Japanese moonwalking champions
September 13th, 2009 by James
TV Tokyo’s “Champions” recently held a competition to see which Michael Jackson mega fan could perform the fastest 30-meter moonwalk (English captions have been added to explain what’s going on):
The first contestant is wearing an afro wig with black face paint, probably out of a desire to mimic the appearance of a young Michael Jackson. Kind of odd, considering the fact that he didn’t moonwalk back in the Jackson 5 era…
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I know everyone who’s culturally sensitive will say that they don’t mean to be racist…but really, the black face paint has just got to go.
And the white face of JACK ?
The blackface paint STILL has to go.
Lack of omoiyari towards other people
under a cultural point of view like an elephant walking inside a chinaware shop
Oh goodness. Seriously, they need to educate some of the Japanese that blackface is a no no.
Screams of “typical Japanese xenophobism and racism” in 3, 2, 1…
By the way, to counter the world belief that such ignorance is distinctly a ‘Japanese only’ phenomenon (and since Japan Probe has a world audience), I present following news links:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/turkish-tv-anchor-dons-blackface-to-address-obama/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4637943.stm
http://blog.derbraunemob.info/2008/07/31/germany-new-case-of-blackface-advertising/
http://kushibo.blogspot.com/2009/07/lg-and-blackface.html
Why is blackface a no no? Japan is not the United States.
Perhaps, Debito would educate the Japanese by painting his face yellow, as he drew “Little Yellow Jap” to educate the japanese.
I’d say “education” wouldn’t be the term you wanna use to describe what Debito is doing. He’s disqualified himself on countless occasions through ignorant reasoning and perpetual nagging about almost anything that differs from what he had in his country, giving the perfect image of the foreigner unable to adapt.
Like a car wreck, I just couldn’t stop watching.
I love japanese black face
it’s just sooo funny!
I also think that it can be funny, but still… everyone else in the west is really sensitive about it. It another reason for westerners to think that Japan is racist.
Some folks in the west seem to “get a kick out of seeing White folks imitate Blacks”.
I think it is not black face per se that is wrong but the intention and the context that imply condescending portrayal of a group of oppressed people that is wrong.
And if there is a practice in the west in which people put on brown paint to act out an ignorant condescending portrayal of a group of oppressed folks, that is what should be blamed and corrected.
People on the video are in no way making fun of black people;they all respect Michael Jackson.
(Notice also that the last guy paint their face lighter to impersonate Michael in his later years.)
That said, the first guy’s make-up might be crude. If that is what black people want to complain, I think that it is legitimate.
point it out to the Japanese, I think the Japanese will understand.
That Jack guy is pretty cool. I’m glad he won.
congrad. but he is a long way behind the real jacksons moonwalk. peace
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-Michael-Jackson-Learned-the-Moonwalk-4619137
michael already was a master of moonwalking when he was little, with the jackson 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fynKMWnzKeY
5:48
White People please stopped commenting about how Blackface is offensive! How can it be offensive to you?! If we want to complain about something we can do it ourselves, we don’t need your “help”.
As a Black man I am officially saying that blackface in Japan is OK! IT’S NOT OFFENSIVE.
How do you know that everyone else here is white? Did you install secret cameras in our houses?
it’s a backslide, not a moonwalk
This is a moonwalk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAaWY_xEv-A