For Star Wars nerds: Why would George Lucas name the desert-dwelling merchants of Tattooine "Jawa's" - isn't that a little too close to Jews to be a coincidence?

I’m not a Star Wars nerd, so I’ll skip this question…

I thought it was “javas” the first time I heard it…it never occurred to me that it might be taken wrong…

Yes, you’re not the only one to say that (though, it’s far more common for Watto to be accused of being a Space Jew).

@Aethelflaed Wow…I bow to your Google skillz.

It’s probably just a random made up word. When I was a kid, I used to make up all of these nifty words, and I would occasionally speak in voices to my dog and cat. One time, my brother, who was 5 years older than me, had a school assignment where he had to write a fictional story. He ended up writing his story and called the main character a “Chukabuka Bird” after one of my made up words. I ended up illustrating the story for him and he got extra credit, because no one else had illustrated their story.

I would not try to find offence where no offence was intended.

I too, thought the creatures were called Javas when I first saw the movie.

People wonder about a lot of his choices.

Cracked After Hours has a whole movie speculating that in the Star Wars universe, you can only be a prostitute for fat wormy men or a silly princess who will risk the rebellion to save her felon boyfriend.

Why Star Wars is Secretly Terrifying for Women

@JilltheTooth and @Kardamom

Definitely J-A-W-A

@Aethelflaed Let me get on my hip waders, it is getting very deep in here….

I think it is more off jaw jacking, the way they spoke than some conspiracy about Jews. Maybe they missed a spot bombing the innocent people of Lebanon back to the stone age.

I guess next we can talk about how Bush and company rigged the towers and allowed the jets to crash into it, as a pretense to invade Iraq.

Lol thats funny as hell.

My suggestion is that it depends on what ones mind is occupied with.
When I read the word Jawa’s in your question, before I came to the sentence ”isn’t that a little too close to Jews”, my first association was motorbikes.

@Hypocrisy_Central I don’t necessarily agree with the idea that Jawas are Jews. Watto’s a little easier for me to see, but again, not a home run. I was just pointing out that others have said what @FutureMemory was saying.

And up until my 37th or so viewing of the movie I thought Spielberg was slamming coffee. Silly me.

@Aethelflaed I did not even see Watto as a Jew, I seen him more as a stereotypical Gypsy.

@madethisupwithnoforethought I see why those guys are sitting around with an unattractive women, they need to grow some. Did they miss the other movies? The one with Queen Amidala (who wasn’t a stripper but a ruler).

@Hypocrisy_Central you don’t think that woman is attractive? We are in disagreement sir. And I pretend those other movies never happened.

I am more concerned about the term “sand people”.
Too close to “sand n*****s” to be a coincidence.

Then there are all the other racial stereotypes, like the trade federation guys (asian), that junk yard dealer (arab), and calrissians mexican copilot. Then there are all the non-white starwing pilots that all died.
In conclusion, not only is George Lucas a talentless money grubbing hack, but also a white supremacist.

Lucas. I meant Lucas. There was a time that those two were almost interchangeable.

I think his imagination was too rooted in this society to come up with purely new ideas.
Many of his plotlines are rehashed from mythology.
I don’t think he is racist. He just comes from a society that has a lot of racism.

Still, it’s hard to explain Jar Jar.

I mean, I never made that connection. I’ve seen more blatantly racist things in more harmless stories before. Here’s looking at you, Power Rangers.

I never got an association between Jawas and Jews. Now, when I saw the newer Star Wars with the Watto creature, I had a reaction similar to watch Borat- the creature seemed a melding of all kinds of middle eastern stereotypes but no one in particular.

I never even though of it like that… I think it’s probably coincidence, although it is interesting to ponder supposed alterior motives. I think it’s just a cool word he came up with randomly.

i don’t think he was thinking about this at the time