm implying that all such described humans are butt-pinchers, of course...

[Slartibartfast]

You're not seriously suggesting that they wouldn't even bother indicating skin tones, are you?

That's exactly the opposite of what I'm suggesting, if you see my post.

They would bother if it's relevant, not make up an arbitrary racial group and permanently put people in it for small details, like having larger noses or slanted eyes or curly hair.

[The Dark]

Nope, you're just plain old human.

I doubt the Empire has Christianity to cause the view that skin color = race. Its common knowledge that the romans and greeks and egyptians etc had no concept of race and only after the rise of african colonization by rabid christians did "race" come into the vocabulary (as a justification for slavery) noone until then felt the need to enslave any one group of people. infact, a vast majority of slavery was done based on who lost battles, irregardless of "race". it'd be as if the brits enslaved the spaniards, or whatever.

I would say the Greek historian shows at least a slight understanding of the differences of race when relating the story of King Darius of Persia's audience with the Greeks and Callatians. And the Hebiru were an entire race of outcasts from the Middle East, who later became known as the Hebrew. Before anyone tries to counter my example by saying there's no proof of the Exodus, I concur completely; the Exodus is not important for this discussion, archaeological artifacts from the Babylonian and Assyrian Empires are.

[Utsanomiko]

Funny, I picture whites as people almost always as people less white than me, and I am never bothered by the term. Black and white are extreme hyperboles for definitions, yes, but they're totally devoid of connotation to most people.

Don't know what to say, Biddy. Sorry you have a problem, I guess.

[Biddybot]

Darth Utsanomiko, chalk up my annoyance to living among people of whom a surprising percentage are really quite racist, although mostly in a stupid, unintentional way. The old pilot joke about returning to the Maritimes after a flight westward was that you reset your watch fifty years back. It's appropriate. A lot of people here still use the term 'coloured'. You don't want to know how they refer to gays. One guy I worked with for several years, a homegrown local, had the most amazing repertoire of derogatory names for 'coloureds' that I've ever heard--some, in fact, I'd never heard. He hated everyone, though, so the rest of us weren't really bothered by him. We used to call him our equal-opportunity bigot.

I will hereafter yield to common usage and never again nag anyone for using the terms white (and black) to refer to human type. Like I said, I'm sure when I see it here it's meant to be taken as is. I'll still mentally correct you, though.

Here's a related query. What happens to the terminology when two or more sentient species share the same planet? Take the Gungans and humans on Naboo. Gungan, I presume, is the common name for that species, as is human for Padme and co. Both live on the planet Naboo. The humans also refer to themselves as Naboo, as in, natives of that planet. Do the Gungans also think of themselves as Naboo?

(PS: It just occurred to me that I have seen one white guy that was genuinely white-skinned. That was Mallory, explorer of Everest. He was also, alas, very very dead...)

[IRG CommandoJoe]

I don't think race matters much in the galaxy, except of course for the Empire...

[Kurgan]

Good points. And the way some people talk, race is more than skin color, it's about "blood" (again, theories that border on the pseudo-science of the past couple of centuries).

So Tiger Woods LOOKS "black" but he's actually more Indian. So is he "white"? Most people would say he's "black."

Is Mariah Carey "black" or is she "white"?

Or what about albinos (pale white skin, red or pink eyes)? There are Albinos with negroid features, or caucausoid features (did I spell that right?) , etc. What race are they?

Frankly, I think the whole race thing is little more than a curiosity. Since we earth people put more stock in race, we like to see more racial "diversity" in our science fiction, despite the fact that its about a different galaxy. To the SW people, I'm sure it hardly matters, what with all the non-human aliens and droids about.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

That may be so, but it still doesn't mean that they wouldn't specify someone's skin colour for descriptions or stats.

[Patrick Ogaard]

In a galaxy with millions of different humanoids i doubt ppl really can be bothered to give names to the so-called "Sub-species".

On a related note how come we never saw black Imperial officers?

One simple reason for the relatively uniform appearance (and accents) of typical Imperial officers could be the following: Most Imperial officers should come from families with at least some influence and, above all, a stake in their society and the status quo. That means that Imperial officer candidates should be recruited primarily from the worlds of the Core, the worlds that most likely benefited under Imperial rule. These worlds are also supposed to be old, cultured, and possessed of comparatively huge populations, running into the tens and hundreds of billions. Coreworlders would be the majority by dint of sheer numbers.

Being old worlds using Star Wars tech for many thousands of years, many of these worlds should have comprehensive environmental control and Coruscant-style lifestyles involving largely indoor living. For convenience, most of those worlds likely have had their weather controlled since time immemorial to produce huge temperate zones with an effect much like a permanent spring day (with just the occasional hiccup). Over thousands of years, lifetimes of artificial illumination, constantly overcast skies with plenty of rain to keep the giant cities from cooking in their own juices, and temperatures averaging cool room temperature should tend to favor a preponderance of typically British-appearing folk of various degrees of paleness.

[Patrick Ogaard]

Another thing to consider is that the canon sample of Imperial personnel appears, based on a whole raft of official info, to be drawn from the Core. For instance, why would Vader bother to call in an ISD squadron from some sector near the CSA if he is already hip deep in squadrons in the Core. Similarly, Palpatine would not likely have bothered to scratch together ISDs from odd corners of the Empire to ambush the Rebel fleet, instead choosing to call in units from the vicinity of Coruscant.

While hardly supported by EU sources I know of, it's not unreasonable to assume that entire sectors of the galaxy might be dominated by humans with specific pigmentation or other distinguishing physical characteristics.

[Admiral Johnason]

Prehaps their civilization has evolved beyonf racism, but not speciesism. They must judge by DNA and not by skin color in the SW univese.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

What the hell is with all this racism stuff?

They'd still have to differentiate skin tones.

[Darth Yoshi]

Racism has nothing to do with anything in SW. I mean, they'll still need to specify skin tone when describing someone, especially a felon or a Rebel.

[Wicked Pilot]

If I remember from the EU, they describe people as "light skinned" or "dark skinned" or probably other tones in between. The humans in Star Wars care as little about skin color as we today care about eye color.

[Sea Skimmer]

Twi'leks are several different colors IIRC (blue green, pinkish, and probly more)

That could just be random like spots on a cat rather then being the result of climate.

[Slartibartfast]

Maybe they use the PANTONE definition?

[Smiling Bandit]

I doubt the Empire has Christianity to cause the view that skin color = race. Its common knowledge that the romans and greeks and egyptians etc had no concept of race and only after the rise of african colonization by rabid christians did "race" come into the vocabulary (as a justification for slavery) noone until then felt the need to enslave any one group of people. infact, a vast majority of slavery was done based on who lost battles, irregardless of "race". it'd be as if the brits enslaved the spaniards, or whatever.

WHOOOHOOO! Another chance to fight ignorance!

Sorry, friend, but you are dead wrong about the causes. The idea of "race" sort of evolved over the years from the concept of ethinicity. Certainly, a racist ethnic superiority kick has been real since the days when one tribe conquered another.

Many different cultures held dim views about those who looked different, particularly the Chinese, Japanese, and Egyptions, of the ancient world. I think the Romans were comparitively egalitarian (though this is a pretty small difference). They opprssed everyone equallly.

Moreover, your "post hoc, ergo prompter hoc" fallacy is stumbling in a dead alley. While the modern Western view of race was first forged by the effects of slave-trading with Africa and Spanish/Portuguese conquests in the New World, the only God that played a part was Gold. (nice pun, eh?) However, even this is too simple. The Conquistadores may have claimed the Will of God, but all they really put forth effort to get was money. Many ecclesiastical
priests despaired of their attempts to convert the natives due to the fact they kept keeling over dead from disease. When they weren't being worked to death in mines.

Now, the Europeans didn't really distinguish between the various African tribes - they couldn't understand what the differences were, and considered them all to be the same. Afetr a generation on the plantations of the Americas, there wasn't much difference, anyway.

Colonial society did not develop the full racial theory. Actually, that was done by German intellectuals about the year 1880. They became to use new psuedoscientific blabber to talk about race as an endemic condition of genetically (not that they understood the term no invented) inherited stupidity and brutality and immorality. Starting with the Jews. Some of those who endorsed it were Christian (sad to say), but the idea itslf rested in no way on religious grounds, but scientific.

Racism was a cause of Colonialism (which began after 1865 and apexed around the 1880's), and was reinforced by it, but did not cause it.

[Kurgan]

Of course which way did it go?

Did the conquerers see these peoples as inferior and therefore enslave and oppress them?

Or did they enslave and oppress them, and therefore regarded them as inferior (as a justification for continuing the occupation)?

Slavery is one of the world's oldest institutions, and saddest.