Comment on Cool Japan 🌸

remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

• the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  The assumption here is that if you can speak Japanese fluently then you are native Japanese.

  if a non native speaker walks in I’d put money on at least getting some stinkeye if not just outright told to leave.

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  • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I feel like these people are ignoring the context that most people in Japan are racist as fuck. It is more xenophobia (fear or outsiders/foreigners) than about physical traits or racial stereotypes like you see in the US, for example. For the most part, anyway.

    It is not necessarily a fomented hatred for foreigners as much as it is a strong aversion against non-conformity. Modern Japanese culture and racial makeup is nearly homogenous, and so dealing with someone that doesn’t fit into that monolithic culture, doesn’t speak the language fluently, or is physically very different, etc. is a discomfort that many find annoying, scary, or anxiety inducing. Some to the point that they choose only to serve or interact with native Japanese people.

    But it not being about hatred, per se, doesn’t really change the fact that, if you look different in Japan, you don’t speak fluent Japanese, you have an accent, etc. you’ll get treated worse. They regularly deny “foreigners”/“gaijin” (often including born-and-raised mixed-race Japanese citizens, “hāfu”) basic business services and housing. At minimum, you’ll get stares and thoughtless/ignorant questions and comments that can be very insulting. You may have trouble accessing shelter and services offered freely to native and typically appearing Japanese people. And worse, you may have legal troubles by police assuming you are a trouble maker by virtue of being different. There is a huge racial profiling problem with Japanese police.

    There are not comprehensive anti-discriminatiom laws, or even a general government recognition of systemic racism, so you will likely have no legal recourse for the prejudice you would likely face there, too.

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    • hark@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Isn’t it ironic or perhaps hypocritical that you’re speaking about Japan in such generalities?

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      • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        I am not generalizing people based on genetic traits, race, etc. I’m talking about the culture. It is a documented systemic issue. Like saying that Victorian era people in the UK were sexually repressed. There is nothing intrinsic to Victorians that made them that way, and it certainly didn’t apply to everyone. But that was absolutely a significant part of the culture at the time.

        X people are A. Y people can’t B. Z people are worse than C people. These are racist statements because they attribute intrinsic qualities to a group, or comparatively qualify them. Stating a fact of sociology can often be used to erroneously support such a racist statement. But the sociological fact isn’t racist in itself.

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• apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Ethnocentrism is still a problem bent on bigotry.

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  • GalacticSushi@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    “Spayk Anglush”

    Anglush?! This here’s ‘Murica! We talk ‘Murican ’round these parts!

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• hades@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  ableism?

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  • remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    I don’t think not speaking Japanese counts as a disability.

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    • red_tomato@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      I’m disabled. I can’t watch anime without subtitles.

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    • hades@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It does in Japan.

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• JillyB@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  And the literacy tests of the Jim Crowe era were just making sure people could read well enough to vote. It was educationalist, not racist. The purpose of this sign is to exclude non-native Japanese people.

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