Mr. James & racial karma
Arudou Debito’s campaign to shame McDonald’s into dropping its “Mr. James” ad campaign by encouraging international attention has hit a stumbling block: Americans who apparently believe that that the emergence of the advertisements is an example of karma.
Over at the Huffington Post, a pair of Asian-American women who call themselves Disgrasian has written a short article about Mr. James. The authors seem offended by stereotypes of Asians they witness in American ad campaigns and they’ve also expressed disgust with stereotypes of Asians they believe were present in a recent Marie Claire article about Asian trophy wives. When they look at the Mr. James commercials they recognize the same kind of stereotyping, but don’t care because “Karma’s one wacky bitch, isn’t it?”
In the comment section of their post, user darintenb responded with the following:
So let me get this straight…
Something happened in America that was offensive to Asian people, thus something that happens to un-related white people in an Asian country is ‘Karma’, thus these new victims deserved it? Is that what you are saying?
All your sources about these disrespectful acts towards Asians in America are speaking out against them, correct? So if these acts of disrespect towards Asians in America are wrong, and you say this act of disrespect towards whites in Asia is the same thing, shouldn’t it also be wrong as well?
I can almost hear you chanting, ‘nah, nah na na naaa!!’ as you wrote this post. The appropriate way to go about this would be to try and use act in Japan as an example for Americans as to why this type of stereotyping is disrespectful, and thus try and gain further understanding and cooperations by both parties to put a stop to this type of stuff. But unfortunately, you are instead finding joy in other peoples suffering, which in fact contributes not to the greater good, but the greater evil.
One can make a number of good arguments to counter to the complaints being brought up by those who do no like the Mr. James advertisements. Gloating over the discomfort of a white minority in another country and claiming it is “karma” is not one of them.
A note to those coming here from Disgrasian’s response post:
I stand by everything in the above post. Your feeble attempt to backtrack and explain your karma comments doesn’t change the obvious message of your first post.
Don’t make assumptions about how foreign residents of Japan needed their eye’s opened to racial issues. Both your original post and your follow-up post continue to assume that white residents of Japan are ignorant about the existence of racial stereotyping in the countries they used to live in. Are you really so stupid?
Meanwhile, the issue seems to be giving birth to even cruder crap. I noticed the following comic this morning on twitter:
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Is it really a stumbling block? No one cares what these vacuous and pretentious “Disgrasians” think. No one cares what Woody Allen does anymore with his “trophy wife”.
Discrimination and stereotypes are bad, full stop. Just because one country does it doesn’t make it right.
Whatever happened to good old Ronald and friends?
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You don’t get it do you? These two “Disgracians” are saying in a very funny way that it’s hilarious to see white people in Japan getting upset over “stereotypes” that have traditionally been applied by white people to Asians.
Didn’t you follow their link when they commented that:
“Interestingly, there are some foreigners and non-natives in Japan riled up about this humiliating depiction of themselves, going so far as to compare Mr. James to Stepin Fetchit. Because there aren’t enough positive depictions of “beautiful and sophisticated foreigners selling things to the Japanese, apparently.”
This whole thing reminds of one of my Japanese friends who insisted that The Simpsons was a racist cartoon that denigrated Japanese people. Why did she feel that way? Well, obviously because the Simpsons are yellow! She thought that the fact that the Simpsons are drawn with yellow skin was a slight against Japanese people.
Sometimes people are too sensitive and read bad intentions into situations where none exist.
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I got it. I wouldn’t describe their way as “very funny”.
Seems that you don’t get it, because we’re basically saying the same thing, so again:
No one cares. It’s not really karma. It’s not really humiliating. There are bigger fish to fry than a goofy McD commercial…and what the heck was wrong with the iconic red-haired clown?
Nothing can kill The Grimace!
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that comic is awesome.
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i was similarly rejected by mcdonald’s staff on a number of occasions. however, i once sent a mcdonald’s into a tizzy by asking for more tartar sauce for my filet o fish. i watched what seemed like all hell break loose for five minutes. people were asking other people, people were looking perplexed, dogs and cats… you know the drill.
finally, this lady who i think was a manager, came to me to ask me the big question: “where would we put the extra tartar sauce?” after all their conversation, that was the sticking point. they didn’t have little plastic cups or anything. i was like, “how about on a drink lid? or on a napkin? or on the blue paper here?” the woman put some extra tartar sauce on a drink lid for me, and i thanked her with a big ole smile.
i waved goodbye on the way out and gave a nice thank you shout.
oh, and btw, mos burger never hesitates to give you additional condiments on a nice little plate.
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Really? I’ve always been able to get 2-3 extra ketchups without any problem.
Gotta love the countryside, eh James?
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Don’t McD’s sell extra condiments for 10 yen a packet?
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The only thing asian about these two insipid hypocrites is their appearance. The same empathy that they demand for themselves, they are unwilling to give to others. Shameful.
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Whole lot of panty knotting over a mere fast food marketing scheme. If you actually care, perhaps you should see both a psychologist AND a nutritionist.
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awesome response
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This whole thing keeps getting stupider
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Where did the authors seem to be offended? Reading the article I thought they merely pointed out what in general should be known in the first place.
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Why is this even getting attention in the first place? White people are in Japanese commercials speaking crappy Japanese all the time.
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because, there are western foreigners in japan that do speak bad japanese…. Just like how comedians in the U.S. (ethnic and non-ethnic) use broken immigrant accents to make us laugh. It’s really no different then what goes on in the U.S.
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What?
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…so…you’re saying it’s ok then? Tsk.
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He, he, he…. nice pictures.
I save this story to my favorites….. this is japan damn gaijin!… he, he, he….
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Surely it`s only karma if the marketing people responsible for the asian portrayals are then negatively portrayed?
by the way, Mr. James makes me want burgers.
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It’s fair to say that many of us in either country are very ignorant towards each other, and our cultures. But it is not justified by any means.
Such is life though…
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oh this is just getting stupid now.
and y is know one mentioning the reason for mr james?
the re-released burgers are great!
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guys i think your missing the piont
mc donalds food is gross and disgusting and their hambugers just plain suck
come to think of it if i had to imagine there target market mr james wouldnt be to far from your typical fast food consumer
more power to mr james
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I suspect that the commercials actually make little impact upon the views Japanese people hold of foreigners. I also suspect that these views have been created through interaction with foreigners in Japan.
I can think of a dozen instances in my short time in Japan where an ignorant foreigner has done far worse than the Mr. James commercials. We’ve all seen it. Just take a gander back at the articles on the Fish Market to witness more gaijin stupidity in Japan.
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“I suspect that the commercials actually make little impact upon the views Japanese people hold of foreigners. I also suspect that these views have been created through interaction with foreigners in Japan.”
I suspect you are wrong, both in the sense that commercials can have huge cultural impacts, and that most Japanese still have almost no interaction with white people. I also suspect it’s pointless to just suspect without some decent data.
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james can be a last name, too, so we should all just stop complaining. plus, you should speak in katakana characters all the time (preferably in a thought bubble over your head in some kind of lightning-bolt font). I mean, it keeps us from having to learn all that boring, annoying kanji! come on! that shit is like, impossible. we’re missing a golden opportunity that has been so gracefully afforded to us. maybe, if we can assimilate more political correctness into the system, the JLPT will require all questions and answers to be written in katakana only (because i’m a gaijin, and gaijin cannot, by any means, ever understand japanese, from what i’ve been told every single day of my life)
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Fine, if you think katakana is better, give this a go:
イマガワリョウブンカツニサイシテ、オオイガワヲサカイニヒガシノスルガコクヲタケダリョウ、ニシノトオノエコクヲトクガワリョウトスルキョウテイヲムスンデ、タケダシンゲントハユウコウカンケイヲキズイテイタ。シカシエイロク１１ネン（1569ネン）、シンゲンカラハイッポウテキニキョウテイヲハキサレタウエ、シナノコクカラアキヤマノブトモニトオノエコクヘノシンコウヲウケテシマウ。トクガワグンハホウジョウウジヤスノキョウリョクヲエテタケダグンヲシリゾケタガ、コレヲキニシンゲントイエヤスハテキタイカンケイトナッタ。
Myself, I find the kanji version hundred times easier:
今川領分割に際して、大井川を境に東の駿河国を武田領、西の遠江国を徳川領とする協定を結んで、武田信玄とは友好関係を築いていた。しかし永禄11年（1569年）、信玄からは一方的に協定を破棄された上、信濃国から秋山信友に遠江国への侵攻を受けてしまう。徳川軍は北条氏康の協力を得て武田軍を退けたが、これを機に信玄と家康は敵対関係となった。
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I read that whole thing imagining a robot voice.
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it’s just can’t be helped. If one hates kanji so much, why even bother to learn Japanese? It’s just like trying to learn english without proper knowledge of vocabulary
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p.s. mr james is not an example karma
(In hindsight of my rage, I can’t believe I posted comments in response to such an idiotic idea (and irresponsible, childish misuse of the term ‘karma’). Americans are often racist to Asians… this has nothing to do with Mr. James and what is happening here, and the people who take the time and effort to speak out against it, even just a little bit.)
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I think you’re taking the issue a little too seriously. I doubt the two “Disgrasians” truly meant Mr. James as an example of karma. The bigger point is that, in America, asians have had to face a lot of stereotyping, and despite all of the negative feelings towards said stereotyping, asians for the most part get along just fine in American society.
Likewise, you might not like the Mr. James campaign due to some idea of how it “represents foreigners in Japan”, but frankly it probably isn’t going to affect your life in the slightest bit. Most people in Japan and America do, after all, have half a brain to realize that what they see on commercial TV isn’t how they should perceive the world (eg: when interacting with people IRL). That is, of course, unless you’re trying to sell hamburgers in Japan — /then/ you might have to deal with being associated with the Mr. James character.
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i watched the two mcdonalds ads i found on youtube… and i did not really find them offensive at all.
do actual people think they’re offensive?
i mean western gaijin have always been portrayed as a little wacky in japanese media or anime. I mean looks at Nodame cantabile, where they have a german composer, he’s played by Naoto Takenaka, japanese actor, he speaks with an exaggerated gaijin japanese accent, he’s a pervert, and he has an asian fetish. Why isn’t arudou debito slamming him? Perhaps Mr. James is actually too much like the original that he feels offended?
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I’m not interested to weigh in on the Mr. James bit as I haven’t really paid much attention to it (i.e. cared) but I wanted to pop in and be one of those anal guys that points out that this is not how “karma” works – western misinterpretations be damned.
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This is somehow funny and pathetic. The whites being majority in America would think it’s rather funny to stereotype asian in certain commercial but when being minority in asia, they got outraged for being stereotyped…would this be rather…hypocrite? i do believe in karma and it happens quite often, this would be an obvious example to me.
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You’re completely misinterpreting what Karma is.
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Karma- action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation:
It’s Karma alright. You make fun of Asians in the Western world, the Asians will make fun of you. Too bad “white” people take their stuff too seriously and now complain about it.
The way I see it, don’t want to be dissed, don’t move to Japan.
cough debito cough
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Then do define the meaning of karma plz
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karma
/kaarm/
• noun (in Hinduism and Buddhism) the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as affecting their future fate.
— DERIVATIVES karmic adjective.
— ORIGIN Sanskrit, “action, effect, fate”.
http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/karma?view=uk
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the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states: Asian stereotyped by American and westerner
Viewed as affecting their future fate: Asian payback by stereotying Westerner in asia
Isn’t it just obvious to everyone?
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Do you think the whites in America who make commercials stereotyping Asians (though actually, thanks to America’s demographics the creators of the commercials could be any number of races, but I digress) are the same people as the whites who are offended in Japan?
I think it is dangerous that we continue to think of races as large groups of people united in action, especially when we talk about some sort of divine retribution. To think that commericals stereotyping Asians are the work of all whites, or that commercials stereotyping whites are the work of (in this case) all Japanese, is rather simplistic and dangerous.
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Grow up… Don’t eat at MacD’s if you don’t like it…
Being a Gaijin Living in Japan comes with advantages and disadvantages and I am sure you agree you are getting much more advantage than the other. You want to be treated equal as everyone else, go home…
Mr. James looks like Steve Martin in some of his poses.
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Anyway, I don’t eat at McDonalds so they can rot in hell for all I care =).
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Here’s a thought for people to ponder:
As one of the on-the-ground organisers for the anti-G8 protests last year, Debito is identified as an anti-globalizationist.
McDonalds are one of the biggest symbols of the spread of The American Way and globalisation. (It says so on Wikipedia, so it must be true)
Thus, I suggest, it is only natural for Debito to hate McDs, so Mister James is the face of unacceptable globalisation for him to punch.
I think it’s all a storm in a teacup (the over-katakana-isation is the only annoying bit) and I cannot really think of any other reason why he’s wasting his energy on this one compared to his running away from the geriatric knife man, his almost total silence on the upcoming election, etc, etc.
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I’m not sure I get the Mr. James ad series. He’s an unattractive Gaijin — is this supposed to sell hamburgers? I’ve seen tons of foreigners in ads here — and they’re all good looking, whether they’re silly stereotypes or not. I hate the “Mr. James” ads because they didn’t even bother trying to find a GOOD LOOKING person to make fun of.
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Welcome to ridiculous world of identity politics.
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They’re hypocritical morons. Some white people stereotype asians, ergo all white people deserve the stereotype they’ve recieved? What the flying fuck?
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Usually, I like the Disgrasian blog but this was utterly ridiculous. Stereotypes in the media harm people, regardless of what country they are present in. It’s not karma, it’s ignorance.
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Mr. James’s Japanese is pretty good. He looks friendly and earnest. I think, for majority of the Japanese, he looks attractive.
If foreigners living in Japan don’t like Mr. James, try to make McDonald to appoint Debito in place of Mr. James. Debito would definitely make the Japanese to recall and enhance the stereotypical view that they had once been holding on westerners.
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FRANKA would definitely protest for perpetuating stereotypes.
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You’re wrong in reducing what we’re saying in our post
to we “don’t care.” Our point is that the outrage over Mr. James–particularly from debito’s point of view–seems disproportionate. Comparing Mr. James to Stepin Fetchit, a black performer whose heyday was during the height of Jim Crow laws and segregation, who perpetuated stereotypes that helped justify the idea of African-Americans as second-class citizens–not just socially, mind you, but legally–that kind of comparison is histrionic. And, frankly, it detracts from the reality that Mr. James is a negative, unflattering depiction of a foreigner in Japan.
We were also countering debito’s argument that this kind of stereotyping in the reverse would never be tolerated in the States and other western countries. Unfortunately, we see what debito calls the “‘ching-chong-chinaman’” with funny glasses and protruding teeth”–speaking in broken English–all the time, and we provided more than a few salient examples of this. The fact that this has completely escaped debito and some other people feeling outrage over this Mr. James character suggests that they’re not particularly interested in or aware of negative stereotyping until it affects them. But now, perhaps, their eyes have been opened somewhat. And that is where the karma lies.
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debito is a sweet simpleton who wouldn’t hurt a fly it’s shameful how you keep attacking his character
mcdonalds is an american company selling a quinsential american product and who did they choose to personify this great american achievement……. tom cruise? brad pitt? matt damon?
NO mr ‘fucking’ james!! my national pride would be hurt too but let’s face it American = Dork
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Disgrasian
“Like” if this were a facebook status
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Arudou Debito, naturalized Japanese citizen. Have lived in Japan for over 20 years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=JP&hl=ja&v=IZNfZMZ8fg8&feature=related
Mr. James. Loves Japan so much that he’s accompanying her daughter who is currently studying in Japan.
http://mcdonalds.dtmp.jp/blog/2009/08/post.html
Now is it me or Mr. James is couple notches above Debito in terms of Japanese linguistic ability??
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Nope, I gotta admit – his accent is way better than Debito’s. That’s all we can go on of course, as Mr James is reading a script.
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I don’t see a problem with the white guy in Japanese McDicks. He’s exactly the kind of ESL “teacher” that goes there to “teach”. Very representative of the White population in Japan because I’ve been there and I see people like that and it’s true.
Therefore characters like KenJeong in the Hangover, William Hung, and every Asian on US TV speaks with an accent, have small dicks and are asexual.
Live with it white boys, we have…for the past 100 years
Your shit does stink.
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Hmmm…let me think of a few choice words that were leveled at me in the past when I expressed my displeasure at a buck-toothed, engrish-speaking, asexual Asian racist caricature appearing on-screen here in the U.S….
- What’s the big deal?
- It’s not meant to offend.
- Don’t be so sensitive.
- I’m sick of overly-PC folks, blah, blah…
- Hey, it’s a free country. Just change the channel if you don’t like it.
- I (as a person of a different ethnicity and haven’t walked a day in your shoes) don’t see anything offensive about it.
- I find it more amusing than offensive.
- Hey, if you don’t like it……get the f—- out of my country! This isn’t (insert foreign country)! We have something called freedom of expression here and…(see next)
- Go back to China, or whatever godforsaken ornamental country you’re from!
blah…blah…blah…blah…
So…seriously…you can forgive us for not sympathizing with y’all in the least. Take your medicine, quit whining and deal with it like we have all our lives.
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Deal with it? By shutting up and being a model minority you mean? If you want to deal with statements like those you posted by doing nothing, then fine. But why do you have the right to tell others how to deal with similar issues? Or is this a touch of schadenfreude?
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Sounds like you got DISGRASIAN’s commentary completely wrong. The “karma” comment isn’t that the stereotyping of white people is OK, it’s that:
1) The character of Mr. James, while insulting, is nowhere nearly as hateful or oppressive as the stereotypes of Asians, Blacks, Latinos, etc. that have been (and continue to be) promoted in the US. It’s either stupid or grossly ignorant that Debito thinks that Mr. James is equivalent somehow to Stepin Fetchit – unless Japan has some hidden history of 200-year slavery of white people.
2) The real KARMA – the same white guys who complain about Mr. James and have been actively protesting against the character are probably the same white people who back home in the US, did jacksh*t about racial stereotypes in the popular there.
Why the change in behavior? Because for the first time in their lives, these same white guys who are so hurt by Mr. James have to deal with a stereotype that offends THEM (“I’m not socially awkward! I don’t dress like a nerd! I speak good Japanese!”). Hurts, doesn’t it?
And you wonder why so many people think this anti-Mr. James campaign is a crock. You think white guys have it so hard in Japan?
Try being Black. Or Chinese. Or heaven help you… Korean.
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Heh, I personally find it hilarious how offended some people are getting here over one single advertisement campaign. I mean, as an Asian living in America, I have definitely had to deal with the worst aspects of stereotypings. And you know the messed up thing? When I try to complain about these, the responses I get?
“It’s just a joke, don’t get so offended.”
“Jeez, why are you so sensitive? It’s not like anything the commercial showed wasn’t already true about Asians.” Said commercial showed 2 Asians stereotypically dressed in traditional Japanese clothing (when every other minority was dressed normally) using broken english. Because obviously, that’s what we’re all like.
“Ugh, I’m sick of your complaints. Why is everyone so obsessed with being PC?”
“If you don’t like it, too bad. You’re in America, not China. If you get offended, just got back to your own shithole country.” I was born in America.
Point is, I think every Asian born in a Western country kinda deserves a moment like this, where the tables are turned. Obviously not ever White person deserves to get stereotyped like this, but obviously not every Asian deserves to get stereotyped, but apparently we do deserve to get stereotyped based on your responses.
Still, it’s hilarious to see Caucasians, who are, “the norm of society” get so offended by what could be considered a very mild stereotype. At least Mr. James looks like a normal person. If they really wanted to insult you, they would’ve had an overweight, crosseyed, ignorant redneck in the commercials instead.
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> I mean, as an Asian living in America, I have definitely had to deal with the worst aspects of stereotypings.
Really? Do you repeatedly get asked whether you can use a fork because “Asians all use chopsticks”? Have shopowners told you to get out because “I don’t like Asians”? Have you been denied housing because “Asians can’t speak English”? Have companies refused to hire you because “Asians can’t understand American business culture”?
All of these happen on a regular basis to foreigners in Japan, and Mr. James just reinforces the stereotypes that lead to this kind of treatment. Unless you’ve experienced this sort of treatment, you should probably be quiet. And if you have been discriminated against, you can report it to the government unlike in Japan where discrimination against foreigners is for the most part legal.
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Yes, actually, this still happens. Housing discrimination – We call them “Chinatowns” and other places. It just happened recently to a woman in New York and has happened to my roommate – who is here from Japan and speaks English at a native level. Her and I both live in a rural area of Illinois – she has been told to get out and I’ve been told to stay. Here is something particularly crazy – I’m not White, Asian or Latino.
Asians report it to the government, but the rule is that fighting discrimination is very difficult. You have to prove discrimination. You have a huge issue when the people in charge aren’t trying to hear you, largely because they do the same damn things themselves.
If you don’t know what the treatment is like for Asians in this country, you should shut your mouth.
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“but apparently we do deserve to get stereotyped based on your responses”
Which responses are these?
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As a Caucasian person living in Japan, I can honestly say I don’t find the character offensive at all. He’s a nerdy white guy? So what? What’s the stereotype? I see white guys acting goofy in the Kirin Green Label commercials. Is that a stereotype of white people being goofy?
Personally, I think everyone has to chill out and just enjoy it for what it is: a character on TV.
If people think this is a bad stereotype of a foreigner in Japan, I suggest they watch old footage of Bob “the Beast” Sapp before his fights in K1.
Anyways, my point is, I don’t feel the tables are turned, as neither of the stereotypes you’re discussing are particularly offensive to me.
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“To remove all negative images of non-Japanese in Japan”? That’s a pretty lofty goal Debito’s organization FRANCA has. I’ll support him if he does the same for MANAA (Media Action Network for Asian Americans).
Thanks to Debito, if the Japanese don’t see white people as nerdy, accented foreigners, they’ll see them as whiny, hypocritical foreigners instead. Justice doesn’t come cheap, as any Asian-American would know.
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Let’s see shall we they market Heroes OVERSEAS IN JAPAN with that dorky ass loser Hiro and EXPECT JAPANESE people to buy into wholesale a racist skewed emasculated caricature of their own people!
This advertisement is NEVER going to leave Japan, when this kind of crap spreads across the continent of asia and these same commercials are shown regularly in the U.S in addition to a flood of other commericals and stereotypes of white men having small penises, being misogynistic, abuse, buck teeth etc.. etc… Then yeah there is real cause for concern.
Then you’ve got Pro-white propaganda: Hollywood films, pictures and posters of beautiful white people in expensive luxury ads, and then there’s just one commercial of a goofy white guy in glasses. Oh noes, the sky is is falling! falling!
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I’d like to add Disgrasian is absolutely wrong about this being KARMA. In fact it’s backfired on them because they are getting the wrong end of the stick on top of justice NOT being served.
This commericial isn’t going to do shit to reverse the effects of white privilege, and it’s not going to change the way Japanese people view and treat white people in lieu of the continual effects of propaganda and brainwashing of the superiority of western cultural values and the perpetual display of a masculine western dominance over the feminine east.
I mean FFS this website even has an insipid and equally hypocritical ad to date Japanese women right next to this article.
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This forum has some interesting comments from the “Asian-American” point of view:
http://forums.yellowworld.org/showthread.php?t=36758
Most seem rather smug about it.
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It isn’t really karma but more of a “how you like them apples”.
Naive white people(typically Americans) think only they get to be racist and all people of color have to be victims. Fact is, every majority picks on the minority, because they can, because its so easy when you got the numbers. That certainly doesn’t make it right, or even, but that anger white people are feeling over this “one” incident, multiply that by a thousand and you may finally understand how Asian-Americans feel every time they see yet another racially insensitive ad on tv, in movies, on print media, on the internet, every youtube video with an Asian person starring in it.
They think they’re so clever by telling us to open our eyes, but with such huge noses why can’t the smell how bad their own shit stinks?
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Very interesting problem for these foreign residents and American-Japanese immigrants. One really has to understand how in most Sinospheric cultures, flattery is often an insult, a mark of otherness and control of others. These immigrants to Japan may understand this far more than the supposed “Asians” who scoff at this protest. This Mr. James uses a particular manner of fetishization to mark white Japanese and foreign residents as irredemably Other. I challenge that by flattering the Europeans, Japanese are putting them in their place, as temporary, disposable servants of their state. They can never be kin, never be true persons in the eyes of Japanese society. They are forever “guests” with funny habits, just as cruelly comic as any Steppin Fetchit. Gaijin, even the dumbest gaijin, will eventually grok that bitter role.
Asian Americans who misread this are mostly American in outlook. Their very identity is a construct of the West, a cipher of internal cultural vacuum which is left over when they abandon when they groan about going to language school, a cultural cringe that makes them embarrassed of their parents. There is no such thing as an “Asian” in Asia, as any one of my justifiably Japan-hating Chinese grandmothers could tell you. (Can anyone say 731部隊 and Rape of Nanjing? You damn well better before you talk of an “Asian” identity as anything but a sick joke.) Hence that these pathetic AziaNs, due to typically American racial-fixatation lenses, cruelly dismiss Arudou-san’s protest of this stereotyping is woefully misplaced in context. They know nothing of real social or cultural conditions in Asia, beyond the wincing they evince when their parents speak too Pidgin, or maybe claiming cousinhood with the Monkey King. Between the “ching-chong” jeering of strangers on a bus that Asian-Americans must endure and the systemic, institutional, legally sanctioned daily racism faced by anyone in Japan not of Nipponese ethnicity, I’m afraid the latter is by rational standard more extreme.
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Arudou-san is a racist. He hates Japanese ethnicity and sovereignty. Period.
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