Comments on: I Think I’m Turning “Half” I Really Think So

By: Daishi88

Daishi88 — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 11:50:00 +0000

” Other countries have different cultures.”

WHAT?! I did not know that!! Look out guys, we have a post-doc anthropology student here. Hey, protip: being a different culture doesn’t negate racism. Japanese culture is deeply racist, as Mami has demonstrated repeatedly on this website.

Dressing in Japanese clothes is not inherently racist, no. It is never, ever racist to dress in Japanese clothes if you are in Japan. How can it be? You have no power in Japan to enforce racial stereotypes on the Japanese. Japanese people have unbridled power to impose racial stereotypes on minorities in Japan, though.

If you dressed up in hip-hop style clothes (not “rapper clothes” as you put it), that would be fine. If you painted your face black, though, what would you call that?

A Japanese person wearing a suit is one thing – a Japanese person painting their face to look “foreign” is flat-out racist.

But, what do you mean by “intent”? Intent to be racist?

No, you’re wrong. Racism has many aspects, and when we speak of institutionalized racism (as we have here in Japan, and that Mami is participating in here in her unspeakably racist article), intent is not necessary.

Institutionalized racism is characterized specifically by how unintentional it is. That’s what makes it institutionalized – it’s not something you consciously do, it simply IS. It’s a part of your society. As you ingeniously pointed out, it is even part of cultures – racism is ingrained in Japanese culture, as their binary racial categories (“Japanese” vs. “not Japanese”) is deeply rooted in their traditional worldview.

The fact that racism in Japan is traditional does NOT in any way excuse it, and if your comment about culture is meant to do so – um, no. Racism is racism, whether it’s traditional or not. Don’t be childish.

In fact, racism of the institutionalized variety is very frequently preceded by, “I don’t mean to be racist.” Go and read Mami’s comments: that’s her entire response to my critiques: “I’m sorry, I did not mean to be racist.” That’s too bad. It doesn’t matter if you don’t mean to be racist – if you do a racist thing, it is racist!

By: Founder

Founder — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 10:13:00 +0000

We are not all in America or Canada. Other countries have different cultures. If I dress in rapper clothes or traditional Japanese clothes, I’m not co-opting the culture.
If Japanese people wear something because they think it looks cool, that isn’t racist. There needs to be intent.

By: Haunt

Haunt — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 03:37:00 +0000

Not all Asians prefer whiter skin. Gyarus (fashionable shibuya girls) don’t.

In the end it’s all subjective.

By: J.Y.

J.Y. — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 03:24:00 +0000

Who is the girl in the third picture? I’m 1/4 Japanese and she looks just like me, so I’m pretty shocked.

By: James

James — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 15:08:00 +0000

Most of these pictures where the gajin look was not a natural part of their body and just make-up looked either silly or creepy. In truth I am descendent of Native Americans which have some Asian DNA in them and in that whole point people from my mothers side of the family including myself tend to follow our Native American DNA and have dark brown/black hair with brown eyes or follow our European DNA and have light blonde hair and light blue eyes. Either way I don’t think people should really care and to be honest I think Asian women are more attractive than half or gajin any way. I can understand why Japanese men would be interested in gajin women since they are different from what they expect or have mostly in countered but in the end its like dating crazy women for the whole “crazy women are good in bed” thing, if all your going to do is date gajin women because of that foreign appeal then I have news for you “your going to after a point get use to it and it will lose its foreign appeal” in that spirit I think Japanese women should remember this and take advantage of this fact in their own way.

By: satoshideath

satoshideath — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 14:00:00 +0000

Ah, Mami, you used this post as an excuse to show a picture of you. ^^ Clever.