Comment on Cool Japan 🌸
Janx@piefed.social 1 month agoDiscrimination due to…? You’re almost there!
Racism is the belief that one or more “races” is superior to the others, or the opposite; that one or more “races” is inferior.
Racial discrimination can be for many different reasons. I’m not saying racism isnt the reason in this case, but without more context we can’t know for sure.
Bud, I love Japan. You know they’re the only axis power that still openly celebrates their WWII generals, yeah? It’s racism, Japan is a racist country. Like, definitionally.
This is like going to Jim Crow America, seeing a “Whites Only” water fountain sign and arguing that we need more context to know if it’s racist. You don’t, it is.
You know they’re the only axis power that still openly celebrates their WWII generals, yeah?
Okay so this one is ultra cultural. They still openly “celebrate” generals who tried to overthrow the imperial family then cursed the capital after their death to be hit by a plague, natural disasters, and famine, over a thousand years ago. With people from the imperial family dying from it. There’s several people like that who literally have an active cult today, to alleviate their anger. It’s not about being happy with what they did, it’s about appeasing everyone who wielded power and caused fear even after their death, because they have a culture of vengeful ghosts and Chinese Buddhism gave them the idea that people with power in the “real world” court still maintained the same power in the court of the underworld and could cause natural disasters and plagues. That said, I don’t know how many of those cults are still observed by the Prime Minister.
That is too narrow a definition of racism. Merriam Webster defines it as a belief that race is determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of one race over another. Racism is also defined as actions that reflect or foster that belief. It can also be systemic oppression of people based on race.
Based on that, you could maybe argue that language is cultural and not racial, therefore this is cultural discrimination more than racial discrimination, but in a place with an incredibly low ethnic and language diversity for the size of its population that’s just a distinction without a difference.
What this sign indicates is that they only want Japanese reading people, and in Japan that’s going to be almost exclusively native Japanese people, so it’s not a stretch to say that they do not want non-Japanese reading and therefore non-Japanese people. A policy like that is reflective of a belief that non-Japanese people do not belong in that business, and that is racist.
I fear your curse still lingers… You need to watch the video!
That’s kind of how I’m looking at it. Idk why people are trying to claim it so hard to being racism. What if the person passing by is Japanese American and they actually can’t read Japanese? Like what do you call it then? Japan has been known to actually be racist (e.g. against Naomi Osaka) but this example, on a matter of technicality, I cannot confidently say (without bias) that this is outright racism. (even though it could be)
Legit don’t get why people are downvoting. Discrimination is literally a word. WTF people. FFS
Not the same person, but ability to speak the language. A lot of the places don’t care what your background is so long as you speak the language. This should not be confused with me agreeing with this policy, which I do not.
I’m curious why speaking the language is so important as to take these kinds of measures.
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Language barriers
RickyRigatoni@piefed.zip 1 month ago
I thought blahaj was supposed to be better than this.
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
:(
bold_omi@lemmy.today 1 month ago
Nope. The language is used as a shibboleth because of racism.
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
I don’t disagree with you. I just don’t have the energy or care to deeply discuss the nuances of this specific topic. Everybody knows Japan is super messed up and super racist. I’m deleting my above comment because just thinking about discussing Japan’s racism and other really messed up societal issues gives me a headache. And then all of the people here who don’t understand nuance, sarcasm, or are looking for a target to be mad at, this specific subject-bundle just isn’t worth it to me - bro that just ain’t me right now, sorry. I’m out. Have fun. 🤝
Poxlox@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Nice paragraph