Melissa Harris-Perry let her opinion be known when she brought up racism in Star Wars on her MSNBC show yesterday.
She expressed that Darth Vader was a black guy, until he became a white guy, and that he cut off the white guy's hand, and then claimed him as his son to become a white guy.
“Yeah, like, the part where (Vader) was totally a black guy whose name basically was James Earl Jones, who, and we were all, but while he was black, he was terrible and bad and awful and used to cut off white men’s hands, and didn’t, you know, actually claim his son. But as soon as he claims his son and goes over to the good, he takes off his mask and he is white. Yes, I have many, many feelings about that, but I will try to put them over here.”
Star Wars can be a little confusing, especially on the weak minded as Obi-Wan would say. Anakin, who is Darth Vader, was white before, during, and after his death. We see him as a child, an adult, and even in spirit form where he is and always was a white guy.
I can only imagine the impact that these comments would have on a young African-American child seeing Star Wars for the first time.
If there is a notion that George Lucas intentionally tried to infuse some racism into the Star Wars plot, then he did a horrible job because two of the coolest characters in the series are black men, Lando Calrissian and Mace Windu.