Screaming Penguin

Ok, I just have to rant about this for just a second...
It seems that everyone wants to identify the Jango/Boba Fett and Storm Troopers as a dig against their racial group. The Detroit daily (see link) has an article poining out that Temuera Morrison, the actor playing Jago looks Latino and Kamino is close to the Spanish word Camino and, and, and.
Now first, to quote the article, "Temuera Morrison, the actor who plays Jango, is a New Zealander of Maori descent." I didn't read the clone army as any sort of read on thousands of faceless Mexicans crossing the border. Nor did I put this together:

If the planet name "Kamino" caught some Latinos' attention, three Arab-Americans on The News' panel seized on the fact that Jango's son calls him "Baba."
"I frankly think the bounty hunter is Arab," says college counselor Imad Nouri of Royal Oak.
"He's basically a terrorist," explains Nouri, "and 'baba' is Arabic for 'father.' "

Now, Darth Vader is Dutch for Dark Father, but you don't hear the Dutch compaining about the tall blond characters conducting genocide.
Science Fiction has a long history of drawing from cultures and places in the real world for inspiration. Tatooine is actually an desert region in Tunisia. I'm sure there are more things that Lucas didn't change that I just don't know about. Star Trek's primary races all draw directly from human history (The Romulans from Romulus are obvious takes on the Romans -- Romulus the mythical twin of the founder of Rome).
Everyone knows the Empire was a take on the Nazi's, down to the naming of the "Storm troopers". I think you can say this was never presented in a "positive" light. Anyone who reads the Star Wars literature knows that the Emperor doesn't like non-humans -- and judging from the crew of their ships -- or non-white humans. This presenting of a racist evil doesn't in my mind project (to quote the article again ):

Anderson's words, "like the Ku Klux Klan's fantasy of the future."

Yes, cultures and laguages get lifted into Anglophone American Sci-Fi. Why? Because unlike Tolkien, most authors don't want to invent a complete language. It's easy to draw from the archetypical nature of alien (in the terrestrial sense) cultures as templates for a people. When actors are portraying a character, its not easy to "invent" and accent, so copying one is more natural.
No, Jimmy Smits didn't get many lines. We have established the pattern now that a character is introduces in one movie, and developed in the next, so yes, I expect Leia's adopted father to get more screen time in Ep3. Samuel Jackson went from 2 lines to a leading role, which we all wanted the FIRST time around, but thats another story.
I am not too arrogant to admit that xenophobia is easy. It's not easy to intermigle with people of a different mindset from your own. I'm still not sold on the fact that people in the US are "afraid" of Mexicans or Koreans or most ethnic groups anymore. I admit I only have 2 "friends" that are Islamic, and in the current environment that may be a biggie, but geez. Science Fiction has for years been on the forefront of racial integration, and Star Wars along with it. Let's get over ourselves for just a littlewhile.   DetNews.com