Star Wars: 5 things we want to be erased from canon instead of The Last Jedi

2. Watto is a bad idea

We’ve already talked a little about how terrible Jar Jar Binks is but we haven’t touched upon the racism. His inclusion in the series caused a furor even when the film first came out, with The Independent calling out the character’s “Caribbean patois that fans find inane and demeaning.” The Telegraph points to American scholar and race theorist, Patricia Williams, who “said that Jar Jar’s character was reminiscent of the archetypes portrayed by blackface minstrels.”  

But Jar Jar isn’t the only racist character in Star Wars. Watto, the slave owner who owns Shmi and Anakin Skywalker, is mindbogglingly awful. As Bruce Gottlieb from Slate describes him, he is “the hook-nosed owner of the local parts shop — Watto — who also happens to have a thick Yiddish accent!” (emphasis his). 

Gottlieb continues:

"Psychological manipulations that work on almost everyone fail with Watto — “Mind ticks don’ta work on me … only money! No,” he cries — and the heroes get what they want only through the bravery of a gifted slave boy (Anakin Skywalker). At the end of the desert planet sequence, Anakin is emancipated but separated from his mother, who still belongs to Watto. Even in a galaxy far away, the Jews are apparently behind the slave trade."

Did Lucas even consider how antisemitic this character would come across? It’s almost unbelievable.

Star Wars has made great strides recently to make the galaxy a more inclusive place, especially in Rogue One and The Last Jedi, and as such, there is no room for Watto or Jar Jar. So tell us, where’s the petition to get rid of these two from canon?