Letters to the Editor

What You Say

In defense of Michael Bay

Seriously, in response to your movie critic's review of Transformers [by] ... Drew Somethingorother [Movies, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," Drew Lazor, June 25, 2009]: Leave it to a critic to pick up on racial stereotypes. You can totally call a Mexican a shrimp taco if it adds to my theater-going experience and he's in on the joke. Funny, it's a children's cartoon. If it was so fucking unhealthy, why air it for years and then make a huge-budget movie about it? Not to mention me and my friends, white, black and Mexican and every other kid that played with the fuckin' toys growin' up. Mudflap and Skids were podnahs! Not street hustlers. Insofar as much as this guy trashes a seemingly racially unmotivated cartoon that probably brought more kids of racially diverse backgrounds together ... this guy, not Michael Bay, seems to have the problem here. The sales from this movie do not indicate that anyone is offended ... well, with the exception of Mr. Drew Whatshisname. I do not appreciate his stereotyping. I mean, was there ever a more fitting use for the accusation of hypocrite? Was I the ONLY one reading this detritus spewed forth by a bitter old man that hates summer movies? He is clearly lost on what Transformers is. I'm sure if they didn't like being "stereotypes" they woulda been something else. I think that they were fine being Mudflap and Skidz. Instructed? Dated jive talk? Conical rice hat? Dry cleaner? Seriously? Someone's got some issues, dated fuck. It's a fucking cartoon. Much like you, idiot. You should be embarrassed. You, too, editor. Why don't you do the city and the public at large a favor and edit both of your useless, fun-sucking, racist selves outta that fuckin' paper? Why don't you transform yourselves into an opinion that anyone gives a remote shit about?

Drew Lazor responds: I love summer movies — check my past reviews for examples of nonracist blockbusters I've enjoyed. I never suggested that the Transformers cartoon was racist. Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, however, is racist for the reasons outlined in my review. As for the assertion that you can "totally call a Mexican a shrimp taco ... [if] he's in on the joke," you should definitely test that out on some Mexicans. In conclusion, the Mexican you're referring to is actually Puerto Rican, but that's cool since Mexico and Puerto Rico are pretty close to each other.