Star Wars

I'm listening to blank check and they are harping on the racist aspects of the voice acting of nute gunray, watto and jarjar, but I unknowingly happened upon a long interview with the voice actor for jar jar a couple years ago, including the lead up to him getting the part and the character and voice development, and now it just seems ridiculous when I hear people complain that he, a black man, is being racist against black people specifically.

The idea that he used black face minstrel shows to come up with this voice is so readily accepted and repeated by everybody talking about jarjar,1 but does not make any sense on its face, and makes less sense when you listen to the actor talk about his development and understanding of the character.

I watched shorter videos by the voice actors for watto and nute who also go into how they developed the voices and their characters and how they talk about the development of their characters makes it obvious to me that fans and content creators are making a bigger deal out of these voices than the voices warrant.

Ahmed understood jarjar as a goofy orange frog, so gave him a bouncy, goofy voice. Secomb thought watto seemed like a shady Italian mobster living in filth which gave him lung problems, so you have watto. And silas Carson says the voice is nasal because nemoydians literally have no nose and he thought of slimy, conniving Peter Laurie characters and used Laurie's stilted, conniving mannerisms.

Lazy editing and production choices could be argued. But racist "caricatures" or accusing the actors of using racist stereotypes, implying that any perceptible slight latched onto and cultivated by fans was intentional, makes no sense except as an ignorant, bullying dogpile.