As the say in China, “da bizi”…I’m not sure what the Japanese equivalent term is.
[video:www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCjxzpSrFP4]
Just look at their immigration policy. We don’t need a commercial to show us the obvious.
It’s not that bad!
it menat to be funny and americans dress up as asians all the time in comedies…
They did it on How I Met Your Mother last week and got crushed by Asian-Americans. It wasn’t racist at all. Asians are a rittle touchy.
I saw that episode and it’s not offensive at all!!!
I think they were re-creating kung fu movies with their actors, so what? you can’t ask white people to play asians even in a comedy?
so gay people can’t play straight and straight can’t play gay?
do you have to find handicapped people to play handicapped characters?
or do you have to find serial killers or monsters to play in horror movies?
the “asian community” they are refering to in the article and stop watching tv and movies altogether if they are offended.
Somebody/group is offended by just about everything these days. Although I haven’t watched it in a long time, I always respected South Park for intentionally offending people to try to show how ridiculous things have become.
South Park was very precient on the whole Miley Cyrus thing:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci4EAmF1bZo]
Full episode:
Respect.
i always love these Asian groups in the US. They lump all Asians together yet Asians pretty much hate each other.
but Nana, do you really think Japanese aren’t racist or at least discriminatory? Forget about just this commercial. Look at the policies, what people say, the elected officials, the discrimination non japanese face (look at zainichi who are born in japan but don’t have japanese blood and can’t rent apartments, have trouble finding work and can’t vote).
^ So you chinese or japanese?
^ white
I am sure there are racism in Japan, just like in ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
is it really bad? i don’t think so.
This commercial for instance, i don’t think is racism, you can say it’s bad taste but i don’t htink it intends to put people down.
I think relatively homogenous cutures are more comfortable with racist jokes simply because they don’t have the exposure more mixed cultures have. For example, everyone in the US knows that you can only do racist Asian jokes if you are Asian. Otherwise, it is in poor taste. However, teh Dutch do not understand this:
I think it’s all about how you take it. Per Wikipedia, "In December 2002, NBA star Shaquille O’Neal received media flak for saying “Tell [NBA center] Yao Ming, ‘Ching chong yang, wah, ah soh’” during an interview on Fox Sports Net.[5] O’Neal later said it was locker-room humor and he meant no offense. Yao believed that O’Neal was joking, but he said a lot of Asians would not see the humor.[6] Yao joked, “Chinese is hard to learn. I had trouble with it when I was little.”
After that little episode, seemed like Yao Ming’s popularity really soared in both the U.S. and China
Racism and racial insensitivity are different things. Racism means you hate a different race. Japanese are generally racist against some races - for instance, the Chinese. Racial insensitivity means that you don’t realize that something you say or do can be offensive. For instance, Japanese people do not hate black people; they rarely meet black people and have no history with black people. So the Japanese have no reason to hate black people. However, Japanese people are insensitive towards black people - they will, for instance, use the N word casually, not realizing that it is offensive.
Similarly, the commercial above is not racist, based on how I define racism, anyway. It is, however, insensitive, as it makes fun of a certain race, without considering the potential for offense.
I am not defending Japanese on a whole, i can’t speak for everyone and i really am not engaging an argument on it.
it’s like the “asian group” complaining about How i met your mother, i am asian, and if i live in the states i still wouldn’t say that they speak my mind and share my opinion.
so the truth of the matter is, people are too sensitive and use “racism” too casually on what’s clearly a comedic technique, if we are not allowed to use stereotype or role-plays for some laughs, then the world is really a cold harsh place.
NANA
I think Japanese have the right to be racist as much as any other nation.