DJ Ozma and Tunnels dress up as black women

The first thing i thought when i saw them perform was Thai Cross dressers, and there are acts of singing cross dressers who do things like this in order to make people laugh. I don’t particularily thing it’s that offensive

As a black woman, it makes me uncomfortable and frustrated to see that we are always made fun of and made out to be stereotyped so much. Cause you know there’s a bunch of idiots out there that will think, ‘oh, so all black women are like ____________’. And then when they see you are not they’re all surprised and crap.

It’s like you have to actually ‘educate’ people, because society in general and skits like this (however unintentional) seek to put people in these neat little boxes, however unattractive they may be. It gets burdensome and irritating to deal with the ignorant person who really honestly thinks that all black women are some really rank loud ghetto oversexed, babymaking broads, then when they meet a black woman, who’s not like that (and no, we are not the exceptions) go into culture shock, because it’s not what they saw ‘on the tv.’ or ‘what they heard’. You get over that hurdle and then your co-worker comes up to you and makes some rank comment and you sigh and think (here we frackin’ go again) It may not seem a big deal to non-blacks, but then again, you don’t have to be confronted with this type ignorance in the form of attitudes and comments in your everyday life.(work, school, etc.) It can make you want to scream, sometimes, because it just seems soooo hard for a lot of people to grasp that black people are not just some black monolithic blob that you can attribute certain things to all of us. We are surprise, surprise, shock and gasp INDIVIDUALS. We act different, think different, don’t all live the same way, don’t all like the same things, and no, we all don’t live in the ‘ghetto’, no, you may NOT touch my hair, please PLEASE stop calling me ‘sistagirl’. Be yourself and speak the way you normally would, and NO, I don’t know ‘what black people think/feel about ________’, because I’m not all black people, I’m ONE black person so quit asking me that dumb question! (yes,I’ve been asked/confronted with this crap and I’m bloody sick of it) etc. (you may say ignore those people, but you can’t when it’s your teacher, your boss…OMG, the corporate world is FULL of these attitudes…it’s a PURE MESS. I wonder, ‘have you ever bothered to venture outside of your 4-6 blocks???? You CAN’T be that sheltered…)

It also makes me wonder what’s the deal with dressing up like black women so often? What weird thrill derives from this? From the Japanese to the Bubble Sisters in Korea to that idiot who dresses up like ‘Shirley Q Liquor’ (who I believe really wants to be a black woman and hates himself for feeling that way. He spends more time as what he THINKS is a black woman than he does in his own white skin. Al Joelson would be oh so proud) in the States? That REALLY makes me uncomfortable and frankly it puzzles me. I’ve never had the impulse to dress up as another race for some laughs or whatever. What impulse says, ‘OOH! I’M GOING TO DRESS UP LIKE A BLACK WOMAN TODAY AND _______!’ I TRULY don’t get it.

Look, I have a hard enough time in this world dealing with ignorant (and downright stupid) preconceived stereotypes about black women from ignorant people.(let’s not even talk about the stereotypes about black women that permeate U.S. tv. ARRRGHHHH! *pulls hair*) This crap right here doesn’t help. Not one bit. As a matter of fact, it just piles onto the ignorance that’s already out there.

Sorry if it seems like I’m ranting. I just get sick of stupidity and wanted to share my view on it. That’s all.

If you want to know what the song is all about go here:
http://gurakko.livejournal.com/91938.html

“BASICALLY this whole song is poking fun at stereotypically uninformed foreigners, e.g. those who think Japan is still swarming with samurais, knows nothing about the country beyond sushi and miso soup, etc. The italised words are originally in katakana; which implies that the speaker has a weird accent / only knows how to pronounce that word but not what it actually means / looks like.”

And come on most people are just that.(well the stupid ones)

As a Black American woman, I can honestly say that I’m NOT offended by this group. When I first saw a video of thiers on youtube, I just thought that they were men in wigs & women’s clothing. Nothing more. I didn’t know they were supposed to be “Black” until I read this article!
REAL TALK: If any Black women (or men) are offended by Yajima Beauty Salon, then you should also find Tyler Perry’s “Madea” character offensive. The only difference is Tyler Perry is actually a Black man & these 3 are Japanese men.

STOP MAKING A BIG DEAL ABOUT EVERYTHING. THE WORLD IS NOT OUT TO GET US.

I’m a black women and I really don’t think they were trying to be racist and I don’t think the skit was racist- it just so happened that the best music from that era came from black people – I was a little disturbed that the mama had to be a prostitute with no father for her babies – we have enough of that in real life and its not fuuny! ….. on a side note – they didn’t have to use that much darkening make up – most japaneese skin is already full of color – no offense taken

thank you rasta rasta. good points. take note everyone that author of the article only saw one commercial.

* Gaman suru. A concept part of the dominant and established culture in this country.

You are joking, right? You drinking the Jim Jones punch or something?

“when you befriend someone they will soon learn to understand a lot more about the world outside of Japan and about other cultures, as long as you take the effort to teach them.”

So what excuse does the advertiser or multinational company have?

“It takes effort, and as a minority that is your responsibility, sista.”

News flash, a “person” does not have to put up with crap. Smells like an Anonymous condescending attitude!

Your misguided sense of entitlement is truly endearing. The advertising agency is just as Japanese as its employees, and probably just as naive. Do you believe that they should run a thorough check on how all their products are perceived by all other cultures? This act is only insulting if you look at it from a non-Japanese perspective, nay, an American perspective.

For the rest of us, it is about three men dressing up as women performing an act. Absolutely no disrespect was intended, so why do you feel yourself victimised?

Compare this to the Muslims that felt insulted by the Danish cartoon depicting their prophet. Do you feel all cartoonists everywhere should refrain from making jokes about anything that could insult anyone anywhere? What a bland, boring world you desire.

I’d also like to point out that I am a black woman. I wasn’t really offended by the CM, but I didn’t like it, either. How many times can someone put on an Afro and call it funny? I don’t know.