Japanese Usain Bolt

well, of course a dog can run faster but the question is whether you, a human, can run faster than Usain Bolt. I doubt it.

Or perhaps a culture needs to be taught that its values and mores are not universally applicable, and the people of that culture need to stop assuming they are.

All “cultural relativism” means is that the same image does not carry the same meaning in two different cultures. It does not excuse racism or stereotyping.

Before proceeding any further, let me first qualify that this video isn’t a particularly good example of what I’m about to argue. It doesn’t really seem that offensive in and of itself, and doesn’t immediately bring to mind any negative stereotypes.

But, there are two main reasons why using “cultural relativism” to excuse similar blackface performances is problematic.

1. Japan does not exist in a cultural vacuum.
Obviously Japan imports a great deal of cultural material, especially from America. For better or worse, Japanese people are exposed to American media that contains ingrained stereotypes about a variety of different races, whether it be from movies, music, or television.

2. Negative stereotypes towards black people exist in Japan.
Whether due to point 1. above or due to original stereotypes the Japanese have created themselves, these negative stereotypes exist. For a couple examples, check out the firsthand accounts at “Loco in Yokohama or the stories about the Gaijin Ura Hanzai File incident from a couple years back to get an idea about the problem. Obviously negative stereotypes exist to different degrees to different people, and I wouldn’t suggest that all Japanese people have negative stereotypes towards anyone.

Whether or not #1 directly caused #2, continued use of racial stereotypes of any minorities should not be accepted, as they do no justice to those discriminated against nor those who accept the stereotype as fact.

(again, I realize that the video in question for this post isn’t particularly offensive, I just don’t agree with all those that argue “leave Japan alone cultural relativism blah blah.”)

Ive been called the N word in Japan for the first time in my life. We never had a strong history of this in the Caribbean so does it mean that I smiled at the guy who said it to me?

If he obviously did it just to mimic gangsta rappers calling their brothers by the N word, you should have beaten him since he was perhaps an idiot. However, in the case that he used it for the purpose of insulting you, you might have expressed yourself a bit moderately, e.g., spitting upon and slapping twice his face, since it is possible that he had brains to think and hence conversation and mutual understanding was still possible. Better to choose an appropriate way for each situation.

Either way, in my opinion, the most important thing is the attitude to trying to comprehend each other whenever possible.

“When i visited kyoto i was refused entry into two restaurants, because i was white”

I’ve never heard of the restaurants in Kyoto refusing white people：Kyoto is a tourist city.

Which restaurant?

I am asking this because some foreign-born activists in Japan exaggerate and distort the extent of xenophobia in Japan by telling fake stories and I want to call the restaurants and tell them to stop it if it is true.
BTW do you think white people are racists because some white folks in Japan are planning to reuse the entry of the Japanese people?

Oh, no… I insulted me.