And all that Jazz.

[odditycollector]

 

The Transformers movie has been running around my head since I saw it, but, surprisingly, it's not the aforementioned creepy thing that stuck with me. It's the other creepy thing.

It's what they did with Jazz.

So, Jazz. He's the Autobot introduced to us as a parody of black culture as seen on MTV and... that's it. That's his characterization. It's so over the top and delivered with such a straight face that I was grimacing during the scene, rationalizing to myself that it had to have been some sort of homage to his initial '80s appearance. Because we're over the blaxploitation phase, right? Right?

And then, I think he gets one speaking line between the initial "yo yo my homies" and the final battle scene at the end. And then he gets ripped in half by the bad guys.

And this is how important his death is to whatever there is of plot: When a couple of the Autobots sadly relate the news of his fate, it took me a few seconds to remember that it had happened. About as long as it took the on screen characters to get over it, in fact, and launch into a monologue on the subject of how easy it is to replace him with their new found human friends.

Nice.

 

The question that's been been going around my head is this: If Jazz is The Black Autobot, does that mean that the rest of them are The Not Black Autobots? IE, are they coded as White?

I've settled on yes. Except for Jazz, the Autobots seem to exist in a sort of cultural void. They don't even act *alien*, really. They're just as one-dimensional as everyone else in the movie, but they're exaggerated along traits. ("I like to shoot things!" "I like to heal things!" "I like to give badly written soliloquies that don't end until long after the audience is embarrassed on my behalf!" "I like my human charges perhaps more than is appropriate for a PG13 rated film!" "...I'm 'Black'."")

It's easy to say race does not apply, then, but. But they've *applied* it. They've set aside Jazz as Other, so, Other than *what*? Other than the cultural default that the rest of the cgi robots belong to? Well, okay.

But.

Our "cultural default" is White. There is no Everyman of Colour in western media. Every time a movie chooses to have a character be not white, it is saying something about that character.

As it should, really, because we none of us exist in a societal vacuum, but it's too easy to use "black" or "asian" or whatever as shorthand *for* character. It's how we end up with stereotypes: he's Black, therefore he listens to rap music. Of course. And he has a rap sheet? Who's surprised. Barely even have to bother mentioning it.

(And it's too easy to forget that if a movie chooses to use a white character, it is saying something just as important.)

In the case of Jazz, this is turned around. Since we don't have any visual cues to go on, the stereotyping is used to code him as Black. It's kind of bizarre; though, since we're talking about giant alien robots without proper human facial features, I'm not sure how you *could* set them apart along (human) racial lines without resorting to blatant stereotypes. You could have them interested in different things; you could play with the accents and word choice; you could could draw names from different cultures (Srsly, though. "Jazz"?). But none of that's really the same thing.

It's too subtle, too thought out, too much like individual variation. It's not "Race" unless there's a visceral identification.

 

But the thing is, would they still be coded as White if Jazz *hadn't* been set apart as Other?

I... can't decide.

Even pretending they had not all been voiced by white guys, I have no idea. Even - especially - if it's never brought up as an issue, the writers are going to bring certain assumptions to the keyboard, aren't they? Even if ALL the nominally humanoid robots belong to that same cultural default....

It's still White.

And I'm white, and so many of the assumptions the writers make are probably going to be the same as my own. I'm not going to *see* it.

It's troubling me, because it's not like Transformers is the only show with non-humanoid characters who can't act too non-human because then how would the kids identify. Do those characters read as, you know, *people*, or do they they read as White?

And it's troubling me that - judging by how they treated Jazz, who *didn't* - maybe you don't get one without the other.

Or maybe you just don't get one with the Other.

 

Comments

[brownbetty]

This is thinky! I haven't seen the movie, but I've heard some criticisms of it. But I haven't heard anyone take your angle, yet.

[hannahrorlove.livejournal.com]

The coding thing about the Autobots that bugged me was having them with genders. A female Autobot got cut from the movie, which is understandable, though the fact that they gave them genders in the first place makes absolutely no sense.

[youraugustine.livejournal.com]

I was pondering something similar with a novel I just finished. *chinhand* In that I have a number of characters whom I know people are going to assume are caucasian. And aren't. One's going to come as a slight blink towards the end when her surname is finally used and very CLEARLY indicates that at least one parent is Chinese, but the rest are largely going to pass by, because nobody on-screen cares enough to note "oh, and by the way, she's East Indian/she's Inuit/he's Haida/she's black." Any more than anyone would note "he's Anglican" or "he's Presbyterian" or "he's Jewish." Within the context of the story, sexual orientation is going to get noted a lot more than visible "race" or religion, due to the fact that lovers and past relationships get mentioned and play into the story. Whereas the other two things . . . don't.

Which is interesting, because if it were a movie, these things would all be obvious. You'd be able to SEE that my protag has East Indian heritage, despite her name; that there are all of three "white" team members on one of the groupings, and even that classification gets problematic; and so on. Within the text, you can't, because the point of view character I use does not give a shit, and it would be completely out of character for her to do so.

(not to mention the difficulty I have with the non-humans of that series, and how BIZARRE and non-sensical they find our "race" categorisations at all.)

[thete1.livejournal.com]

*Great* post. It's -- for me it's not even about who voices the characters. To me, it seems like everyone not coded of-color is coded White -- whether or not *any* given character is coded White. It's just what has been drummed into me. I'm *always* going to be the Other, so even if "I" am not there at all...

Anyway. Thank you!

[liviapenn.livejournal.com]

Did you read Ragnell's recent post about Arcee, the female Transformer, and how they left her out? I think it applies COMPLETELY to what you're saying. The default is male; everything is male until specifically stated otherwise, and therefore, to have had a female Transformer would be WEIRD. Even though they're GIANT ROBOTS and so it's *just as weird* for them to be male. I mean, why should they have a gender at all? But no one would ask that question of all male robots, because being male is "normal." Apparently it's when a female Transformer appears-- that's when people would suddenly notice, "hey, that robot has a gender!" Same with race, I suppose. Maybe there are black, Asian, Hispanic kids who look at the Transformers and see *someone like me*, but a lot of them have probably internalized somewhat the rule that white is the default and anything else is a huge exception and must be Marked Clearly As Other.

[vagabondsal.livejournal.com]

It should come as no surprise that I agree with this completely.

One thing possibly worth considering along your thoughts: Is there a contrast between the Autobots' heavy-handed stereotyping and the Army squad's...well, still heavy-handed stereotyping?

[jarodrussell.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what your history with Transformers is, so if I'm being redundant, I apologize... That said, Jazz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_(Transformers)#Animated_series) has always been "black" since his first days on the cartoon when he was voiced by Sherman "Scatman" Crothers.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

Very interesting. Not convincing me to see the movie. :(

[nostariel]

Now I'm so glad I didn't go see this movie. I really don't want my sweet childhood memories of stealing my friend Josh's Tranformers toys to be sullied with the big honking racism and sexism, you know? I'm also glad I was more interested in the toy robots than I was in watching the show when I was a kid, cos no child needs Jazz in their brain. Good God.

*points to icon*

I believe the pirates are officially giving this one a thumbs down. :(

Get a grip

[(Anonymous)]

It's explained why Jazz speaks the way he does. All the Autobots monitored Earth's frequencies and the Internet. It seems Jazz just latched onto a particular dialect he liked, and don't even pretend that Ebonics type talk isn't ALL OVER the place. Bumblebee clearly took a liking to hip-hop tunes. Each Autobot has their own personality. That doesn't make Jazz "black!" He's a robot!

Why don't you get offended by something that's actually important, like Darfur or the Oil-- I mean Iraq War?

Even the first AICN reviewer was floored by the racism

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

and stereotypes in Transformers, and that site is not exactly a haven of social awareness!

autobot Jazz in racial culture

[(Anonymous)]

Jazz, originally voiced by Scatman Crothers in the US release on the more than meets the eye cartoon is an AUTOBOT. A cybertronian native. Jazz is (as per his many bio's from the last 20 years) is a huge fan of popular human culture. His original voice actor (in the US) was that of a black man. More than meet the eye portrayed him as hip, and current with the energies of the youth of the era. If I were an alien, marooned on a distant planet, trying to blend in to a new society, I would get VERY familiar with the next generation of leaders of that world. Jazz, Bumblebee and Prime did just that. (who can forget the episode were Prime was playing basket ball! Was it Blue Streak that incinerated the ball to "block" the shot?) Many episodes showed the Autobots assimulating human (US)culture. Sure, Jazz loved break dancing and did 2 or 3 backspins during the original series run in the 80's, but so did alot of (real) people in the 80's, white included. Let us not forget that is take more than speech patterns to be "black". I am a 30 year old black man,...way past the yo, yo, yo BS,...yet I am (and ALWAYS) will be black. Hip hop culture (slang speech, clothing styles, modern dance) is universal. The Beastie Boys, Everlast, Vanalla Ice, Eminem, Paul Wall are examples of how trendy culture is adopted by all. These artists were (or still are) in tune with pop culture; like Jazz, yet they aren't black. Meister, as Jazz is named in the japanese transformers 80's cartoon was depicted as more of a "cool, fashionable, japanese club kid", very far from black. Guys, remember that the cartoons of the80's were released mostly as 26 min long commercials. Kids are more likely to want a certain character because they identify with it on some level. I identified with Starscream because of his rebellious nature, something that I, even as a child, knew that I had as well. I never though of the Transformers as anything else but "Cybertronians"; with two races; Autobots and Decepticons; many sub groups (constucticons, protectobots etc) fighting for a cause that neither side will truly win. In that regard they are most like humans, but I honestly think thats where the common ground ends. You wanna talk about negative stereotypes, look at the character "Roadblock" of GI joe. I swear he rhymes all the damn time. :)

all that jazz

[(Anonymous)]

Get a Grip.
Its a film.
Its make beleave.

Transformers is amazing. Great toy line from 80s when i fell in love with it, great charectors : robots with personalities and feelings. Jazz is one of the greatest autobots ever. Its a alien race. Nothing to do with black or white.

He will return.