I also find it Ameri-centric to think (as has been suggested in related threads) that the rest of the world (including Japan) should naturally be aware of the minstrel show blackface tradition and its legacy, and that failure to do so is somehow tantamount to ignorance.

And of course it is always amusing to listen to white people tell non-whites how to be more racially sensitive and what they should or shouldn’t be offended by.

Going back to the Carricature issue which happened in Denmark. Muslims demanded an apology from Denmark. They said to draw a picture of Allah was prohibited and the way they drew it was just unacceptable behaviour on the Danes. But the Danes never did apologize and said this was a freedom of expression. Basically the Danes said that they can draw the prophet in any way they please and there is nothing Muslims can do about it.

In any case. I do hope James or someone do get comments from Obama Onsen and others and if some do get a response I would very much like to read it on this nice blog. I did infact write a mail to Obama Onsen too.

Obama Onsen’s guy just smears brown paint on his face to make himself a generic “black man,” attempting to imitate the race, not the individual. I imagine he would do the exact same thing if he wanted to impersonate any black person.

The News Paper guys often employ make-up in their impersonations of Japanese politicians, and in this case they seem to be trying to copy the actual appearance of Barack Obama as an individual. They’ve used make-up to alter his skin tone, but I wouldn’t exactly call it “blackface.” I can tolerate impressions like that. (I’m not really sure I can say the same about their Michelle Obama impression).

In both cases they are not trying to offend or be racist, they are just ignorant of the possible foreign reaction to their use of face paint. If you want to educate them, I’ve linked to their official site in the post. I am sure there is a contact e-mail listed.