Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen and racism

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Are we being hypersensitive or is this an issue?

After watching Transformers 2, I see how an average viewer can see racism in the characters of the lime green car and his identical brother. The movie portrayed them as stereotypical, impoverished African Americans in a less fortunate community.

In my opinion the movie targeted pre-teens and teenage boys from 11-16, using many one-liners and lacking a quality plot. Megan Fox, a cast of extremely attractive girls, explosions, guns, and loud clanking metal also target the age group. This age is a very critical to the development of a child and teenager. Children learn their habits and language from the movies they watch and the behaviors they see.

The two robots in question had silver and gold teeth and talked less than educated. They even said they did not read much in the movie and used language like “We should put a cap in his a**” and the word “Pu***”. They also fought each other in the movie. These characters were portrayed throughout the movie as “good guys” and they were also comical. The cars could even be considered a hero of the movie to an unguided child.

These are serious stereotypes that should not be passed on to our children. Children should be taught that good triumphs over evil using knowledge and hard work using good role models. The hero of the story doesn’t have to say “I like books” or “I recycle and I am cool,” but use respectable language and show desirable qualities that will help them succeed in life.

Myron Rolle is one of my role models. He had a 4.0 GPA in high school and was recruited to play football in college for Florida State. He selected the college not because it was a great football school, but because it was a good place for his major. He was a star safety at Florida State and was also a Rhodes scholar. He did not enter the NFL draft in 2009, but decided to study for a year at Oxford to receive an M.A. in medical Anthropology. He aspires to be drafted in the 2010 draft after studying for a year and he has already started a charity to help global and domestic health and education initiatives.