pEshaq-na uk Jar-Jar Binks?!

[Jeffrey Kopp]

Hi, Dave.  I remain quite unaware of the new Star Wars movie, but I
am interested to see that a pidgin comes up in it.  Perhaps with this
mention of pidgin in this mass culture bombshell (plus the little
controversy) will come some popular interest or curiosity about
pidgins.

Regards,

Jeff

On Thu, 17 Jun 1999 21:14:13 -0700, you wrote:

>LaXayEm:
>
>My friends, I have been interested to read articles in the newspapers and
>magazines reporting that some people are criticizing the character Jar-Jar
>Binks, in the new "Star Wars" movie, as a racist caricature.  Among other
>reasons, it is said, is that he 'speaks pidgin English'.  The
>character is a great big amphibian, retorts Ahmed Best, the actor who
>plays him, not an African or African-American.
>
>The 'pidgin' issue keeps coming up in this connection.  From my point of
>view it seems that mainstream culture in the USA, and elsewhere, equates
>use of a pidgin language with inferior status -- and goes farther, to
>equate that with being nonwhite.
>
>Fascinating:  Chinook Jargon is one example that disproves those
>equations.  It was/is a pidgin used among groups of people whose 'status'
>rankings did not differ significantly.  Also it is/was a pidgin identified
>with a terrifically multiethnic population, not with whites or nonwhites.
>
>I'm not the lawyer in the family, but I like the game of 'advocatus
>diaboli', so let me submit that Jar-Jar is actually an encoded tribute to
>the Northwest's own distinct intercultural language.
>
>On a more sober note I'd say that this Jar-Jar uproar reveals quite a bit
>about how mainstream America looks at and from its privileged position.
>
>Kakwa nayka tEmtEm.
>Dave
>
>
>
>
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