Let me begin by saying this: I am not a huge fan of George Lucas. Largely because of the almost incestuous Luke and Leia story line and because he wanted Marion Ravenwood to be too young to drive when Indiana Jones seduced her, I suspect he may be a pervert. Even so, I feel the need to defend him from baseless accusations.
The author starts out by saying he isn't calling George Lucas a racist, and then proceeds to list all the reasons the Star Wars Universe (created by George Lucas, remember) is as racist as a Klan rally. His logic is not consistent, he relies on revisionist history, and worst of all - he criticizes another author for doing the same thing he is. The other author "ignores evidence that contradicts his interpretation".
The author claims filming in Tunisia for the backwards world of Tatooine means Lucas believes Tunisia to be backwards. Yet it doesn't occur to him that the primitives of Endor were filmed in California, which would mean Lucas thinks of Californians (including himself) as primitive.
Aspects inspired by Asian culture are "appropriation" if used on a good guy and "stereotyping" if used on a bad guy. Lucas has never made a secret that he was heavily influenced by Japanese movies. The Jedi are analogous to Samurais. What this guy is calling Appropriation is actually Imitation - the highest form of flattery.
He claims that there is no sex in the Star Wars Universe and then tells us Vader sexually threatened Leia on the Death Star (Interrogation Scene), that Lando was a horny stereotype, and even compares Luke to Oedipus.
At one point, he says the characters never go to "a performance", yet we see Palpatine at what seems to be an opera. There are "no aliens" in the capital city - except for those interacting with the White Males the author keeps ranting about. He even goes so far to take literally Luke's petulant comment to C-3PO about being farthest from the bright spot in the center of the universe!
Now that I've poked all kinds of holes in his logic, shall we move on to his claim of racism? First is the lack of color - everyone is white. Mace Windu and Lando? Tokens. Even Padme's right-hand-man, a black man named Panaka, is dismissed as tokenism. My favorite one, though, is the claim that Vader is black. Never mind he has white skin under the armor, and white offspring, Darth Vader is clearly an Evil Black Man. One who sexually threatens the virginal white Princess.
Jar Jar Binks is a "Gungun" according to this book. "Gunguns" are black stereotypes who were not allowed a voice in the Senate. In truth, Gungans (note the spelling) were isolationists. They didn't want to be in the Senate. They were also Quasi-Jamaican, and not all Jamaicans are black.
The Neimoidians were inscrutable and had almond-shaped eyes, so they must be Asian, thus making Asians evil. Watto was greedy and had a big nose, so he must be Jewish. The Jawa, by merit of the words sounding similar, were Jews - even though their behavior more fits the stereotype of a Gypsy. And the Tusken Raiders are Arabs, Bedouins to be precise, because they are nomadic and dress for protection from the desert in which they live.
Ewoks and Wookies are American Indians, which makes Chewbacca Tonto. Or maybe Friday, since he was a South American "savage" tamed by the White Man. Any tribal society, in harmony with nature, MUST be American Indians.
Then there's the mean way Lucas portrays women. All they can do is have babies (Shmi and Padme) or get saved! Did you know Leia was rescued from Jabba The Hut? Never mind it looked like she was participating in a plan to rescue a White Male... All those bad guys either of the leading ladies shot? They don't count. The female Jedis we saw? Tokenism.
I will grant that the Star Wars universe could use more color and that females are under-represented. What this book does goes beyond that. Star Wars is a tale meant for children. As such, things are simplified and a resemblance to established stereotypes is going to happen. And of course George Lucas tells a story from a Eurocentric viewpoint - he is descended from Europeans and raised in Western society.
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