So everybody hates Jar Jar Binks, the cartoonish, computer-generated amphibian with a pseudo-Caribbean accent. The negative reactions that he’s generated range from those who are annoyed by his whiny speech and goofball antics, to those who demand that he be "raped by Sandpeople, dismembered with a light saber and strangled Darth Vader style." A plethora of "Jar Jar Must Die"-style web pages have popped up in recent days, receiving tens of thousands of hits. Perhaps even most importantly, some have made the dangerous allegation that the character’s portrayal is a racist stereotype. Has George Lucas given the ACLU a new reason to exist?

I must admit, I was among the original Jar Jar critics. I saw the movie on opening morning at 3:30 AM, and was even more dazzled than I had expected to be. By the movie’s end, I was breathless. The prequel had successfully won me back into the ranks of Star Wars fanatics, and I was sure that I would be seeing the movie plenty more times before it left the theaters. But whether out of reverence, bewilderment, or discontent, while sitting through the ending credits I was unable to say anything about the movie to my girlfriend sitting next to me. The truth is, even though the movie was an incredible experience, I felt a bit unsettled. I finally blubbered lamely, with little inflection "That was a rad movie." I soon discovered that there was something about the movie that bothered me and his name was Jar Jar Binks.

Jar Jar was too goofy to be in a Star Wars movie, I thought. When we were kids, Star Wars was serious business. There was no other movie, or phenomenon for that matter, that could live up to the perfectly-contrived tale of good and evil. I remembered the days of the first trilogy and was hoping to once again be dazzled beyond belief, captivated by unearthly creatures and environments, and whooshed away in star cruisers that blow up Death Stars. The new movie was undoubtedly fascinating, but the new characters were clearly much grimmer than our familiar friends: wild-eyed Luke, strong-headed Princess Leia, and tactless yet charming Han Solo. The new, serious characters were bluntly contrasted with a loony, computer-generated lizard who talks gibberish and steps in alien dung. This is not Star Wars, I thought.

It took me a while to become a member of the Jar Jar fan club, but soon enough I found myself embracing the odd creature. He started to grow on me. I realized that his purpose in the movie is not merely comic relief. Although his personality does establish a much-needed balance to the often-serious movie, Jar Jar’s role is integral to the movie’s plot. And he is not stupid, as the critics will have you believe. He understands the implications of the droid invasion on his planet, as well as the social relationship between his people and the more technologically-advanced Naboo ("Youssa people gonna die? …Gungans no goin out without a fight. Weessa warriors. That’s why youssa people no liken us, I think."). I’ve seen the movie several times now, and I can no longer imagine the movie without him.

To those of you who believe that George Lucas has conjured up racism with lizardman Binks, I’ll address your complaint real quick and simple. Get a life. Stop looking for opportunities to be a victim. To fully argue this point would require going way beyond Jar Jar and into a touchy sociopolitical discussion, and to be honest, I’d rather not go there. But if I were to go into that story, I would detail the way our country has become imprisoned by political-correctness, and how one can no longer say ten words without infringing upon the rights of a special interest group. Hate crimes are one thing, but Jar Jar Binks? Come on.

Besides, C3PO has been around for 22 years and nobody has ever complained about him being a stereotypical stiff British wuss, have they?

The racist accusations are baseless, anyway. Some complain that when Jar Jar repeatedly says "meesa," it sounds like he’s saying "massah." So, I must ask, what does it mean when he says "youssa?" Or "weessa?" Or when an eeopie, a horse-like creature, farts in Jar Jar’s face and he says "pee-yoo-sa!" Are all those expressions submissive references to slave masters? Maybe if the race-critics were smart they could figure out that Jar Jar has an accent. It’s not racist to have an accent is it?

And what is this I’m hearing of Jar Jar’s Gungan leader, Boss Nass, resembling a stereotypical African tribal chieftain? First of all, I’ve never heard of a "stereotypical African tribal chieftain." And if there were one, I certainly wouldn’t agree that it is a "fat, bumbling buffoon with a rumbling voice," like the critics are claiming. If anything is racist, it is the critics who dare to make that assumption. And what are they complaining about anyway? Other than Jar Jar’s racially irrelevant clumsiness, the Gungans exhibit no negative qualities whatsoever. In fact, they were the bravest bunch of all, standing up, with primitive weapons, to an army of battle droids which outnumbered them at least tenfold, and in the end, saving the planet from the enemy’s occupation. The Gungans are not stupid and submissive. They’re heroes.

But enough of the ridiculous complaints about racism. Let’s move on to the more legitimate discussion: "Jar Jar sucks." I, myself, was an original proponent of the criticism that Jar Jar just does not fit in with the Star Wars style. The goofy creature has widened the silliness boundaries on the reverenced galactic saga. However, a brief mental stroll through the original trilogy reveals that silliness is not a new concept for Star Wars. Jar Jar’s annoying conversation is not much worse than C3PO’s babbling in The Empire Strikes Back. If you didn’t sigh with relief when Han Solo shouted "Shut him up or shut him down!" you must have been sleeping. And Jar Jar’s slapstick behavior is no more cartoony than when in Return of the Jedi, our two favorite droids fall off the sand barge and land head-first in the sand like a couple of Wile E. Coyotes. Or when Salacious Crumb, the bird-like creature in Jabba’s palace, cackles like a crazed Woody Woodpecker and completely incapacitates C3PO by pecking at his eyes. And most of all, let’s not forget the feelings of embarrassment we all felt while watching those furry singing smurfs, the Ewoks, destroy an army of stormtroopers by throwing rocks at them.