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Does Space Police III promote racism and xenophobia?

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One thing I noticed about Space Police III is that the Space Police seem to be all human, while the criminals are aliens. Does this not promote racism and xenophobia?

I did a google search to see if anyone had similar feelings, and this had been discussed on Lego.com.

Lego.com thread

There was also a funny blog post on this subject:

BuboBlog post

In the popular Lego Space Police series, human characters pursue intergalactic criminals — all of which, coincidentally enough, are non-human. (The scene depicted below is a clear case of profiling.)

And

What does this say about the Lego worldview? (And is a "District 9" licensing deal in the works?)

The accompanying pictures are entertaining.

I have to say that a District 9 series of lego sets would be fun, but it would undoubtedly be very violence oriented.

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Specism ?

All LEGO non-city themes nowadays have good humans vs. bad non-humans. We have the trolls in castle, the stone monsters in power miners and I think exo force fought with robots.

also, if anything old space police was more racist with all those BLACKtrons being the bad guys!

Edited by vexorian

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No, its a toy.

And toys do not just reflect the value of the society that produces them but also help impart those values onto the next generation.

I'm actually glad the new Kingdom's line is human vs. human. And I'm saying that as a big fan of the fantasy era.

Because:

Atlantis - humans vs. non-human

Power Miners - humans vs. non-human

SPIII - Humans vs. non -humans

At least Star Wars has Chewbacca but don't get me started on their terrible treatment of droids.

I think there is at least 1 topic about this already. It pops up from time to time. You really need to subvert the theme and turn the police into fascists and the aliens are the good guys.

-Tohst

R2 has force powers...and still can't be treated like a live little boy.

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I noticed in the late 90s, lego seemed to stop doing Human VS Human. I remember earlier themes there were nothing else, skeletons aside.

I think lego is trying to make itself look non-violent. For example, SPIII has freeze rays; not guns. and don't even get me started on bionicle....

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And toys do not just reflect the value of the society that produces them but also help impart those values onto the next generation.

I'm actually glad the new Kingdom's line is human vs. human. And I'm saying that as a big fan of the fantasy era.

Because:

Atlantis - humans vs. non-human

Power Miners - humans vs. non-human

SPIII - Humans vs. non -humans

At least Star Wars has Chewbacca but don't get me started on their terrible treatment of droids.

I think there is at least 1 topic about this already. It pops up from time to time. You really need to subvert the theme and turn the police into fascists and the aliens are the good guys.

-Tohst

R2 has force powers...and still can't be treated like a live little boy.

Isn't the leader of the rebels that "It's a trap!" squid guy?

SP3 has droids on their side!

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Yep, This is why a Blacktron re-insurgence would be good for the Space themes, it would go something like this story-wise; while the speciesiest Space Police was focusing their attention on the alien criminal under world, the were unaware of a rising force of anarchists who intended to over through the government. They were united under the name of Blacktron and in one fell swoop destroyed the Space police, revealing their massive fleet of superior ships to the galaxy. Now the remnants of Space police and the aliens who for so long were oppressed by the humans have joined forces to defeat the malicious Blacktron menace...

:look:

~Insectoid Aristocrat

Edited by dannylonglegs

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Maybe it does, but it's not nearly as bad as Mars Mission. In that we're going to a planet that isn't even ours, finding advanced alien life that's already adapted to using the planet's crystals as fuel, then abducting the aliens and experimenting on them. The ethics are in general very dubious. In Space Police III, at least it's established that the aliens we've seen are genuine "bad guys", even if the implication that all aliens are bad guys and all bad guys are aliens is questionable.

Meanwhile, it's worth noting that in early catalogs, Blacktrons were sometimes referred to as "aliens" despite looking perfectly human. So while the "like us/not like us" issue doesn't come up with that era's perfectly identical minifigs, there's still a clearly-established attitude that aliens are not our friends.

Also, Life On Mars demonstrated that LEGO wasn't totally afraid to cast aliens as friends to humanity. Hence why Mars Mission, an innovative theme as far as sets go, was disappointing with regard to story.

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The small fact about mars mission kind of made me unhappy too. we invade their world, steal their precious resources, and attack and experiment on them. I was thinking, "Wait, are the people the bad guys?"

Maybe a mars mission/space police crossover is needed... SP goes against the MM people.

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Yeah, because cops, going after BLACKtron would do wonders to discourage accusations of racism......

:laugh:

I'm only kidding, of course.

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Eh... I like to pretend that the life on mars sets never happened. But even in those sets, it looked like the humans were against the martians.

Yes, but in the web comics and other media, it was made perfectly clear that, despite early competition between the two sides, neither was "good" or "bad"-- any conflicts were a result of poor communication, and were quickly resolved once the Martians learned to trust the newcomers and the people learned to trust the Martians. Anyway, the only sets that even hinted at conflict were a few of the Martian vehicles which had lasers.

Life on Mars sets were really fun IMO, since they were so intercompatible. I didn't get many of the human vehicles, but I did quite a few Martian vehicles. Also, bear in mind that without Life on Mars we might not have that awesome tile with the vitruvian minifig. :grin:

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Isn't the leader of the rebels that "It's a trap!" squid guy?

SP3 has droids on their side!

No, that's Admiral Ackbar, who looks nothing like a squid, but he's a Mon Calamari, the squid-heads are Quarrens.

It's like this in a lot of Lego themes, so maybe a little, but I'm not sure it's completely intended. In Power Miners, Rock Monsters are more like animals, so it's not as wrong, but in Atlantis and SPIII, humans are the good guys and fish/aliens are the bad guys.

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No, that's Admiral Ackbar, who looks nothing like a squid, but he's a Mon Calamari, the squid-heads are Quarrens.

It's like this in a lot of Lego themes, so maybe a little, but I'm not sure it's completely intended. In Power Miners, Rock Monsters are more like animals, so it's not as wrong, but in Atlantis and SPIII, humans are the good guys and fish/aliens are the bad guys.

Or maybe it is just part of your anti rock people prejudice ^^.

I'd say , would it be so hard to make an Alien cadet for SP3 ? Just change the head... And it would fix it . At least now even though all humans are good not all aliens would be bad.

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Yes, it promotes all of these evils and more.

It promotes hatred, racism, classism, overzealous patriotism, specism, genocide, puppy kicking, kitten drowning, baby eating, ignoring the "Keep off the Grass" sign, jaywalking, liking rap, liking the Twilight series, not liking Hot Fuzz and Shaun if the Dead, killing orphans, not voting, cussing, women beating, war igniting, property thieving, policeman shooting, toddler thieving, movie downloading, lolcat creating, Rick Roll linking, pepsi over coke, not being able to whistle, criminal rudeness, thinking Avatar had a great story, bigotry, fatal pillow fights, Skynet uploading, Nixon fandom, liking the Star Wars prequels, foot fetishes, nose fetishes, dog fetishes, "First!"ing, spider loving, Bill O'Reilly, bestiality and of course baby Harp seal clubbing!

When will we end this horrific Lego propaganda that poisons these children's minds with admiration of the filth listed above? It is blatant brainwashing and conditioning by a once benevolent company now corrupted by greed and amorality! None of us are safe! Lego has become a shrine to all the evils of the world and is now too far gone to be redeemed!

The end times are near! Repent! REPENT!

Batbrick Away form the poisonous stench of TLC! :oh3:

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It promotes

...

baby Harp seal clubbing!

When will we end this horrific Lego propaganda that poisons these children's minds with admiration of the filth listed above?

...

But whats wrong with clubbing baby seals?

Seriously, if you ask me, the Space Police Aliens seem to have better vehicles and lots more fun than the so called Space Police. So I think its a very equal theme.

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It promotes hatred, racism, classism, overzealous patriotism, specism, genocide, puppy kicking, kitten drowning, baby eating, ignoring the "Keep off the Grass" sign, jaywalking, liking rap, liking the Twilight series, not liking Hot Fuzz and Shaun if the Dead, killing orphans, not voting, cussing, women beating, war igniting, property thieving, policeman shooting, toddler thieving, movie downloading, lolcat creating, Rick Roll linking, pepsi over coke, not being able to whistle, criminal rudeness, thinking Avatar had a great story, bigotry, fatal pillow fights, Skynet uploading, Nixon fandom, liking the Star Wars prequels, foot fetishes, nose fetishes, dog fetishes, "First!"ing, spider loving, Bill O'Reilly, bestiality and of course baby Harp seal clubbing!

TAKE IT BACK!

--

Space police or police space?

Hehe, how about MoCs of civilians riots and resistance against the police asking for rights of the aliens? Makes me want to make my planned return to system official ^^.

Edited by vexorian

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I'm a big fan of clubbing baby seals, so long as they stay away from the bar, and nobody lets them take Ecstasy.

and they should have to pay a cover charge since they're not old enough to drink.

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Yes, it promotes all of these evils and more.

It promotes hatred, racism, classism, overzealous patriotism, specism, genocide, puppy kicking, kitten drowning, baby eating, ignoring the "Keep off the Grass" sign, jaywalking, liking rap, liking the Twilight series, not liking Hot Fuzz and Shaun if the Dead, killing orphans, not voting, cussing, women beating, war igniting, property thieving, policeman shooting, toddler thieving, movie downloading, lolcat creating, Rick Roll linking, pepsi over coke, not being able to whistle, criminal rudeness, thinking Avatar had a great story, bigotry, fatal pillow fights, Skynet uploading, Nixon fandom, liking the Star Wars prequels, foot fetishes, nose fetishes, dog fetishes, "First!"ing, spider loving, Bill O'Reilly, bestiality and of course baby Harp seal clubbing!

When will we end this horrific Lego propaganda that poisons these children's minds with admiration of the filth listed above? It is blatant brainwashing and conditioning by a once benevolent company now corrupted by greed and amorality! None of us are safe! Lego has become a shrine to all the evils of the world and is now too far gone to be redeemed!

The end times are near! Repent! REPENT!

Batbrick Away form the poisonous stench of TLC! :oh3:

Can I have all your Space Police sets?

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Yes, but in the web comics and other media, it was made perfectly clear that, despite early competition between the two sides, neither was "good" or "bad"-- any conflicts were a result of poor communication, and were quickly resolved once the Martians learned to trust the newcomers and the people learned to trust the Martians. Anyway, the only sets that even hinted at conflict were a few of the Martian vehicles which had lasers.

Life on Mars sets were really fun IMO, since they were so intercompatible. I didn't get many of the human vehicles, but I did quite a few Martian vehicles. Also, bear in mind that without Life on Mars we might not have that awesome tile with the vitruvian minifig. :grin:

Yeah, I never had a problem with "Life on Mars" -- that series seemed to promote inter-species cooperation.

"Mars Mission" seemed like a pretty violent theme, with both humans and jellies being armed to the teeth and ready to kill and pillage. I suppose this reflects more accurately the International system today, but I feel that a toy series from Denmark of all places should reflect better aspirations.

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It does give the idea of "Hey Kids! Be a brave policeman and bust this dirty alien scum!" kind of ideas. A modern Cowboy vs. Indian conflict. Maybe including some humans as the bad guys and some aliens to help the police to balance the conflict, but kids like a simple conflict of race vs. race.

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Sometimes I see a topic and I just have to shake my head at how silly you guys are.

Are we seriously worried about the poor, downtrodden and mistreated aliens now? Do we know any actual aliens who might be discriminated against or abused because a child grew up playing with LEGO? Do we think this is less acceptable than, say, abusing a real human who might resemble one of the former human factions, like the Native Americans?

While I will agree that the "go steal their stuff and kill them" plot is bad in themes like Rock Raiders, we're talking about criminals and cops here, and just because the criminals are aliens we're bothered? Personally, I wouldn't buy any of the line if it was human vs human, the aliens have been the only draw for me at all, but whatever... Carry on. :hmpf:

:laugh:

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I started a similar topic about this about a year ago.

Yes , they promote racism, but I think not on purpose.

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