The Energon Pub

Check out this take on the Twins and possible racial stereo typing in ROTF.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/entertainment/Transformers-Next-Foe-Racism.html

Source: Sandy Cohen - NBCNewYork.com

Yea I noticed that the African American voiced gangsta Twins couldn't read and if you want to dig a bit more Jazz spoke gangster and ends up dying bringing back the whole "Black man always dies in movies" stereotype. I noticed it but didn't dwell on it or write a story on it as I have other things on my mind. Just my $.02

It's unfortunate that the Twins were handled in the manner that they were in this film. I'm not saying it's racist ... I'm more focused on their basically useless and juvenile roles to poorly fill the role of comedic relief. Whatever happened to the days of a witty actor like Harrison Ford being able to be comic relief in a film? Somehow wit was replaced with immaturity.

Seibertron wrote:It's unfortunate that the Twins were handled in the manner that they were in this film. I'm not saying it's racist ... I'm more focused on their basically useless and juvenile roles to poorly fill the role of comedic relief. Whatever happened to the days of a witty actor like Harrison Ford being able to be comic relief in a film? Somehow wit was replaced with immaturity.

I couldn't agree more. The Witwicky parents and Sam provide plenty of comic relief. It's a PG-13 movie. How many 13-17 year olds are going to love the Twins? Not many. Give them some credit, they're smarter than that.

It would have been better if they scrapped the Twins altogether and gave Arcee and Sideswipe more screen time.

Seibertron wrote:It's unfortunate that the Twins were handled in the manner that they were in this film. I'm not saying it's racist ... I'm more focused on their basically useless and juvenile roles to poorly fill the role of comedic relief. Whatever happened to the days of a witty actor like Harrison Ford being able to be comic relief in a film? Somehow wit was replaced with immaturity.

At least Jazz's speaking style was an homage to the G1 character voiced by legendary Scatman Crothers. Optimus also explained why Jazz talked that way in the first Transformers movie.

What about Jetfire's British accent? Do all old Transformers talk like they're from the UK? I think that voice decision was made to please the Euro fans.

My post to the article:

Black people everwhere should be offended at this 'discussion' point Ms. Cohen has addressed here...

Her first thoughts when an orange robot and a green robot speak street and have a gold tooth or two is of black people? Good work Sandy.

Urban culture grows out of economic status and place, not race and ethnicity.

All the same, I appreciate your efforts to draw in page views with race baiting.

I can't stand this high-school level inference into hidden meanings that were never intended to exist.

If you really think about it, the depiction of the Twins wasn't that racist. I mean, as someone said on the movie review thread, any given Wayans Brothers movie is waaaayyyy more racist than how the Twins were portrayed, even if the Wayans Bros. are black themselves, doesn't make their stereotyping of black people in their movies any less racist.

I didn't read too much into when they said they don't do too much reading. I mean, these guys have been fighting a war for thousands of years, when would they get the time to sit down and learn to read their version of our Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics (no Transformer in the movie was shown to actually be able to read the language of the Primes, just recognize what it is).

The twins were one of the absolute low points of the entire film and hated the way they were portrayed. The Decepticons appeared way more credible as an intelligent group than the Autobots.

Skids and Mudflap were beyond stupid. They served no purpose and really thought they'd be more like guardians to help Sam find what he was looking for than just being 2 idiotic robots smacking each other around being dumb, while making the Autobots look pretty bad.

Geeze the Decpticons really had their sh** together this time round. Plotted and well organized to lure Optimus and such. They might be bad guys, but you gotta credit them for their intelligence and smarts.

Some really bad stuff in this second film. I didn't hate it, but there were a bunch of things that really weren't needed and bugged me.

Counterpunch wrote:My post to the article:

Black people everwhere should be offended at this 'discussion' point Ms. Cohen has addressed here...

Her first thoughts when an orange robot and a green robot speak street and have a gold tooth or two is of black people? Good work Sandy.

Urban culture grows out of economic status and place, not race and ethnicity.

All the same, I appreciate your efforts to draw in page views with race baiting.

I can't stand this high-school level inference into hidden meanings that were never intended to exist.

Good post.

Counterpunch wrote:My post to the article:

Black people everwhere should be offended at this 'discussion' point Ms. Cohen has addressed here...

Her first thoughts when an orange robot and a green robot speak street and have a gold tooth or two is of black people? Good work Sandy.

Urban culture grows out of economic status and place, not race and ethnicity.

All the same, I appreciate your efforts to draw in page views with race baiting.

I can't stand this high-school level inference into hidden meanings that were never intended to exist.

Jeeeez, if this isn’t a pious and pretentious comeback…Look, I’m black and every once and a while I can watch some ignorant stuff (Hell I watch VH-1 Reality shows from time to time so I’m part of the problem I guess…), but you are taking a leap of obtuse faith if you don’t think some black people aren’t gonna find 2 ghetto-centric gold toothed, jive-talking bots somewhat offensive… I’m sure some are gonna laff (Hell the black community is just as liberal vs. conservative as any other race), but don’t go off the deep-end when you find some that do object…Hell watch Bay’s movies, he always has borderline stuff like this in his movies (Most times written by white writers which skew the stereotype even further)…Once is defendable or a coincidence, 10 times is a trend…

The twins are racist? Jazz was a typical afro-cybertronian, but the twins weren't at all. They reminded me of two idiot little kids I knew from middle school, but they were white; the twins were more like the stupid little brothers of Bumblebee.

Ok guys, dig this thought process I'm about to drop on yall b*tch @sses;

(Just kidding, I just saw the movie last night and all the cursing is coming through)

Anyways, I see an 'age' difference between the bots. Megs and Optimus seem to be of about the same age-group and caliber, so I'll start with them. These leaders of the opposing factions act and perform as if they are (in earth terms) in their late 30's, very early 40's.... and in Cybertronian terms, it takes a couple millenia to get to that age. The two are much more powerful and intelligent than the other bots, and it shows.

With that said, I'm assuming from character traits and references that of course above them is Jetfire, and the Fallen..... before them are Ratchet (39 +/- well-studied), Ironhide (30+/- trained/seasoned warrior), Soundwave (40+/- trained/seasoned comms specialist)..... and before those guys are the 'youngins'; Bumblebee (19 +/- emotional scout), Jazz (R.I.P. 24 +/-), Sideswipe (23+/-)....

The Twins are (in my opinion) between the ages of 12 and 15, and if any of you had a childhood with ruffians, or troublemakers of any sort, then you might begin to see where I'm headed right about now;

Kids are dumb yo. they watch TV and mimic it. They make up rap dances to the Lion King and whine about getting a cell phone that costs 400 dollars because they just want it. They put on the appearance of whatever they think makes them cool. Have any of you walked out of the house in Junior High and been criticized for what you wore, or saying 'like' after and before everything, or speaking 'dumbed-down' so that you could fit in?

The Twins did what Jazz did, respected the 'coolness' of this generation and embodied their own version of it. They even competed over who got the green car remember? I mean they just want to be 'fly' and thats how they think they'll gain respect (in my opinion).

Sorry I'm so opinionated, I'm from D.C.

Please make sure you guys are careful and considerate with your replies in this thread. I don't want to see things get out of control because of our opinions about this issue.

My bottom line point about this is that their role in the movie was pointless. I agree with one of the posters above that these two could have been removed entirely to leave room for further character development of some of the other Autobots.

How the hell can someone say look "There are two dumb giant robots one of em is green and one is orange one has a black tooth damn they're soooooooo black!"

The F**k?

What I can't believe is how those 2 idiots Mudflap and Skids even survived the takeover of Cybertron. They're dumber than a doornail and you'd think the most enduring and skilled of the Autobots would have lived and the rest parished.

There was a certain respect and integrity the Autobots carried with them in film 1 that is severely lacking in the second film.

i bet an african american worte that look at the wayons movies they make fun of black, white, hispanic, spanish all kinds of poeple no publicaty there but movie like transformers directed by white person whooole differnt story

i liked the twins alot there where not even anyyoning compared to jazz

dragons wrote:i bet an african american worte that look at the wayons movies they make fun of black, white, hispanic, spanish all kinds of poeple no publicaty there but movie like transformers directed by white person whooole differnt story

That doesn't matter to me who wrote what. White or black this was about ruining a balance of respect and integrity the Autobots carried with them that was completely blown out by some stupid new unnecessary characters. Yes, Jazz had an edgy-sided dialogue, but you respected him because they developed his character enough to know he was very intelligent and had a very caring side to protecting and doing what is right. Buttflap and Skidmarks were just plain DUMB that deserved no place with the Autobots (Can't forget the ice cream dudes... they were okay and not as bad). They sure made the Decepticons look really smart and with it though.

The ice cream dudes were Buttflap and Skidmarks.

Versa wrote:What I can't believe is how those 2 idiots Mudflap and Skids even survived the takeover of Cybertron. They're dumber than a doornail and you'd think the most enduring and skilled of the Autobots would have lived and the rest parished.

Dumb and Dumber took on Devastator and survived, even made some damage. That scene redempted them in my eyes.

you think the twins were bad? here's hopin Cosmos makes it into the next one to see how far Bay takes Hispanic stereotypes!

if you get right down to it isn't it racist to say someone or some robot "sounds black"?
Remeber that whole Obama thing where he was just "so well spoken"

I think its silly myself they are an orange and green car for craps sake

I guess it would have been rasicst if Jetfire "threw a shrimp on the barbie"....(ya know that Ausie reference)

The race card is to easly thrown these days......lame

I took the twins as "teenagers" who think they are "street-tough" and all that jazz, but really just uneducated idiots.

Film would have been better without them, and having their screentime given to other characters, like Ironhide or Jolt.

I liked them because they reminded me of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

wingdarkness wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:My post to the article:

Black people everwhere should be offended at this 'discussion' point Ms. Cohen has addressed here...

Her first thoughts when an orange robot and a green robot speak street and have a gold tooth or two is of black people? Good work Sandy.

Urban culture grows out of economic status and place, not race and ethnicity.

All the same, I appreciate your efforts to draw in page views with race baiting.

I can't stand this high-school level inference into hidden meanings that were never intended to exist.

Jeeeez, if this isn’t a pious and pretentious comeback…Look, I’m black and every once and a while I can watch some ignorant stuff (Hell I watch VH-1 Reality shows from time to time so I’m part of the problem I guess…), but you are taking a leap of obtuse faith if you don’t think some black people aren’t gonna find 2 ghetto-centric gold toothed, jive-talking bots somewhat offensive… I’m sure some are gonna laff (Hell the black community is just as liberal vs. conservative as any other race), but don’t go off the deep-end when you find some that do object…Hell watch Bay’s movies, he always has borderline stuff like this in his movies (Most times written by white writers which skew the stereotype even further)…Once is defendable or a coincidence, 10 times is a trend…

Dude. It's a freaking pop culture stereotype everytime some kid turns on MTV. Pop culture and society is loaded with this stupid, mindless, uneducated ****. So now if Michael Bay does it, it's racist? give me a freaking break. Popular society is running itself into the ground just fine without accusations that Bay is helping out. Just ridiculous.

To me the movie seemed more full of stereotypes in general, that at times would only seem funny to those the film was seemingly aimed at: 18-30 tear old caucasian males. Really the whole movies theme of comedy followed that line. It's what made it significantly less enjoyable to me. Far too much immature crude humor not enough plot to go with the action.

It was almost like you were watching some poorly made comedy at times than TF, all the humping, sex references, increased language, and at times poor writing did it in for me more than the twins did (they were still bad though). Oddly that wasn't the reason many reviewers disliked the movie. Many cite "too many robots not enough human story" as the reason but considering the first movie that complaint seems backwards.

Getting back though it seemed the writers relied on "Modern Comedy", a.k.a. immature, techniques versus actually writing genuinely funny lines. The movie fell short to me as a TF fan so I can easily see someone else thinking along the lines she did. I might dissagree with her more if the movie gave me a better reason to.