I think when we think of Japanese racism, the attitudes toward other Asians (particularly Korean and Chinese minorities) is what we are thinking about. And from the Koreans and Chinese that I know who live or have lived in Japan, it is pretty bad. At least part of the bad relations is the Japanese (individually and collectively) refuse to accept any responsibility or express any remorse over the misdeeds of the 1930s and 1940s. It is also almost impossible to become a Japanese citizen, so you have people who have been there for four generations, who cannot vote or work for the government.
I also have a cousin (South Asian descent, but born and raised in Canada) who has lived in Japan almost all of his adult life (he married a Japanese classmate in Uni in Canada and they moved to Japan) but no matter how good his Japanese gets, he cannot really be accepted into the society. As long as he was an English teacher in an international school, he faced no problems. But trying to work in his field (marketing) in a Japanese firm was impossible. He could not break into the informal network at all.
You do understand that racism doesn’t mean just lynchings and ugly behavior, right?
Basically, do the Japanese think of blacks, whites, other Asians as being fundamentally different than other Japanese?
What would be the reaction to a mixed-race couple (say native Japanese/black)?
If you are of Korean descent living in Japan, do you feel at least some pressure to take a Japanese name and try not to stand out or reveal your heritage, even after several generations?
If you are of Japanese descent having been born abroad, are you treated the same as somebody born on the home islands?
What are the stereotypes Japanese people hold about people from other countries or other races? Whether good or not, do they indicate healthy attitudes about their fundamental attitudes towards equality of all peoples?
Maybe they don’t lynch foreigners in the street, but I don’t see how you can claim such low levels of racism there. It’s not true just in Japan but all of East Asia. At least in the US, as ugly as the racism can get, it’s out in the open and often confronted.
I know what you mean. Whenever I see that clip, I hear and see him say, “Death to puppies and kitties. Horrible, horrible deaths!” That guy is such an asshole.
Ah. Apologies to RNATB then, as I completely misinterpreted what he was referring to
Yes, I have read about Korean Students in Japanese schools adopting Japanese names in order to fit in, or masking their ethnicity to friends and acquaintances. I agree that it must be terrible to live this way.
I think it may depend on the industry. I’m in pharmaceutical compliance and have Japanese companies as clients, e.g., Otsuka, Yamanuchi, EISAI, etc… There are opportunities for employment open to me if I want to pursue them, but I understand your point.
Yes
Yes, they do. However, what’s important to me is how one is treated.
I know a few mixed-race couples (black/Japanese, white/Japanese), each of whom have children, by the way. They’ve all regaled me with various issues they’ve experienced over the years, e.g., being stared at, excluded from certain functions, etc…, but each have also advised that over time they’ve become welcomed in by their communities
Yes, I’ve acknowledged this above, and agree that it is quite disgusting.
I have to admit that you’re correct here as well. I know a Japanese girl who was born and raised in Brazil and went to Japan in her late teens when her father was relocated back home. It was very difficult for her, and she told many a tale about her peers taunting her and saying she wasn’t really Japanese. Her stories made it sound like she’d have had an easier time in Japan if she weren’t Japanese at all. She’s adjusted quite well in the intervening years.
I’m sure Japanese hold stereotypes of people from other countries just as natives of most countries do. Ask the average French person what they think of Americans, for example.
I can only tell you first hand what I experience. I’ve been all around Japan, and with the exception of the most rural of places, I’ve detected no ostracization nor ill will. I am willing to admit that my experiences may have been too limited for me to see the underbelly of Japanese society.
Yes. Very often the people you are closest to, accept you eventually. My wife’s parents accepted me as a son-in-law after a few years. But their initial reaction, that my wife had married some kind of sub-human creature, is forever burned into my memory. I might love my MiL to death now but I can’t help wondering if she no longer think that all brown people are disgusting, or if I am the only exception, since I took such good care of her when she was ill, and she sees what a devoted and diligent father and husband I am (her words).
Fortunately my Chinese is not good enough for me to talk about these things to them.
My cousin’s Japanese parents-in-law now accept him as part of the family. But the extended family, not so much.
Eventually accepting those “other” that you have to interact with very closely is not enough. It’s very easy to conclude that those select few are the exceptions. “Our” Brazilian is not the same as those other Brazilians.
Perhaps it doesn’t match your expectations. But to most people a de minimus level of racism is preferable to the police state that would be necessary to totally eradicate racism.
Our expectation is also that it’s not necessary to enact a police state to create a de facto eradication of racism. There’s no historical evidence this is possible, but if we are to set goals, we may as well set them high instead of accepting ‘good enough’.
Besides, your idea of ‘de minimus’ may not actually be the lowest achievable bound. There are plenty of places (Brazil comes to mind) where, due to breeding between different population groups, racism does not exist to the extent it does in the US.
So, it may be possible to achieve through societal pressures what other cultures have achieved through genetic mixing.
Unfortunately, many accusations of racism are just as manufactured as this. And that’s too bad. There are only so many cries of “wolf” that we are going to react to.
Here’s what I think. White people - god help them - believe that racism is primarily a physical thing that words have very little power. I suspect a majority will agree that brown people shouldn’t be arbitrarily beaten in the street by law enforcement but I also suspect there’s far less consensus on “intangibles” such as racial discrmination (work, housing, criminal justice), social mobility, wealth disparities, etc. It’s because, I think, deep down, they don’t look at brown people with the same humanity as they view themselves. You don’t have to take my word for it - take a gander at the threads on this very folder that discuss ad nauseum the inferiority of brown people, the religion of brown people, or the accomplishments of brown people.
It’s whinging Englishman and/or Woman if you please. Don’t beat yourself up Mate. Ruffian. Bounder. WTF! Aristocratic morons, you can’t stand the fact that us Aussies are born free and not bound by English Anal Retention. That and the fact that you can’t stand us answering your lordship back. No wonder the Yanks told your pompous mob to piss off. The best thing the Yanks did was have a war against this English racism.
Anyway, I guess I’m in trouble again …but its true. I cannot tell a lie.
I get more nervous when three or four young men whose ancestors were from a different continent than most of mine are walking down the street toward. I am more polite to co-workers wawfadctmom, and take longer to start teasing and joking with them.
I am less trusting of most people whose chromosomes are different.
I absolutely do not trust people of a certain religion sect. Although, in all fairness, I don’t trust anyone who believes in a One True God.
I treat people with respect, personally and professionally. I doubt people who deride others who are not of their religion, gender, or ethnic origin. I note and enjoy subcultural differences. But I know I am still an -Ist.
You know, the situation really has gotten a lot better in my lifetime. I hadn’t realized it until I got my most recent job. Most of the people are of European descent and a surprisingly high percent of upper management are men. It’s … odd.
While your company’s claimed decision was solely based on money, the disparate impact fell upon the non-white employees. An astute civil rights lawyer could probably make a case that while the company’s overt intentions were economic the actual result was not. Disparate impact upon a protected class is a form of racism.
You Americans are cute the way you think “nigger” is some kind of taboo word with special magical pow-wow powers. But anyway, until you get a normalized relation to racial words of your own language it hardly seems likely that racism is disregarded. From over here it seems more that you are on the hysterical side about race. Fine by me, as long as you keep your hang-ups to yourself, and don’t try to force them on the rest of the world as appears to have been the trend recently.
I can’t agree with that. Reducing racism is a laudable goal, but it can’t be the only goal. I don’t advocate trying for the “lowest achievable bound”.
For example, marriage patterns are extremely discriminatory. To reduce this discrimination, the government could set quotas on how many interracial marriages there must be every month, and refuse any same-race marriages until the quotas are met. No question such a policy would reduce racism in the long run. But it would have many negative effects as well as being an intolerable encroachment on freedom.
That’s an interesting story. Did you really mean to suggest by your first sentence that it was a subtle example of racism that right-thinking people needed to expose?
For me it was clearly an example of people wanting to find racism where it didn’t exist. I can understand that when it directly affects someone…that’s human nature even if it isn’t logical thinking.
My biggest problem are those who are not affected (directly) who have an agenda to use claims of racism to promote their own interests… community leaders and politicians specifically.
It probably seems that way because you have no fucking idea what you’re talking about. Black people were beaten to death on the news and hanged from trees by mobs who knew they’d never see the inside of a prison cell for it within the lifetimes of millions of Americans.
If Americans are hypersensitive about race, it’s for good reason. Perhaps you think the Germans are a bit touchy about the whole Holocaust thing, too?