Calling the Predator ‘Jamaican’ IS in fact racist and I can prove it.
The Predator is very clearly a product of the current racial tensions/anti-black sentiment of the time, which was 1987 for the first movie and 1990 for the second. This period of time was directly after Reagan had declared his “war on drugs” and made the southern border into a militarized zone, which was an attempt to target black people/immigrants and label them all as violent drug-trafficking criminals under the guise of “national security”. In a 1981 speech, he quite literally referred to them as “human predators”. I don’t think anybody can argue that Reagan was not targeting minorities with his policies, not in 2024.
The Predator’s character is steeped in racial sterotype. Costume designer Stan Winston was quoted as saying it was conceived of as a “Rastafarian warrior”. Predator is depicted as a large, dreadlocked male that feels little pain and has superior strength and virility (all stereotypes of black men with roots in chattel slavery). It uses “savage” primitive weaponry such as knives and spears, and skins and dismembers its victims (parallels to the trope of savage African cannibals).
If putting the Predator in the jungle wasn’t a clear enough reference, Predator 2 takes place in the “urban jungle” of Los Angeles, which is infested with gangs and drugs. The second movie draws links between the Predator and the Jamaican gang (animal print clothing, ability to move through the “urban” jungle with ease, strange rituals), so much so that the police believe that the gruesome killings are done by the Jamaican gang (also, the Jamaican gang is depicted as voodoo practitioners, even though that’s a Haitan thing and Jamaicans are usually Rastafarian). The Predator is so clearly a caricature of the fear of a racial “Other” – or simply put, a Scary Black Man.
That point made, I’m not saying the movies are Klan material and you’re racist for even watching it. I still like the movies a lot, and I think the Predator is a cool alien character. But to literally refer to Predators as “jamaicans” is kind of putting down the movie’s dog whistle and picking up a megaphone. Frankly, I don’t think I even needed to provide historical context for this.
I think that it’s a mild, lukewarm take to say that referring to an alien with dreadlocks as “jamaican” is racist. But anybody who wants to argue and say “akshully it’s a reference to the police investigation in Predator 2!” is either kidding themselves, or actively ignoring the evidence. You can still hold the opinion that you want to call them “jamaicans” because you think it’s funny, but you can’t deny it’s also racist.
In conclusion, we should stop calling predators “jamaicans”.
Bibliography:
Frank, K. ““Whether Beast or Human”: The Cultural Legacies of Dread, Locks, and Dystopia.” Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, vol. 11, no. 2, 1 Jan. 2007, pp. 46–62, “Whether Beast or Human”: The Cultural Legacies of Dread, Locks, and Dystopia | Small Axe | Duke University Press. Accessed 13 Nov. 2020.
Lechuga, Michael. Visions of Invasion. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2 Mar. 2023, pp. 47–50.
Muniowski, Łukasz. “Conflicting Blackness in Predator 2.” European Journal of American Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, 4 July 2022, Conflicting Blackness in Predator 2. Accessed 12 Sept. 2022.
P.S. “wow big effort” “TLDR” “look at this nerd with the citations” “who cares it’s not racist” “it’s a joke it’s not that serious” — There, I got those responses out of the way, so maybe you can formulate an actual response to me instead of just shitposting.
