Where can I find english articles relating to Samuel L. Jackson's
defense of Jar Jar Binks related to the voice of the character being
black (Ahmed Best)?

The only article I could find was in French (And I've seen one in
english before, just can't seem to find it).
http://translate.google.com/translate?sourceid=navclient&hl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ecinemovies%2Efr%2Fnews%5Ffiche%2Ephp%3FIDtitreactu%3D117

Hello severisth

Here are four articles that deal with this topic:

1. Jackson defends Jar Jar Binks

"Attack Of The Clones star Samuel L Jackson has slammed fans and
critics who have branded Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks racist...
"I thought it [the fuss] was pretty stupid," Jackson said recently...
"
Yahoo UK + Ireland Film News
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/020529/242/czxd6.html

2. 30th May 2002 
Samuel Defends Jar Jar Binks

"Movie star Samuel L Jackson has leaped to the defence of new 
Star Wars character Jar Jar Binks... believes some people have
analysed the character in a racial sense because it was voiced by a
black man Ahmed Best..."
http://www.cinema.com/news/item.phtml?ID=5984

3. Samuel L Jackson looks back at some of the Episode-I criticisms
20th Aug 2000
  
"We received a transcript of an article that has been printed in the
Sunday Telegraph in Australia in which Samuel L. Jackson defends two
of the key criticisms of Star Wars Episode-I: The Phantom Menace... On
Jar Jar Binks
"That's just more bulls***. One person says it's racist , then
everybody else jumps on the bandwagon. You ask any nine year old who
their favorite character was - It was Jar Jar Binks." "
http://archive.swmovies.net/news/ep1_tpm/2000_08_ep1_tpm.htm

4. Samuel L. Jackson On Getting to Fight Like a Jedi
By Mike Szymanski
May 11, 2002

"Jackson laughs about the people who are offended by Binks'
Caribbean-like patois, which some have deemed racist.

"Watching the film, as soon as the clone female showed up, I'm kind of
like, 'Oh, man, she looks very Zulu.' Or the four-armed cook in the
diner, 'Hmm, sounds very Italian.' He's not. It's silly, it's a
different world." "
http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/pstory/0,3382,12282,00.html


Search strategy: Jackson defends Binks

Thank you for the links Tehuti, and thanks to Aceresearcher for the
followup as well.  I had read an article a while back which was poorly
written and gave me the impression that Samuel Jackson was claiming
that Jar Jar was disliked because the critics were racist.  Clearly,
after reading these articles and the translation, that is not the
case.  I wanted to be sure I understood it correctly before I spread
any false information, and I'm glad I checked first!

Hi severisth!

Here's my translation of the original article you found:

"Samuel L Jackson and Jar-Jar Binks"
published Wednesday May 29, 2002 on the CineMovies website
 
"Samuel L. Jackson, who portrayed Jedi Mace Windu in 'The Phantom
Menace', doesn't understand why so many people were offended by the
Jar-Jar Binks character.

After the release of 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace', many
moviegoers and film critics criticized the character, saying that it
perpetuated Hollywood racial stereotypes.

In 'Star Wars II - Attack of the Clones', the role of Jar-Jar became
significantly less important than in the first episode. Samuel Jackson
thinks that people have read too much into the character in perceiving
it to be racist, a perception which was perhaps amplified by the fact
that the character was voiced by a black actor, Ahmed Best.

Jackson claims that some moviegoers and journalists are making too
much of a fuss over the character, trying to find an example of racism
where none exists.

The leading man of 'Attack of the Clones' Hayden Christensen, agrees
with Jackson. He says that sometimes it's necessary to have silly
characters do silly things, and that this is the purpose of the
Jar-Jar character.

With this in mind, we give you our opinion on the subject:

As far as the racial issue, we agree with Samuel Jackson. That said,
however, we are not unhappy about the greatly reduced role of Jar-Jar
Binks in the plot of Episode II. We think that Lucas created this
character simply for the enjoyment of children viewing the 'Star Wars'
films. In reality (and we believe this to be generally understood),
this weak character does not belong in the 'Star Wars' universe.
Furthermore, Lucas did not need to win over the children, he needed to
regain the loyalty of fans of the first trilogy (which featured young
adults). With 'Attack of the Clones', he has succeeded!"
http://www.cinemovies.fr/news_fiche.php?IDtitreactu=117


Although I am not a translation expert, I believe the above to be true
to the French article, and I hope that you find this additional
information helpful.

Regards,

aceresearcher