La Cucaracha by Lalo Alcaraz for December 20, 2014

Why should comments be disabled? This is a free country where free speech is both accepted and allowed. All of this over a Black StormTrooper? Don’t forget about the guy that lives in the clouds…he was Black, also. So, no big deal…

Wow, Lalo has printed stuff I disagreed with before but usually where I could still admit he had a point. This is way overboard; forbidding comment is sooooo wrong.

When the comments section becomes a bottomless cesspool of bigotry, misogyny and stupidity as happened with the Star Wars trailer some severe moderation is in order.

I find the whole saga of “Star War” ridiculous. I mean in the opening scene of the first installment in 1977 there was lots of shooting by the stormtroopers yet none of the bullets fired hit their targets. Come on now you would think that in the future there would be smart bullets. Miniaturization would provide guidance and target acquisition features. Yet the same old bullets were fired as in the 1800’s. But that Star Wars episode has to have been way, way in the future to have galactic space travel and spaceships that can go as fast as the speed of light. Obviously, I am not the only one to have noticed this: “the stormtrooper effect,” a common cliché in action movies, was named after these soldiers and their poor sharpshooter skills when encountering major protagonists.

Speaking of Sam Jackson, I noted his anti police song played on the news (Sam don’t quit your day job). Mr Sam is a 1% rich guy. He went from poor to multi-millionaire movie star because the system beats down black folks? Check out commercial advertising in print and in the media. Minorities are being promoted for their economic value alone, screw color. What other country has changed attitudes about race so much in the last 50-60 years? A two term Black President, Attorney General, General Colin Powell, and all the rest sure ain’t the product of a racist country. If it wasn’t for hate, Al Sharpton and The not so Rev Jeremiah would starve. Are there still idiots, yes. But the numbers dwindle every day. All these riots do nothing but hurt small business’s and make honest people look bad.

I think you’ve missed the point. Yes, there are lots of rich black entertainers and they have earned every penny, but the stupid furor over a black guy in Star Wars? Remember Lando?

“That’s quite an understanding of the First Amendment.Lalo, are you talking about all comments, or only ones you disagree with?”Apparently, you need a refresher on the Constitution. This forum, as well as the comments section on Youtube, where racists posted stupid remarks on the Star Wars trailer, are not public forums protected by free speech. They are the private properties of GoComics & Google, who can remove comments for any reason they see fit.They are here to present entertainment & make money, not give airtime to racist comments. When racists do show up in actual public forums, I think it’s usually better to utterly ignore them. They have a right to speech, but not an audience.

I wonder if any noticed that only humans are in leadership and enforcement positions in the Galactic Empire? No aliens need apply. A true example of xenophobia.

To be fair, they probably observed Jar-Jar’s hijinks and were all like, “We’ll leave those clowns to the rebels.” (And they weren’t above a bit of help from non-human bounty hunters.) Little did they know a giant talking shrimp would command the fleet that destroyed their second not-a-moon.

Ooh, how awful that you all have been denied the right to post here! My heart bleeds. In any case, the visors on storm trooper armor were poorly designed and they can’t see much. Check out the videos of them walking into walls on YouTube.

Bounty hunters had a poor reputation in the Star Wars universe.

This is true. But they did have their uses. At least for unscrupulous imperial types and interstellar mafia bosses.

I would rather have people tell us their point-of-view than hide it.

Same here.