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Hi Blog. This month saw another side-by-side Community Page with my argument made and a rebuttal, this time from a person I respect mightily: Colin P.A. Jones. It’s worth a read, as always. His point in crux and excerpt:
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“Here we come to the reason why I felt compelled to write a response to Debito: Microaggression is disturbingly familiar to what I perceive to be the Japanese government’s strategy (a term that credits it with more thought than is actually involved) of “protecting” human rights by trivializing them. With definitions of harassment, abuse and even violence that are so broad that they can be applied to just about any type of behavior that makes someone unhappy, everyone can be a victim, but everyone is a potential human rights violator too.
“Perhaps the government devoting significant resources to identifying causes of unhappiness is a good thing. At the same time, however, if you have ever worked for a Japanese institution and witnessed the vast number of hours of otherwise productive people’s time that can be diverted to addressing a single person’s baseless claims of persecution, you can’t help but wonder if the life energy of everyone involved wouldn’t be better spent on other endeavors…”
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Rest at http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120605a1.html.
Meanwhile, my column this month made the Top Ten Most Read again, thanks, and also because an “Editor’s Pick” (also thanks!) Have a read. Arudou Debito
The Japan Times, Tuesday, June 5, 2012
JUST BE CAUSE
Guestists, Haters, the Vested: Apologists take many forms
By ARUDOU Debito
Zeit Gist Column 59/Just Be Cause Column 52 for the Japan Times Community Page
To be published June 5, 2012
DIRECTOR’S CUT: Restoring a paragraph deleted from the print article (in parentheses)
Courtesy http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20120605ad.html
Last month’s column on “microaggressions” was my most debated yet. Thanks for reading and commenting.
So this month, let’s explore how the microaggression dynamic works in all societies, and why some people live in denial of it. Brace yourself for a bit of theory …
All societies, when defining themselves, decide who is “us” and who is “them.” So do countries. In the name of sovereignty, nation-states must decide who is a member (i.e., a citizen) and who is not (i.e., a foreigner). (If they didn’t, there’d be no point to citizenship.)
Nation-states also perpetuate themselves by creating a feeling of community for their citizens — national narratives, invented traditions and official shared histories. So the concept of “Who is ‘us’?” gets created, reinforced and generationally encoded through the media, public policy, primary education, etc.
What about encoding “Who is ‘them’?” It is by nature a process of differentiation. Foreigners by definition have different legal, civil and political rights in any society. (They usually cannot vote, for example.)
But differentiation is also codified in everyday interaction. To determine their community’s borders and clarify their identity within it, people tend to contrast themselves with outsiders. This is a process of socially “othering” people.
Eventually the presumptions of “Others” as “different” become normalized into mundane assumptions, such as stereotypes.
Herein come the microaggressions. They keep life simple by enforcing (consciously and unconsciously) the stereotyping. For example, “This person looks Asian; he can use chopsticks.” “This person looks Caucasian; she needs an English menu.” They are not necessarily grounded in hatred — only in presumed difference.
This means that even well-intentioned people, trying to be kind when offering those chopsticks and menus, tend to view the person standing before them not as a unique individual, but as a collection of socially encoded characteristics assigned to that individual’s presumed group. Then they react accordingly.
That’s why microaggressions are so invisible, powerful and difficult to fight. For why would anyone resist someone trying to be kind? But people do — even in Japan, where they grumble about arigata meiwaku (nuisance niceness).
In Japan, however, microaggressions towards non-Japanese (NJ) are especially difficult to counteract for three reasons.
One is that Japan’s encodings are extremely standardized. Japanese basic education and social science (JBC, Sept. 7, 2010) are grounded both in stereotypes and in a cult of Japan’s difference (“uniqueness,” in fact). They inculcate convictions that, say, all non-Asian foreigners cannot use chopsticks or can understand English. Doubt that? Walk by a schoolyard and count the inevitable “harou!”s.
A second reason is that Japan’s encoding for what makes “us” and “them” is so strong that it is insuperable, precluding possible exceptions. Take, for example, the case of a person who naturalizes and becomes a Japanese citizen. Surely such people prove that it’s possible to jump the wall from The Other to become part of The Self?
Legally, yes. But not always socially. As “Japanese Only” signs and rules make plainer, “real” Japanese have to look Japanese. We are far from a “tipping point” where multitudes of multiethnic Japanese demonstrate that language ability and manual dexterity are unrelated to phenotype.
But the third, more insufferable reason is a lack of cohesiveness, especially within Japan’s English-speaking NJ community (JBC, June 7, 2011).
Instead of asserting themselves as unique individuals, many NJ buy into the stereotypes behind microaggressions and enforce them on each other.
Let’s call the accepters, defenders and enforcers of the status quo “Apologists” for short. Why do they do it?
For some, it’s a matter of “guestism,” as in, “Japan is for the Japanese, so I can’t tell them what to do.” However, Guestists also assume anyone who appears to be foreign are also “guests” and should likewise shut up.
To justify their mindset, Guestists not only invoke grandiloquent theories like “cultural imperialism” (i.e., foisting “our” Occidental values on “their” insular, inscrutable Oriental society), but also cook up delusions such as that one person’s protests “spoil” Japan for everyone.
Unfortunately, they too validate the “guilt by association” meme underpinning racialized stereotypes. Not only do they endorse NJ being treated differently as human beings, they also demand NJ disenfranchise themselves.
For other Apologists, it’s a matter of vested interests. They’ve lived here long enough to reach mental equilibrium in their fishbowl. Life’s too short — why cloud their day by going against the flow?
After all, many of the Vested have Japanese spouses, kids in school, a mortgage, and a job they can’t just leave. Their Japanese families rarely empathize with any resistance anyway. So their attitude becomes, “Leave me alone. What can I as one person do to change, oh, a bent bureaucracy, an irradiated food chain, and everyone poking my stomach and saying how fat I’ve gotten? Shikata ga nai.” And they acquiesce.
Still other Apologists are either blind or relativistic towards microaggressions because their mind is closed. They’ll criticize even recognition of the concept of microaggression as “oversensitivity,” “paranoia,” “political correctness,” or “seeing racism everywhere!” One sniped, “Somebody said ‘nice weather’ to me! Microaggressor!”
Well, try opening your mind: Let’s go back to that “English menu for Caucasians” example. A commenter excused this as an act of kindness, for how could a waitress possibly tell what language he could read? Was he to pore through an unintelligible menu just to prove a point?
No. The waitress should assume that any customer gets the same menu, unless advised by the individual customer of a different preference. Deciding his preference for him is arigata meiwaku.
Switch shoes: Let’s say a waitress in a Western country is told to give anyone who “looks Asian” a menu in Chinese.
How would that sit? Not well. Because people know that there are many kinds of “Asians” (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, American, Canadian, etc.). Assuming that any “Asian” is a Chinese is just wrong.
Paragraph deleted by editor: (And how do we know it is wrong? Because overseas “Asians” grumble aloud about being “microaggressed” like that, over time raising public awareness of the problem.)
So what should have happened? The commenter takes the standard menu from the waitress and, if unable to use it, asks if one exists in a language he can read (in his case, English). Simple.
But that’s the power of microaggressions: so invisible that the aforementioned commenter endorsed the stereotype that all “visibly foreign” people in Asia read English. That’s plain wrong.
Finally, there are the “Hater Apologists” who mysteriously launch into ad hominem attacks fueled by visceral animosity. I think I’ve finally figured them out.
Have you ever noticed that, if they are not the “Team Japan” Japanese defending the nation (even its wartime atrocities) under any circumstances, the Haters are generally white people?
Think about it. Since colonialism and the Enlightenment, whites have been the dominant racial group in the world order. Because whites have historically had “no color” (remember, everyone else is “colored”), they are often oblivious to the processes of racialization.
Brace yourselves for a little more theory: Current postcolonialist/postmodernist analysis of racialization generally holds that people are systematically differentiated, othered, then subordinated. This is how nation-states unified their peoples under national narratives of “Self” and “Other.”
For centuries now, the whites (who created the modern nation-state paradigm replicated around the world) advantageously ranked everyone else below them by race (see “social Darwinism”). Whites have never been a subordinated racial minority on a national scale in any “First World” country.
Except, of course, in Japan. So whites seek to elevate their social standing here by using whiteness to their advantage — as “sensei.” And they use pandering techniques so normalized they are practically invisible.
For example: 1) offering the “honorary white” status that Japan covets in the world order by teaching them English (witness how “real English speakers” are sold in Japanese media as white); 2) feeling lucky or smug that they aren’t lower on Japan’s ethnic pecking order (they aren’t blacks, Koreans, South Americans, etc.); 3) playing Uncle Tom to offset themselves as “good gaijin” (they aren’t low-wage migrant workers, “illegals,” criminals or “flyjin”) and claim extra privileges; or 4) shouting down anyone who threatens to upend the sensei status quo (even though whites, after slotting everyone else in a racial hierarchy for centuries, should not be allowed to claim they are now an exception to it).
Furthermore, consider what kind of whites are generally attracted to Japan: socially awkward, tech-savvy, nerdy dorks. (I know. I’m one too.)
[Click on the photos for more information.]
With chips on their shoulder after childhoods of being bullied, the Dorks are at last extracting their revenge on the Lucky Beautiful People (e.g., prom queens, football captains, or anyone with a talent — like writing — they were not born with) by tearing them down.
But in Japanese society (itself culturally rife with dorky, techie, socially awkward people), Dorks are further empowered by the Internet (and Japan’s blind eye towards bullying) to attack people anonymously. And they can coast within a well-established narrative of “cultural relativism” to camouflage it.
Don’t like these stereotypes I’m creating? Alright, Apologists, fight them for a change. But you’d miss the bigger irony.
The Apologists, by reflexively denying the existence of microaggressions (substantiated in decades of social science as a fundamental means for policing social identity), are hurting themselves. They are reinforcing their status of The Other in Japan by supporting the stereotypes that subordinate them. And all for maybe a crust of white privilege.
The final thought I want to leave you with this month is, “Why we fight.” Who is all this protest for?
Not for us, actually. For our children in Japan.
Many Apologists point out, “We chose to come to Japan. If you don’t like it, leave!”
Well, how will that sit with your Japanese children, who didn’t choose, and who might want the choice later of what society to live in as adults — and maybe even have some control over their identity within it?
Are you going to let Japanese society “microaggress” them into The Other, “gaijin” category, just because they look more like you than your Japanese spouse?
What kind of future are you helping create for them? One of tolerance?, Or one of constant differentiation, othering and probable subordination?
So think seriously before you disparage the activists trying to make Japan a better place for everyone regardless of how they look.
This is not arigata meiwaku. This is advocating The Other become part of The Self.
1695 WORDS
ENDS
113 comments on “My Japan Times JUST BE CAUSE Column June 5, 2012: Guestists, Haters, the Vested: Apologists take many forms”
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To suggest that we should treat all people we encounter the same, and make no assumptions about them at all based on their appearance, etc., is to basically say that humans should never attempt to learn anything about their fellow man through their interactions with them, or put that information to practical use.
White people in restaurants in Japan are offered English menus because experience has taught the staff that, most of the time, the English menu will be needed. When that becomes the exception, and not the rule, then people will modify their behavior accordingly, just as in the case of Asians not being offered Chinese menus at restaurants in the U.S.
We learn from experience, and naturally put that experience to work to make our lives easier or safer. If you’re walking down the street, you’re not going to regard a group of loud youths the same way you’d view the elderly woman hobbling slowly past them. Nor are you likely to ask directions of the masked guy standing in front of the bank carrying a sawed-off shotgun. Your experience and learning is giving you clues about how to interact with the people around you based on their appearance. Obviously it’s not always going to be the correct answer, but if you’re paying attention, most of the time it will be.
To suggest that people should shut that incredibly-useful response down because of a slight chance they are mistaken, and interact identically with all other humans around them is simply preposterous.
To even call simple human interactions based on justifiable assumptions “aggression” (whether micro or not) is also absurd. “Aggression” is defined as an offense, an attack, an assault. What reasonable person would call the unnecessary offering of an English menu an “aggression” in the true sense of that word? An annoyance? Yes, perhaps. But that’s completely up for the person being accosted to decide.
I, for one, have enjoyed many quite rewarding human interactions here in Japan because people bothered to talk to me, presumably because I look different. I feel sorry for those who would apparently prefer to be effectively shunned.
I see a clue in your sentence:
“The waitress should assume that any customer gets the same menu, unless advised by the individual customer of a different preference. ”
Yet, in the cases of a disability like blindness, I think most would agree that it would be actually rude to hand a blind individual a printed menu.
I think that the socially marginalised in J — with its focus on the values you articulated in this — are essentially viewed as having a disability — being NJ.
That is a part of the reason, I think, why J and some NJ reject notions of equality in favour of special treatment. They essentially accede to the notion that being NJ in Japan is a disability that warrants distinctive treatment.
In other countries (Netherlands as one) being a foreigner is not viewed as a disability by most.
It also reinforces my view that more rights for NJ are unlikely to exist until more rights exist for all marginalised groups in Japan.
Japan essentially marginalises all those who do not fit within its definition of “normal” thereby excluding NJ but also various groupings of J or near J.
@Scott T. Hards
I, like you, ‘have enjoyed many quite rewarding human interactions here in Japan because people bothered to talk to me, presumably because I look different’. ‘Othering’ has, on balance, probably worked quite positively for me during my time in this country. Your and my positive personal experiences should not, however, blind us to the problems of those on the other end of the spectrum. I feel Debito’s ‘final thought’ here is the most important part of his column: just imagine being born here, being a native speaker of the language, having grown up with the culture, with 50 or 75 percent of your family being Japanese – including yourself, of course.
How would you feel if that is who you are, and you would have to live your entire life, from childhood till death, being viewed as an outsider, being complimented on your Japanese and on your understanding of Japanese culture, being offered English menus in restaurants – while you might not even be able to speak English at all, and worse: being avoided when the seat next to yours is the only one left vacant in a rush hour train, being addressed as ‘Mr. Foreigner’ by people who do not know your name…
Like you, I do not feel offended by any of these things – except that when I see people who are obviously in doubt about whether or not to take the seat next to me, I have to resist the urge to smile at them cheerfully, and politely say: ‘Please, you’re welcome to sit here, I don’t mind!’ It is not just about you and me, however. Debito’s previous posts on this topic have opened my eyes to that.
Of course you can’t blame people personally for using their experience in deciding how to address a person they don’t know, in this case their experiences with people who don’t look Asian. That you can’t blame them personally, however, does not mean you can’t try to change their mindset, either. This becomes more obvious when we take the restaurant example: here it is presumably often not just a waiter’s split second judgment based on his or her experience, but company policy. It wouldn’t take a restaurant manager much effort to instruct his team that choices in customer treatment should not be based on the customer’s looks.
This may cause the waiter some inconvenience most of the time, in that he or she will presumably quite often have to return to a table in order to provide an English menu to that non-Asian looking customer after first having given them a Japanese one. Nevertheless, if enough mindsets are changed, it will definitely make life a lot easier for that minority of non-Asian looking Japanese. I believe that very many Japanese would be willing to take their troubles into account, if only they were aware of them. Wouldn’t that be better than saying: ‘It works out for the majority, so don’t complain; tough luck for the minority’?
Great article Debito, with many excellent points.
For me, the knock-out argument against the apologists was this;
‘Well, how will that sit with your Japanese children, who didn’t choose, and who might want the choice later of what society to live in as adults — and maybe even have some control over their identity within it?
Are you going to let Japanese society “microaggress” them into The Other, gaijin category, just because they look more like you than your Japanese spouse?
What kind of future are you helping create for them? One of tolerance? Or one of constant differentiation, othering and probable subordination?’
What kind of ‘man’ would knowingly sell his children into bondage (as it were), just to get the daily pat on the head for being ‘a good boy’? Not any kind of man I’d want to be.
@Scott and Debito-san
I don’t consider it a major problem when a waitress or other service staff member, who truly doesn’t know whether I can speak Japanese or not, offers me an English menu or assumes I speak English. This is different from the Asian-American=able to read Chinese analogy because most Asian-Americans CANNOT read Chinese (there are millions of Korean-Americans, Filipino-Americans, etc. with no Chinese knowledge whatsoever in the US), whereas most Caucasians in Japan CAN speak English. There are other microaggressions I’d prefer to fight before this one.
However, what pisses me off is when I have _already spoken_ Japanese (i.e. concretely established that I am not a stereotypical English-only gaijin), and that waitress/service staff member STILL replies to me in English or gets the English menu. I have already proven I can speak Japanese, so why is an English menu necessary?
It’s insulting, because it’s like saying “yes, you’ve just spoken Japanese, but your Japanese (probably) sucks, so here’s an English menu.” And THAT isn’t just a harmless stereotype. It’s an aggressive “I’m better than you” action, because it is implying that my Japanese (which I have already proven I know by speaking it) isn’t good enough, and that his/her English must be better than my Japanese.
Personally, I find that far more aggravating. I find this is especially a problem on airplanes with flight attendants, at airports, and at information centers, for example, the Nagoya Station information center. It’s so smug. It’s so bad, I’ve actually stopped even trying to speak Japanese at the airport because I’m so sick of the stewardesses condescendingly replying to me in English. Sometimes, I’ll ask them (in Japanese) “I just spoke Japanese to you, so why are you replying in English to me? How do you know I’m not Russian, or French, or German? I spoke Japanese to you. You should reply in Japanese to me.” Or something like that.
And Debito, it’s an interesting article. I like how you break apologists into several types. My personal classification of apologists would be as follows (I would say there are AT LEAST seven types):
I will start with #1, by far the most common category:
1. People who have been in Japan only a short time and are still in the neurochemical “honeymoon phase,” and/or give the “benefit of the doubt to things I don’t know about yet” phase. These people will mostly turn into holders of balanced viewpoints or bashers later on when the “honeymoon phase” ends.
And these categories, while less frequent than #1, are also fairly common:
2. The “I was here first” gaijin who has risen on the gaijin totem pole and doesn’t want to share his power with other gaijin (i.e. an English teacher who is afraid of an influx of English teachers and spends his days flaming prospective English teachers on Gaijinpot and spreading rumors about 100:1 competition rates for jobs).
3. The brainwashed US public school alumnus who spent years learning about the evils of the white man in public school (Christopher Columbus, slavery, colonialism, the KKK, etc.). This person agrees with racial equality in theory, but doesn’t think that white people have the right to complain about racial discrimination. This person might support Zainichi Koreans or Filipinos in their quest for equal rights, but would not do the same for other whites, due to intense white guilt.
4. Those who see Japan’s system as a superior alternative to “back home” where affirmative action, disproportionate amounts of scholarship money, etc. are devoted to certain minorities. He/she has witnessed the millions of illegal immigrants pouring into the US, as well. Deep down inside, he/she believes that his/her home country has failed (become too multicultural and letting foreigners have dangerous amounts of power), and doesn’t think Japan should make the same mistakes.
5. Minorities from the US or Canada or another multicultural country who are trying to “make a point.” “Well, I encounter some occasional stares or shopkeepers who ignore me here in Japan, but it’s nothing like that hellhole, the USA, where if you don’t stay in after 10:00 PM, a KKK lynch mob will just burn you alive and hang you from the nearest tree!”
6. Non-academics or clueless people. These people spend all day at social events, watching TV, eating, etc. and never pick up a newspaper, read Debito.org, or a textbook about Japan. They have also never had any ethics/philosophy/psych courses in school which would have otherwise broadened their minds and taught them about logical fallacies to avoid. They are so wrapped up in their pointless little worlds/social lives that they are simply unaware of all the BS that’s going on with regard to racial equality. And when they don’t know something, they fill in the gap with “give Japan the benefit of the doubt.” This is the same kind of person who has a valid visa to be in Japan, but doesn’t know what category it is. “I don’t know, I know I have some kind of stamp in my passport, but my school arranged that…” Basically, this person is the same as #1, except that unlike #1, the honeymoon period lasts years instead of weeks or months, due to lack of awareness.
7. Asian-Americans who return to Asian with a surge of ethnic pride and a chip on their shoulders against “whitey.” All the “racial equality” talk he/she espoused when in L.A. or Vancouver? Well, that’s all out the window now. “This is Asia, for Asians, FOOL! You _aren’t_ Asian! If you don’t like it, leave!”
So…I think there are many, many different types of apologists. Not sure which one is the most aggravating.
@Scott
you wrote
“If you’re walking down the street,
you’re not going to regard a group of
loud youths the same way you’d view
the elderly woman hobbling slowly
past them. Nor are you likely to ask
directions of the masked guy
standing in front of the bank carrying
a sawed-off shotgun. Your
experience and learning is giving you
clues about how to interact with the
people around you based on their
appearance. Obviously it’s not always
going to be the correct answer, but if
you’re paying attention, most of the
time it will be.”
I fail to see where “race” comes into play in any of your examples. To take up your shotgun analogy: Isn’t the point that a native Japanese person will rather avoid asking a foreigner for directions, sitting next to him in the train, etc. EXLUSIVELY based on appearance an underlying stereotypes?
Scott. You’re yanking our chains, surely. How could you possibly arrive at the conclusions you give based on the articles on micraggression as presented? For example, who said we should interact with all other humans equally? I certainly didn’t see that in either of the articles. You did give me a laugh, though.
Scott, forgive me for my ignorance, but when were East Asians ever offered Chinese menus in the US? Moreover, do you have any evidence for how “incredibly useful” these responses are?
I think some of your examples are quite extreme. A sawed-off shotgun is a weapon that is illegal in many jurisdictions. Further, the risk an individual brandishing a deadly weapon poses unusually high; you cannot really afford to give this situation the benefit of the doubt. In comparison, it is potentially quite difficult to assess the natve language of someone merely seconds after meeting them. I can see how this difficulty might make it attractive to thrust assumptions in their direction, but where is the fire?
Your example with Chinese menus offers a similar parellel; written Chinese might be one of the most accessible languages to people of East and Southeast Asia, what with Chinese nations, overseas Chinese, and related languages. However, as I’m sure you would agree, it’s simply rude and alienating to force this assumption on everyone Asian.
The United States has a lingua franca, and so does Japan. To suggest that shotgunning every Caucasian with English is appropriate arrogantly dismisses non-Anglophones and non-native speakers. How is such a response “incredibly useful” when it makes customers uncomfortable? Finally, your closing statement reeks of entitlement. Not everyone is enamoured with this ivory appeal, especially when it appears to be all the appeal one has. If you’re afraid of having that taken away, my condolences.
@ Scott #1
Is this all you got?
‘I, for one, have enjoyed many quite rewarding human interactions here in Japan because people bothered to talk to me, presumably because I look different. I feel sorry for those who would apparently prefer to be effectively shunned.’
You like living in Japan because back home you were a nobody (?), but here you are *special*? Is it important to you to feel *special* as a result of the busybodies curiosity about you? You wouldn’t feel *special* if someone came over to you in a diner back home and remarked ‘you sure can use a knife and fork pretty good boy!’, would you? (or maybe you would, I don’t know, maybe those are the people whose admiration you enjoy).
I can live without it, thanks. I don’t think that I am missing out on anything great by walking away from people who have only got ‘can you use chopsticks’ to say to me. I mean, you’re setting the bar for ‘meaningful interaction’ pretty low, don’t you think?
Charles,
I have found a simple solution that works quite well (at least for me) when I address someone in Japanese and they reply to me in English. I just pretend I don’t understand what they are saying, and say, “日本語でいいですか”. As simple as that, but it works in majority of cases. And if it doesn’t, and the person still trying to speak to me in English, I make a puzzled look, and go “日本語大丈夫ですか”. This has never failed me to date.
Looks like the issue is drawing quite a lot of attention than ever before. I think Colin Jones makes a good point in illustrating the risk of micro-aggression that can be used and abused for the re-constitution of Japanese public discourse. At the time same, the issue pushes further into the context of strategic rhetoric—or the discourse of ‘whiteness’, according to Nakayama and Krizek. To some people who are unaware of misusing their entitled rights to the detriment of harming NJ– and Japanese citizens as well, micro-aggression can be seen as a tactic for alienation or colorblindness by taking politically neutral position or willful blindness in a way to trivialize the issue or absolve oneself from the sense of guilt.
Scott, you write above that you “look different”, and admit that you ENJOY being treated (due to the simple fact that you are racially marked as gaijin) DIFFERENTLY than the average Japanese person is treated.
Yes President Hards, the link which you proudly posted, leading to your official company homepage videos, shows that you do “look different” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWmExY-IXyE (and quite similar to the photos above.)
But here’s the million dollar question Scott:
Do you honestly think children who are born and raised in Japan (whose only language is Japanese, whose only culture is Japanese, who think of themselves as Japanese) will ENJOY being treated (due to the simple fact these Japanese children are racially marked as gaijin) DIFFERENTLY than the average Japanese person is treated?
You enjoy being treated different based on your appearance, fine, but your comment above shows you haven’t given enough thought to people born in Japan.
Black-people born in Japan, and white-people born in Japan, and any-people born in Japan who don’t appear to be 100% Yamato-DNA-holding, do NOT want to be treated differently than the average Japanese person is treated. Can you understand this point, Mr. “gaijin who enjoys being treated differently”?
MY children are “born-in-Japan Japanese”, damn it, meaning, they DON’T want to be treated differently based on their racial appearance, they DON’T want to be the only folks in their party of 30 to be handed a Non-Japanese Menu due to their skin color.
This is Japan, the language used here is Japanese, and unless someone specifically ASKS for special language help: people should NOT treat people differently due to their skin tone.
What’s next… perhaps “real Japanese people” at restaurants in Japan should “helpfully” follow white-skinned and black-skinned people into the bathroom to un-requestedly “help” explain to these “probable-kanji-illiterates” how to use a sophisticated Japanese toilet, because people-who-appear-to-be-gaijins USUALLY can’t read kanji, right?
Such un-requested “help” is defensible according to the “logic” illustrated in your comment #1 above, since this “help” is based on “practical application of information collected through experiences showing that white-skinned and black-skinned people here in Japan usually have trouble in this area”, right?
Seriously Scott, here’s the question I hope you will come back to the table and honestly answer:
Do you think children who are born and raised in Japan (whose only language is Japanese, whose only culture is Japanese, who think of themselves as Japanese) will ENJOY being treated (due to the simple fact these Japanese children are racially marked as gaijin) DIFFERENTLY than the average Japanese person is treated?
One of the most frustrating aspects of being othered is being lumped in to stereotypes with no regard as to whether those stereotypes apply to oneself culturally or individually.
“Would you like something to drink?”
“Tea, please.”
“Oh, I thought foreigners drank coffee.”
Another is the (universal) tendency to apply positive attributes to one’s own nationality. What makes this so frustrating in the Japan’s case is the J-NJ rubric. “Japanese use chopsticks. You are not Japanese, so you don’t (read “can’t”) use chopsticks” “Japanese eat rice. You are not Japanese, so you don’t eat rice. You’re white, so you must eat bread” “Japanese are clever. You are not Japanese, so…”
And this becomes increasing frustrating, having to hear the media, politicians, school teachers, housewives etc talk on and on how “Japanese are clever, hard-working, open-minded, polite and mindful of others”, while having to deal on a daily basis with dozens who are stupid, lazy, narrow-minded and selfish.
The most intelligent question I was ever asked in this country was “What’s the most difficult thing for you about being a foreigner in Japan?” (And I was so unprepared that I couldn’t give a decent answer at the time!)
This is what I came up with after some thought:
“People’s reactions to my perceived foreignness”
Mighty stuff indeed! This is the column I’d been hoping for, a clear demarcation and description of the apologists and a first step in the naming and shaming of them. This is the way forward and it’s a step that’s been a long time coming.
There have been times when, upon hearing other NJ criticize Debito behind his back, I’ve been frustrated with the lack of a framework to counter their specious claims. I’d like nothing more to stand up to the apologists, to knock some sense into them, to show them that they are the first and biggest stumbling block to NJ enabling their own freedoms.
We have to make it clear that we are not going to accept this underhand method of cutting off the voice of NJ who want nothing more than acceptance from a sometimes callous and uncaring populace.
I think it is time to look into the discourse of “whiteness,” since it directly or indirectly taps into the theory/practice of micro-aggression. Here are the links I have found. I guess the third one draws your interest most.
Thomas K. Nakayama & Robert L. Krizek. “Whiteness: A Strategic Rhetoric”, Quarterly Journal of Speech 81 (1995): 291-309.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00335639509384117
Carrie Crenshaw. “Resisting whiteness’ rhetorical silence,” Western Journal of Communication, 61(3) (Summer 1997): 253-78.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10570319709374577
Yuko Kawai, “Neoliberalism, Nationalism, and Intercultural Communication: A Critical Analysis of a Japan’s
Neoliberal Nationalism Discourse under Globalization,” Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 2(1), 16-43.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17513050802567049
Wow!!
Debito…A follower of your blog for years. You could have done without the photos.
So I confess, I personally like Japan and the people. I do not think I fall into any of the “categories” mentioned above.
I have made many friends in Japan, from all over the world. I have also made many Japanese friends and it has taken years and alot of effort. Several of my Japanese friends were guilty of what has been defined here and in the other article as “micro agressions” in the beginning of our relationship. But, I am happy and feel very lucky that I did not let that get in the way of my developing a relationship with them. Does that qualify me as an apologist? Because I was able to look beyond a well intentioned gesture and develop a friendship with someone?
If so, I guess you need to go ahead and categorize me and “name and shame me”…if that makes folks feel better (although it solves nothing), have at it….I will provide the photo…
Writing a blog attacking someone personally (as was done on Tepido) is very low, and creepy!Posting photos of someone on your own blog is also low, and creepy.
The old adage “2 wrongs do not make a right” holds true.
I like Japan, but yes it has lots of issues (as does any other place). Your blog has provided valuable information to me over the years. Have not always agreed but I continue to follow the blog. I think you could have done without the photos….I see both blogs (yours and the other one) now as a source of entertainment rather than information.
— Dude, chill. This isn’t a matter of whether or not you “like Japan and the people” (or anything to do with making friends or not). This is about being critical (as in “critical analysis“) of a society (and that means any society) that could do better if it was only aware about the damage the unconscious processes of alienation do to people within its realm (and conversely talk about the damage it does to itself in the process). Don’t fall into the intellectual ghetto of “like” and “dislike”. That has nothing to do with “Apologism” as I have portrayed it in my column.
Let me clarify. Debito.org argues for more opportunity for and less limitation being put on people — by arguing for tolerance if not acceptance of differences: Apologists, on the other hand, are in fact arguing for the OPPOSITE — they have so internalized the priorities and discourses of the State that they advocate for MORE limitations to be placed upon people — in fact, their (and stupidly their own) disenfranchisement in Japanese society. Apologists are not on your side. They are essentially only on their own side. Clearly you are not the same as them.
As for the naming and shaming. Dude, these assholes (particularly the first two for many, many years; their pictures have been featured on Debito.org before — click on K-Y’s photo for the link) have not been just critiquing the points raised in places like Debito.org (which is fine) — they have been attacking me personally (if not also the people who “associate” with me personally) and even under-researching (if not outright lying) about our writing, alleged behaviors, even alleged thoughts. They deserve to be named and shamed — and only to the extent that we cite what they have written and said themselves (which is all I’ve linked to). They have been hoisted by their own petards. It’s not “two wrongs”. It’s naming and shaming in the right way for the right reasons.
“Racism extends considerably beyond prejudiced beliefs. The essential feature of racism is not hostility or misperception, but rather the defense of a system from which advantage is derived on the basis of race. The manner in which the defense is articulated – either with hostility or subtlety – is not nearly as important as the fact that it insures the continuation of a privileged relationship. Thus it is necessary to broaden the definition of racism beyond prejudice to include sentiments that in their consequence, if not in their intent, support the racial status quo.”
source: Wellman, David T. Portraits of White Racism. Second Edition. Cited in: “Definitions of Racism”. Center for the Study of White American Culture, Inc. 2001. 23 Dec 2004. (h/t pheeno at blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com)
@JDG – hit the nail on the head. Most of us don’t want to be *special*. We just want to be *normal*. *Special* is fine for that exotic overseas holiday, not when it’s your everyday life, day in, day out. That’s just exhausting.
@Scott “I, for one, have enjoyed many quite rewarding human interactions here in Japan because people bothered to talk to me, presumably because I look different. I feel sorry for those who would apparently prefer to be effectively shunned.”
And @Charles about the different kinds of apologists. I think there is one more sub category; the one who has no other Asian point of reference other than Japan. If one lives in other Asian countries, you will soon learn that Japan/Korea are certainly unique in their extreme behaviour in a certain way I will describe below. If you were to live in Singapore, for instance, you will notice an immediate difference partly due to it’s multicultural nature, no doubt.
Sure Scott, some people will interact seemingly positively with you. But others will shun you anyway, based on you looking different. I have never encountered such extreme behaviour except in Japan, sometimes from the same person! Maybe it is the general fear of strangers/foreigners and media-fuelled paranoia, but I have had dozens of experiences where the Japanese person was friendly the first time (presumably thinking this was a one-off meeting with a “tourist”) and then becoming considerably less friendly the second or third time we met by chance in the same supermarket, station, bar,coffee shop, neighbourhood etc.
One even asked me when I was going back to my own country. I think they find “having” to say ‘konnichiwa” or even to nodd curtly to a friendly neighborhood NJ more than once tiresome.
This kind of person has a curiousity about NJs but is only interested in the most superficial of interactions with a foreigner, so they can tell their friends they “know” a foreigner but without the social ostricization of taking it any deeper.
Other times I have been ignored by my own students. “I am sorry I wanted to read my book” being one excuse offered. Of course, if I the Sensei did that to them I am sure they would be quite offended!
@ Anon, most hilarious thing I have seen in Japan was the building caretaker coming into the school to ask if the foreigners (westerners) knew how to use the western-style toilet!
And then putting an explanation up on the wall anyway! In Japanese!
Now thats postmodern confusion in Japan.
@Oscar_6
Yeah, I have tried your strategy (with Japanese people who keep replying to me in English even after I have spoken Japanese). It can be surprisingly satisfying. Better yet, for really aggravating people, rather than just asking 「日本語でいいですか。」, go “HUH?!” several times, quite loudly so that everyone around, even the boss, can hear, and then loudly exclaim in Japanese “I’m sorry, I can’t understand what you’re saying. Can you PLEASE just speak Japanese?” (ごめんなさい。どんな話か全然分かりません！日本語でいいですか。) Turns the condescension the other way around, and since we’re gaijin whose one and only skill is English, there is no comeback! Our authority on what constitutes “good, understandable” English is absolute! BWA HA HA HA HA!
Note, though, that the latter solution only works when you really want to tear the person a new one! Because it’s rather humiliating, and shouldn’t be used against someone who is honestly trying to help you.
Scott,
Yesterday I was standing on an about-to-embark train near a door and a Japanese-looking man rushed in and asked my white skin, standing among a number of Japanese-looking passengers, in natural English “is this a shinkansen?” I quickly said “no” and he rushed off. It took me a minute of reflection to realize he was a confused tourist, probably American, seeking out an English speaker who might know what’s going on. He made a good choice. It didn’t bother me because first, I was the insider, and second, he intitiated the insider-outsider exchange, and third, it was a practically useful exchange.
While it’s true that appearance sometimes correlates to behaviors/skills, the effect of insiders acting on these is to reinforce insider/outsider status. If you think the payoff of efficient communication is worth the cost of systemic marginalization, fine, you’re free to be a racist dick. But I’m not sure you can even make the case for efficiency because…
the cult of the nihonjin is a package deal based on mostly inaccurate, essentialist stereotypes that often persist in the face of contrary evidence. It is not based on an assessment of the different tendencies of people based on where they were acculturated and how this correlates to appearance and mannerisms. (Even if it was that would be a problem, but I’m addressing Scott’s argument.) It’s a self-serving mythology and again, it’s a package deal. The guy who says haro also wrongly thinks you prefer a knife and fork to chopsticks and that “gaijins” commit more crime than “nihonjins.” (fwiw, these stereotypes, unlike the ones I criticize are 1. accurate 2. made by an outsider 3. not based on essentialist thinking 4. only apply to those who willingly accept racist nihonjin mythology)
“To suggest that people should shut that incredibly-useful response down because of a slight chance they are mistaken…is simply preposterous”
Change to “To suggest that people should shut that occasionally useful but just as often inefficient response down because even on those occasions they’re right, they’re reinforcing their dominant status…is obviously a good idea.”
Yesterday I talked to 5 on-the-job people I needed help from. Twice I communicated in Japanese start to finish and it went smoothly. Another guy said “Haro” and I used Japanese at which point he said “wow!” and we continued completely in Japanese and I got my train ticket changed. His racism didn’t get in the way of efficiency. The other two kept trying to use English even after I established that my crappy Japanese was better than their crappy English. At no point did I indicate that I wanted to or even could speak English. After I’d successfully communicated in Japanese that I wanted to find a certain person in the building, a secretary paused 5 seconds to come up with “sebansu furoa” (7th floor). “nanakai?,” I asked. “yesu,” she said. Inefficient AND racist, which is a common experience for anyone who speaks just a little Japanese.
FOr those we encounter in service industries, there is something we need to consider before getting p’ssed off. In many cases, staff are ORDERED to use English when they encounter people who look obviously foreign. It’s part of their training, and they are worried about getting in trouble with management if they are busted by (gasp) speaking Japanese with a non-Japanese looking person.
The one micro. that aggravates me is getting talked past. If I am somewhere with my wife and the staff look past me (or around me as I am fairly large) and speak to my wife. Even if I speak first, as in requesting a table for two non smoking in a restaurant, they seek confirmation from the Japanese looking person. Happens all the time in shops and the like. My wife, bless her, refuses to play. If the staff persists, she just says “talk to my husband” to them. Consternation ensues. Hell, they even try to give HER the change after I pay for something…. can’t win, can I?
— Re Paragraph 1: That’s why I wrote in my column (and it got deleted for space concerns): “And how do we know it is wrong? Because overseas “Asians” grumble aloud about being “microaggressed” like that, over time raising public awareness of the problem.” If this is true, the boss is essentially following the example I gave of management in a restaurant overseas to give any Asian-looking person a menu in Chinese. This is why the people being pigeonholed must CLAIM their own dignity and tell people to stop microaggressing.
Re Paragraph 2: No, you CAN win. Get your partner to assist. That’s the second step in the awareness-raising process (the first being your claiming your dignity) — positive reinforcement from your peers in public.
Fight Back: Excellent summation! Not to beat a dead horse, but the posts that point to the crux of the matter regarding children born and raised in Japan, I found quite moving. They are such simple pleas for acceptance. Rearticulating that plea makes this blog totally worth all the effort by Debito if even a few people have their sunglasses removed. Ditto, the articles on microaggression in the JT.
A presumption I think we should do away with: that people’s reactions to NJ and assumptions about them come from reinforcing experience. I don’t think most waiters and waitresses have really encountered that many non-Japanese-speaking people. We should remember the psychological truism that stereotypes survive counterexamples by treating counterexamples as aberrations, no matter how many counterexamples there are and how little evidence there was to support the stereotype in the first place.
I posed the restaurant example situation to my Japanese wife yesterday and she basically said the same thing as Scott. Unfortunately she hadn’t fully understood the implications of such a seemingly innocent and helpful response to such a situation. It’s a fact of life that people make judgments based solely on racial/ physical appearance. It’s not difficult to imagine why, in evolutionary terms, this may have been helpful. Today, it is of course an instinct that cannot be relied upon. The waitress/ waiters presumption that all white people speak/ read English is totally flawed. Just as I cannot presume every Asian person speaks Chinese. It may be true for a majority but there is an equally important minority who should of course be considered. It’s quite simple. No reasonable foreign person in Japan is going to get pissed off if they are given a Japanese menu in a restaurant. But, there’s going to be quite a few people, who may well be annoyed, upset, disappointed and confused, if they were to be given an English menu because they look foreign (non-Asian). I am of course talking about Japanese who have foreign parents and others from non-English speaking countries- of which there are many. Contrary to popular Japanese belief white is not synonymous with English. And yes it is an international language (as my wife pointed out) BUT non-Japanese looking is not prerequisite for speaking/ understanding English. Finally we can and do dress up or act in certain ways to have some control over what judgments others make of us. What we cannot do is change our skin colour. We have no control over this or the judgments it subjects us to. This person wears a suit so he must work in an office. That is of course a perfectly reasonable assumption. This man is black so he must listen to hip hop. That is of course an assumption which should not be made and most certainly should not be acted upon. This man appears to be non-Japanese so he must understand English. Not acceptable.
Then, Debito, why post hikoesaemon? What did he do to you other than critique you?
— Did you watch that video I linked to? (Click on his picture for it and make him happy — he gets a rise from the hits.) Then read his blog: First he claims that all this Tepido nonsense is merely “schlong measuring wars” (boy that’s an overgeneralization and a half). Then he says in that video amongst a lot of other smack (not merely critique of salient points) that he can kick my ass in Japanese (my my, what a hypocritical little dick… oops, Freudian slip.) Anyway, he’s an example of what I’m talking about in my column. That’s why.
I liked the article, but I felt some of the examples used weren’t the best to illustrate. The restaurant example I feel in particular isn’t very good. John asked where in the US east asians get Chinese only menus, here’s a short list: Irvine CA, San Gabriel CA, Rowland Heights CA, Monterrey Park CA, NYC (Chinatown), SF CA (Chinatown), Los Angeles (Chinatown). Those are all the places I’ve been given one…and they look at me weird when I ask for an English one, guess I look Chinese. They speak Chinese to me first there too, usually Mandarin, but occasionally Cantonese. In Koreatown, I get Korean first. In Little Saigon, I get Vietnamese first. I’m none of those, but my point is everyone is judged by their appearance whether they like it or not.
I think the real strength of the article is that you mention what happens after they learn you speak and read Japanese they still give you the English menu. Now that is offensive.
I think the issue at hand is: What does it mean to be Japanese? Who is Japanese? These aren’t questions their society has had to really deal with in…well, forever. My guess is the last time the Japanese expanded the concept of who is Japanese was when they officially annexed Hokkaido and Okinawa, but even now there is a reminder of who is and isn’t from Honshu. You’ll hear it on talk shows when they bring out a guest, they’ll mention he/she is from Okinawa or Hokkaido and ask if they did any of the traditional stuff. They may be looking for a caricature, but perhaps they’re really interested too and that’s a fuzzy line.
The US went through a similar expansion of what it means to be “white” during the 20th century. For example, no one who was catholic was considered “white” during the 1800’s in the US. It was only later that Italians, Irish, etc…were added to the “white” category. To my recollection, that only happened after there were enough of them in the country to constitute an economic and political force.
Most Japanese-Americans weren’t considered “American” by the vast majority of the US population until after WWII, even then I think grudgingly. They had to prove their American-ness with blood.
I don’t think you’ll get the general populace of Japan to realize you can be culturally Japanese and look NJ until a significant percentage of the total population is NJ. But honestly I expect hell to freeze over first before the old boys relax immigration enough to allow that to happen. Who knows maybe they’ll be pragmatic and not commit racial harikari.
I also don’t think the concept can get very far unless there is a level assimilation as well. This happens in the US. The proud Mexicans here who hang the Mexican flag are viewed as people who don’t want to assimilate and are looked down upon by the majority whites, well not just them, but it is an overwhelming percentage of the “white” group. Multiculturalism is not something looked at positively by the majority in nearly every country, it’s just something society learns to deal with over time because it has to.
Having said all that, it doesn’t mean you sit back and take it. Someone’s gotta push the envelope or it never changes. Anyway, that’s what amounts to my opinion so far.
When I first started learning Japanese in the 80s my sensei (an NJ actually) gave me my first ever Japanese text to read.
This was the apparently true and well-known story by a J journalist who addressed an NJ on a train in English, and was “amazed” to find out that the NJ did not speak a word of English as he was Brazilian, “but for the next 2 hours, this foreigner regaled me in fluent Japanese about his experiences in Japan. I was amazed”.
At the time I thought, “what a lame story. Wow, a non English speaking foreigner, amazing (not)”.
Now I see that my very first Japanese lesson contained an early example of othering. And taught to me by an NJ to boot!
@Flyjin
Yeah, I agree that that could be a possible eighth category. I’d like to point out, though, that in my classification system, #1 already covers most of those people.
But yeah, you’re right. I’ve known a lot of Mormon missionaries, soldiers, etc. who “love” Korea in spite of it being just one big ol’ nest of bigots (basically worse than Japan in almost way on the racism front) but those guys have no frame of reference. To them, Asia = Korea. So they fall in love with Asia, mistake their feelings of love for Asia for feelings of love for Korea, and proclaim “I love Korea!”
I urge guys like that to go and try out Taiwan, China, Singapore, even Japan (yes, Japan is more racially tolerant in general than Korea — I’m not being a Japan apologist because I acknowledge that Japan, too, needs to become more tolerant, but I’ve lived in both and Korea is far more racist). Of course these “I love Korea!!!” guys don’t listen. They just continue to put up with mediocrity, E-series visas that afford virtually no legal rights, a populace that despises them, etc. Because they don’t have any other Asian frame of reference.
In my case, I have lived in four Asian countries:
Korea: ~5 years
Hong Kong, S.A.R. of China: ~3 years
Taiwan: ~1.5 years
Japan: ~1 year
So I have many frames of reference.
In my opinion, Korea is by far the most racist.
Japan and Taiwan tie for second place. Japan gives foreigners more legal rights than Taiwan, but Taiwanese are more outgoing to foreigners than Japanese are (more people in Taiwan actually made an effort to get to know me over a long period of time).
Hong Kong is relatively cosmopolitan and probably less racist overall than Japan, Taiwan, or Korea. It has had a permanent residency system and a fairly racially diverse population (by East Asian standards) for quite a while. However, I choose to live in Japan instead of Hong Kong for a number of reasons including my concern that Mainland China will eventually fully absorb Hong Kong politically, and as an American citizen at a time when China-US relations are getting worse, I could become a victim if I live there and set up a life there.
— Thanks for the comparison, but I don’t want this discussion to get into a “this place is more racist than the other” (however determined) theme. Let’s keep it on the “motivations for Apologists” etc. threads, which you bring up in the opening of your comment saliently (but without generalizing beyond Mormons, unfortunately). Back on track.
After agreeing with what I see as the major point of the column in my post above, now for bit of (minor?) critique. Or rather, a call to be careful in applying ‘apologist theory’ to practice – to real people, that is.
In practice, I think that by speaking of a discrete group of ‘apologists’ that advertently or inadvertently works to maintain an exclusionary mindset in the general public, as opposed to a discrete group of people that try to change the status quo, one runs the risk both of overly simplifying the matter and, through polarising the debate, of being counterproductive. This risk could be easily alleviated by speaking not so much of ‘apologists’, but rather of ‘apologism’. Perhaps there may be some for whom ‘naming and shaming’ is justified and appropriate – something I will not take a position on here – but that would of course by no means be a complete solution. The point is that both Debito and Charles paint a picture of ‘apologism’ that encompasses a number of different ways of thinking about a number of different things; ways of thinking individuals can ascribe to to different degrees.
I’ll just conveniently take myself as an example.
1. Am I a ‘guestist’, and thus an apologist? I don’t know. I don’t even know if I’m currently a guest myself. When is one a guest, and when is one no longer? If one can with some accuracy be called a guest, is it wise to be careful in applying your own values to the society you’re a guest of? I believe so, while I know and accept that some believe differently. Many will call me cynical when I say that it I feel it is none of my business if a society I neither am nor aspire to be a member of engages in discrimination, but that is my viewpoint. While I believe forcing women by law to cover their faces in public is appaling, I will not attempt to change a society that does this if I neither am nor aspire to become a member of that society – and indeed, that is an aspiration I don’t have. On the other hand, do I believe it is my prerogative to decide who of foreign descent is and who isn’t a guest in Japan? No, of course not. But perhaps I could be accused of ‘guestism’ if I think that some restraint in making sweeping generalisations on ‘the Japanese and their mindset’ is appropriate if you’re not in this country for the long haul, while that should of course stop no one from voicing their concerns about microaggressions and minority disenfranchisement in general.
2. Am I a ‘closed mind apologist’? You can’t see what goes on in other people’s brains, so accept that you can neither always be sure that what you’ve experienced is a microagression or an overt act of racism, nor that a person who thinks you are being oversensitive or paranoid must be in denial – an apologist, that is. Sure, over time you may recognise a pattern in your interactions with Japanese and be justified in claiming that you are at times subjected to microaggressions in this society – i.e., you’ll recognise that certain scenarios happen to often to be a coincidence. This does not mean that your intuitions about every single interaction are correct, so be careful in writing off anyone disagreeing with you as ‘just an apologist’.
3. Charles mentions how some are dissatisfied with the immigration policy of their country of origin, and feel Japan shouldn’t make ‘the same mistakes’. I share that viewpoint to some degree. I do feel that my country of origin, The Netherlands, has made grave mistakes regarding immigration policy in the preceding decades. Does that make me deaf to the plight of minorities? Of course not.
Everyone is free to disagree with everything I say here, and you may feel that some of my viewpoints really are ‘apologetic’. My main point is that that does not make me an ‘apologist’ per se. I do not belong to a camp that is trying to fight you. Point out what you feel to be ‘apologism’, but don’t jump the gun and call everyone who partly agrees with viewpoints you claim to be ‘apologetic’ an ‘apologist’.
Now I’m definitely not saying the points brought up in the column are ‘wrong’. I would only advise everyone to be careful in their application of the tools of simplification and generalisation – tools that are often, but certainly not always useful. Perhaps this post is more of a critique of some of the regular commenters on this site than of Debito’s piece. Sometimes there really is a tendency to call anyone one doesn’t agree with an ‘apologist’, and any Japanese person who acted in a way one doesn’t like a ‘racist asshole’. Be critical, sure, but take care not to become too combative, for you’ll also chase off many of those with good intentions. Criticise viewpoints and acts, do not resort to ad hominems. Black and white can be nice in theory, but it is counterproductive in practice.
— Thanks for the critique. Two quick answers to your questions, for what it’s worth:
1) When are you no longer a “guest” in Japan? When you yourself consider Japan your “home”. And remember, what turns a Guestist into an Apologist is when he or she enforces Guestism (i.e., willful disenfranchisement of self, and claims of having no say in how things in Japan are) on other people.
2) We’re not writing off “anyone who disagrees with us” as an Apologist. They have to do a little more than that (such as try to limit our rights to make a life in Japan as we best see fit) to qualify for that badge. We’re open to criticism, critique, and self-doubt. We’re not open to people blanket-trying to tell us what to do based upon purportedly “Japanese rules” (as they see them, natch), and without taking into account our individual choices in life.
We want to be treated as individuals, not lumped into overgeneralizing groups (which you say we are in danger of doing above) and then (not coincidentally) disadvantaged, subordinated, and disenfranchised (if the Apologists get their way). The only way we will accomplish that goal is if we assert ourselves as individuals, and claim our dignity when being reflexively pigeonholed by society. And one of the ways to best understand what resistance we will receive to that otherwise noble goal is to understand the motivations of those who oppose that happening. Observation and analysis of that in itself is not ad hominem. Nor is it “black and white”. It is in fact calling for diversity of opinion and people, and sophistication in analysis.
If Debito wants to have a swing back at his detractors, then why not? This is a personal blog, created by him and he is free to do whatever he wants with it. The only problem with swinging back is that the detractors generally do not want to seriously discuss the issues, just insult, so one could be perceived as lowering oneself to their level. I don’t think Debito has done this. He spends his time on the issues. The same can’t be said for the majority of detractors.
@Debito
Hiko-nantoka’s video was painful exercise of vanity. Please warn readers before they have the chance to click next time.
Between all the mutual back slapping between him and his (I’ve been in Japan for 4 (!) years friends, he gushes out with the back handed compliments about Debito, and Debito.org, and then resumes his self-appointed role as ‘gaijin protector of Japan’. He is, of course, a hypocrite. And an apologist. No mercy. Rip him to shreds.
Just watched the above video with the Oyajis. There is nothing constructive in the piece and there are quite a few outright lies about Debito and his work. It’s a shame they are given time to share their naval gazing. What a downer!
The biggest question that I have about the apologists is ‘What’s their motivation?’
If they are so successful with their Japan lives, and the people who comment on Debito.org are such ‘bitter losers’ in life, then why do they spend so much time and effort attacking us? Surely the things we do and say could have no effect on them, so they could just write of us as ineffectual nobodies, and let us fail in life, right?
WRONG. They have carved a niche in their NJ bubbles as ‘the goofy gaijin who really loves Japan’, the ‘gaijin clown; he’s crazy, but harmless (ahh, so cute)’.
What Debito.org and Debito is working for is a more grown up and less exploitative dynamic for NJ in Japan. Achieving that would tear down the curtain that the apologists (like the Wizard of Oz) use to preserve the tatamae of their ‘mister Tom gaijin’ lives. They have made a career out of it, so they are aggressive in resisting change.
Seriously though folks, look at the photos of apologists that Debito has provided for us.
Are we honestly to believe that they should be taken as the poster boys of successful assimilation?
Two look like they are playing ‘the gaijin clown’ (when Japanese understand that I don’t want to be patronized and be a ‘gaijin clown’, it’s amazing how quickly they lose all interest in the outside world and run back to the safety of the ‘myth’ of Japanese uniqueness (‘ahh, gaijin muzukashii na~’), and the third is just the very picture of contented fulfillment, isn’t he?
Like Scott #1, if that’s ‘living the dream’, then the bar is waaaay too low.
@Charuzu (No. 3)
“In other countries (Netherlands as one) being a foreigner is not viewed as a disability by most.”
Speaking from personal experience, I don’t think my foreignness was ever seen as a disability, and if it was, it certainly didn’t stop me from making career moves that came in useful later both while I was there and after I had moved away to Japan.
However, if you are going to offer up examples of integration that Japan can follow, you may wish to rethink the Netherlands. This country has recently seen its governing coalition propped up by an anti-immigration party. Since 2001, moreover, immigration has been a highly contentious issue. Indeed, probably the main cleavage in Dutch politics. Like most Japanese, most Dutch people are tolerant of foreigners, but, as in Japan, and all countries, there are plenty of right-wing nutbags to go around.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geert_Wilders
— Stay on track, please.
Reading the article, I made a quick mental leap to “Charisma Man”. I originally dismissed the thought, but having read the comments here, it does make sense.
Many of the apologists would pass the Charisma Man test.
— Maybe the charismatic ones. But probably not the dorky ones. So they beat up on the Charisma Men instead (and/or mimic their behaviors — either way to finally get an inflated sense of self).
Debito-san
Although you have not changed my opinion about posting the photos I respect the fact you let my post through and chose to respond. We still disagree on this issue, but as others have pointed out this is your blog site and what you choose to post is obviously, up to you.
I read both blogs, and yes, there are people attacking you personally. I think it is obvious that anyone that has read the Tepido web site objectively (prior to its recent change) could see someone had a bone to pick with you. The fact that the Tepido site has changed (in a positive way) speaks more to the fact that you are right in this regard and thus the photos, in my opinion, were not necessary and brings the debate a level down rather than accomplishing anything positive. I experienced a few of those personal attacks when I posted here about Fukushima. I will continue to read both sites.
Regarding the micro-agression issues. I agree this exists in some form and since your article seemed to generate a great deal of interest it is obviously an issue for some people in Japan (and elsewhere) so I do not deny it exists. My concern, however is that the majority of these interactions are done with no ill intent and if someone takes each of these interactions too personally they are then limiting the scope of their interactions in Japan. Your point about the unconscious processes of alienation is well taken and in a homogenious culture this will tend to exist to a much greater degree than in a culturally diverse environment (this some of the posters references to other homogeneous societies…Korea, China, etc.).
On the other hand I have read alot of posts that seem to overly generalize Japanese people and my personal experiences differ than many of the complaints I have read (I am NOT saying that those that register complaints are invalid, or do not have a point).
In your response to Rudy (#31) you state that, “We want to be treated as individuals, not lumped into overgeneralizing groups”. That is one item where I totally agree with you and I often probably take it to excess at times. However, individualism is not something that is looked upon as being a positive trait by many Japanese (especially those that were part of the Showa economic boom) so is this something that can be changed about Japan (and should it be changed)? I say it would make Japan a better place (economically and as a place to live) but I am sure there are those that would disagree with me.
Over the years that I have lived here I do see many of the younger folks exhibiting more individualistic tendencies and there does seem to be a slow change underway. Also the Fukushima issue (regardless as to where one stands) has severely reduced the trust of many Japanese in their own government (I know many people I work with, all technical type folks, that have said things to me about TEPCO and the J-Gov. they would have never said over a year ago). The events of 3-11 coupled with the current economic environment are definitely causing alot of people to question the “old guard” structure that exists in Japan.
Personally I have noticed that as a foreigner in Japan, I been treated alot better after 3-11. I do not know if others have had this experience or not…..less “micro-agressions”.
Finally, I stated in a previous post if people dislike it so much why not leave? Let me clarify again….If people are in Japan and do not have ties binding them here (family, economic necessity, etc.) and have the wherewithall, why not leave? That is much different than saying sarcastically “If you dont like it just leave”. Our life on this planet is short so we should try to spend as much time as possible being positive and happy.
ON THE OTHER HAND, I totally get that some people here have kids (especially those that have bi-racial kids) and you want to ensure that in the future they are treated equally as Japanese citizens, regardless of their difference. So yes…that is something definitely worth fighting for and if I was in that situation I would do the same. I keep going back to your Otaru lawsuit and the fact that you have 2 kids that were treated differently because of their appearance was apalling and totally unexcuseable (that a grown man would treat 2 little girls differently based on appearance).
With all this in mind my fear is that someone with limited knowledge of Japanese language and culture will take the micro-agression issue and overapply it and read too much into what is going on in a given situation (I plead guilty of doing that myself during my first 4 or 5 years in Japan…yeah it took me that long to figure it out).
I am concerned about the use of the word “apologist” as it could end up being overly applied and your original post (without the follow up explanation to my post) could easily lead one to believe that you are painting many people with that label with a broad brush.
I do not totally agree with you on the “micro-agression” issue but I am reading your post with an open mind as well as what others have to say. I also found Rudy’s post (31) and your reply to be a good read. And yes, anyone stating we are “Guests” in Japan after paying taxes, participating in the economy, owning businesses, etc. is full of &%$#! Guests do NOT PAY TAXES.
Finally I still disagree strongly with the posting of the pictures. You will have a hard time convincing me on that one, but heck I am still going to keep reading and I might even learn something.
Cheers
PS – I hope your posting in Hawaii is going well. If you have a chance get to the north shore of Kauai (Hanalei in particular). One of the most beautiful and mellow places in the world!
To add my perspective:
I believe that this discussion is largely pointless.
Jim Di Griz#35 asks:
“The biggest question that I have about the apologists is ‘What’s their motivation?’”
I think that one should consider whether the phenomenon exists, in light of the xenophobia, racism, aggression, social isolation that exists for many NJ that they develop a victim syndrome, similar to the “Stockholm Syndrome” in which they adopt the attitudes and views of their oppressors.
Stress affects different individuals differently, but it is certainly possible that in the face of xenophobia, racism, aggression, social isolation that some would suffer from a collaborator syndrome.
As such, a search for rationality or debate with such victims is both futile and unhelpful, as it will only fuel their desire to be seen by their oppressors as being a loyal collaborator.
While many would not so react, it is predictable that there will be some who in the face of mistreatment embrace the perspective of their tormentors.
The phenomenon is not well understood, but feelings of inadequacy often play a part.
However, affected individuals are unlikely to be a threat to themselves or others; they merely disociate from reality as a means to escape from that reality.
They will of course vehemently deny all that, that is what makes it a disorder, albeit a rather mild one that just makes them bisarre and irritating to other NJ.
This is not to say that everyone who perceives low levels of racism directed towards themselves is disordered; there are instances in which individual NJ will experience will suffer little racism.
This is similar to the notion that not every gay in my former residence in Saudi Arabia is oppressed, although the bulk are.
However, there clearly are levels at which one is not merely offering a different perspective, but really engaging in wholesale denial of facts. Such thinking is disordered and thus not amenable to discussion.
And, there exist some studies that suggest that blogs self-select for those who are more intense and more disordered.
In conclusion, therefore, I would urge that there not be undue attention on those offering views that contradict reality.
There really is xenophobia and racism towards NJ in Japan, and such attitudes are clearly normative in Japan.
There clearly are individuals in Japan who do not hold such views, of course.
But, there really is little to be done by discussion or debate with those who suffer from such a malady, just as one does not hold debates with those suffering from clinical depression that their feelings are not reality based.
Victims of this disordered thinking must themselves choose to seek help — a blog is no substitute for individualised treatment.
JDG has hit it out of the park right there! I don’t know a single NJ who hasn’t had to compromise their identity and become ‘the clown’ in order to gain acceptance from their ‘benign overlords’. I think it’s a central tenet in the apologists psychological makeup.
Certainly this post is a great first step towards something I mentioned in an earlier comment about a ‘rogues gallery’ for apologists. The next step for NJ rights as a whole is to deal with this cancer that is spreading from the inside and is threatening the movement. There’s been some real momentum lately, a groundswell of support for Debito and a recognition that the apologist problem has been going on for too long.
Debito has made great strides for NJ rights over the years and even the apologists have reaped the benefits! Their response? To criticize the man personally and disagree with him at every turn.
Hello all,
Unfortunately my professional responsibilities prevent me from spending much time on these sorts of interactions, but I’ll take a moment to reply to some of the more thought-provoking comments that have been made about what I wrote:
To Jim Di Griz: Jim suggests that I am “setting the bar for meaningful interaction pretty low.” Jim, I’m not sure why you would think from what I wrote that I considered a conversation that started and ended discussing my prowess with chopsticks to be meaningful. I would not. The conversations I have with other people often evolve beyond the mundane into the quite interesting. However, if that conversation doesn’t start at all (and that starter could be something utterly banal such as “how are you?”), then the chances it will ever develop into meaningful interaction are precisely zero.
To Anonymous, who pointlessly posted a link to a video I’m in, and then needlessly commented on my physical appearance: You do recover and ask a good question: “Do you think children who are born and raised in Japan…will enjoy being treated…differently than the average Japanese person is treated?” To that, I must comment: if, as you say, these children are culturally and linguistically Japanese, then I question to what extent they will actually be “treated differently.”
I have three children here in Japan, ages 16, eight, and five. All of them are what would commonly be called “mixed race.” None of them, in school or in public, have ever suffered any meaningful discrimination because of their physical appearance. Certainly, when they meet someone for the first time, questions may be asked. But as the other party interacts with them, and quickly discovers that they’re entirely “normal,” then any differentiated treatment vanishes quickly. If you define “treated differently” to include those simple initial questions such as “where are you from?” or something similar, that I must say we’ll have to agree to disagree. My definition of “treatment” runs far deeper than what subject was used to initiate human contact.
If you want to be concerned about kids being “treated differently,” then I suggest you turn your attention elsewhere, such as to the far more significant slights that must be suffered by children who are overweight, handicapped, homely, dressed oddly, very shy, amputees, wheelchair users, etc. Or for that matter, to the adults who are the same. Somehow, in the light of such real problems, being overly-complimented on my linguistic ability, or having to turn down unnecessary menus seems like a laughably trivial “aggression” and this impression is not changed by adding the prefix “micro.”
The differing gravity with which I and some of the other “apologists” view these sorts of interactions is at the core of our disagreement. What we view as simple and understandable questions by friendly passerby, others here appear to view as a catastrophic trampling of their human rights. Honestly, it appears that some are actively seeking out ways to be offended. What ever happened to “don’t sweat the little stuff?”
The extreme difference in how we’re viewing the same interaction is perhaps best illustrated by Devin Lenda in his reply. In #22, Devin starts well by relating a useful anecdote that illustrates exactly the kind of simple interaction I’ve been discussing. But then he goes completely off the rails at the bottom of his post when he casually defines a Japanese person as racist simply because the gentleman used the word hello to him and then said “wow” when he demonstrated he could speak Japanese. That’s probably the most preposterous definition of a racist I’ve ever heard in my life. That would be like describing the act of mowing my lawn as “genocide.” Ironically, the definition, or description of some aspects of racism that Devin himself posted in #17 seems quite at odds with his flippant assignment of the term to an innocent train window clerk.
The effort that Devin and some others seem to be making to frame all of this as some kind of societal power struggle, the efforts of one group to maintain an advantageous position over another strike me as a classic case of 考えすぎ (thinking too hard). That guy trotting over with the English menu is not relishing his contribution to some to grand struggle to keep the barbarians in their place; rather, he just doesn’t want to waste time going go back across the restaurant and grabbing the English menu when he’s probably asked for it.
The funny thing to me is that the same action which so many here are condemning so loudly would be wildly praised by my (American) mother if she were visiting me in Japan. She would complement the Japanese as being perceptive of her needs and having excellent customer service.
As for me, I just wave the waiter off and go back to enjoying my life here in what is clearly one of the best societies in the world to live.
I agree that we want to be seen as individuals. What is going to make fighting microagressions an even more uphill slog in Japan is that the Japanese more naturally think in terms of groups and associate themselves as part of a group, not just foreigners, to a greater extent than many other nations.
The restaurant examples make me think that much of that is an arigata meiwaku reaction to being in an area where there are more foreigners. When I lived out in inaka, I never once received an English menu as there more than likely wasn’t one to begin with. Everyone spoke to me in Japanese first as well (except for the Harros from school children.) Then you have areas like where I live now (close to a US Military installation) where not only am I assumed by Japanese to be an American English speaker, but also a member of the US Army! Again, a stereotyping/grouping reaction to the population of the area in question.
I, like others, fear this will happen to my children if they don’t “look Japanese enough.” That’s reason enough for me to push back against this behavior, even though I feel it isn’t done out of any strong sense of racism.
At some point, I think I’ll submit to this blog the results of a class discussion topic I have used with advanced students: “What is a Japanese”, where I used different profiles of people and asked the students to identify “who is Japanese” and then explain their criteria for choosing. If there’s an interest, I’ll bash that out on the keyboard later.
So Scott admits that he is constantly othered and has to work diligently to make any kind of headway in a conversation and that his children also suffer constant ‘othering’ due to their physical appearance and still thinks he lives in the most wonderful society in the world!
Thanks for allowing this nonsense through Debito, to show us the kind of willful ignorance it is that we are up against. I think Scott certainly deserves a slot in the gallery!
— No he does not. He engages in civil discourse, unlike those undesirables pictured above. Remember, we’re all entitled to opinions. But we are also allowed to hold those opinions without having our character impugned or apparent right to exist within a society denied. Scott is a good friend and a longtime respected difference of opinion holder. It’s nice to have him back.
Okay, now play the ball, not the person, everyone.
Scott. It was good of you to post again. I am tired of reading and hearing posts where comments are attributed to posters that have clearly never been made. Nowhere did anyone say they have suffered a “catostrophic trampling of human rights.” I’m also tired of people saying that it would be better to put efforts into other areas – or as you suggest – into the rights of other disadvantaged groups – like the physically challenged. This thread is about microaggression. I’m glad your kids, in your opinion, have not overly suffered from this as a result of their physical appearance. But to suggest that your fortunate situation means we should put our eneries elsewhere is a deflection of the most elementary kind. Also, if you don’t feel that mixed background people are not treated differently, then you must be unaware of how mixed background personalities are treated (often by their own choice) as clowns for entertainment.
Finally, you seem to have missed the point that Debito and experts continually make about microaggression – that it is often unintentional and not consciously racist – just that it can appear so on some occasions. I would suggest that perhaps you are “thinking too hard” (no pun intended) to downplay the affects of microaggression. Again, it was good of you to come back and explain your feelings a bit more deeply.
Charazu: I loved your post #40. Yeah, maybe we should not commnicate directly with those so afflicted – just go around them toward the goal. Your subtle irony is very humorous and it made me laugh.
You totally refused to answer the question, Scott:
“Do you think children who are born and raised in Japan… will enjoy being treated… differently than the average Japanese person is treated?”
First, you completely dodged the question by falsely claiming that people who are visually minority races in Japan (e.g. people who are obviously not-Japanese-race, and people who are obviously half-non-Japanese-race) are NOT treated differently in Japan: as long as they have 100% Japanese culture and 100% Japanese language.
Not only was the refusal to answer the question evasive, but your diversionary claim is patently false. People of minority races in Japan ARE treated differently, even when they have 100% Japanese culture and 100% Japanese language.
Your “half-gaijin” children ARE already being treated differently already (for example, at school your children are being seen as, and being treated as, and sometimes even being outright labeled as, “Gaijin”, whether they tell you about this fact or not, whether you can admit this fact to yourself or not, this is the reality of being visually marked with 白人DNA or 黒人DNA in Japan) and your “half-gaijin” children WILL be treated differently in the future as well.
Your “half-gaijin” children WILL someday be the only ones in their party of 30 who the waiter hands Non-Japanese menus, and the surrounding 27 people WILL laugh at the fact that your “half-gaijin” children are obviously seen as, and treated as, Non-Japanese, due to their 白人DNA.
Language perfection and culture perfection will NOT magically prevent your 白人DNA marked children from being seen as, and treated as, Non-Japanese: the waiter will simply hand your children the Non-Japanese menu. And then, your children will embarrassingly be forced to explain, using perfect Japanese language and perfect Japanese culture of course, that a Non-Japanese menu is not required, and yet STILL the waiter will ignore the perfect Japanese coming out of your children’s mouths and the waiter will CONTINUE to talk to your children using English.
This has been shown again and again, when spoken by a 白人, or 黒人, or ハーフ白人, or ハーフ黒人： their perfect Japanese language and perfect Japanese culture is ignored and answered with English.
So, after you falsely claimed that your “half-gaijin” children “AREN’T being treated differently due to race, and WON’T be treated differently” due to race, you then went on to rudely claim that that even if they ARE treated differently due to race, and even if they WILL be treated differently due to race: this race-based-discriminatory-treatment 人種差別 is “not meaningful.”
To you, a waiter handing you a Non-Japanese menu, based on the fact that your DNA isn’t 100% Japanese, seems like a “laughably trivial” thing, because you see yourself as Non-Japanese, and you ENJOY being treated as Non-Japanese.
The question, which isn’t going to go away, is: how will your born-in-Japan children (who naively think they are thus “Japanese”) feel when a waiter hands them a Non-Japanese menu, based on the fact that their DNA isn’t 100% Japanese?
“Do you think children who are born and raised in Japan… will enjoy being treated… differently than the average Japanese person is treated?”
The honest answer is obviously, “No, I don’t think children who are born and raised in Japan will enjoy being treated differently than the average Japanese person is treated.”
The fact that you can’t write an honest answer to a simple question shows that you are denying, minimizing, making excuses for, and laughing at, the racism your children will face for the rest of their lives here in Japan.
You are doing exactly what Debito’s article has pointed out. Your words and face (which you proudly post) deserve to be seen and known. You are part of the problem, you are not part of the solution. Someday your children will open up to you and cry about the racist acts they have to endure here in Japan. Until then, you remain, either unconsciously or willfully, in a state of delusion. Wake up Scott! Your children need you to see the problem, admit the problem, and work to solve the problem.
The problem is: here in Japan, in 2012, most Japanese are STILL considering anyone carrying “Non-Japanese-DNA” as OUTSIDERS, and treating these “gaijins” “half-gaijins” and “quarter-gaijins” differently. It’s called Racial Discrimination. Do you understand?
This drama led to me making my first ever comment on Tepido the other day, so it only seems appropriate that I also make my first comment on this blog.
On the topic of micro-aggression, I’m open to the theory in its genesis, that people in who suppress prejudices towards other races may betray those prejudices unconsciously through ignorant and/or patronizing compliments. I’m even open to the idea that it can apply to Japanese greeting gaijins with chopstick and nihongo-jouzu compliments in certain cases (just as I’m sure it can apply to foreigners in Japan working with or teaching Japanese).
The point of digression I choose to take is whether this is the subliminal state at work in EVERY, or even a significant minority of cases where those well known, annoying, patronizing, and ignorant compliments are made. I commend Debito on how he identified the phenomenon of the patronizing compliment, and on how he picked up and linked this phenomenon to the pyschological theory on microaggression. Indeed, as I said in the video, it is the eloquence of column that concerned me, insofar as I think it could be taken as convincing enough for people to accept without making their own research into the topic and forming an their own independent conclusion. Which I think is a compliment to Debito’s skills as a writer, and as a theorist.
However, at its crux, beyond a limited number of cases of people who genuinely believe in and suppress views of Japanese racial superiority to Caucasians, that such compliments are a subliminal manifestation of that suppresed prejudice. I believe, based on my experience living and working here, that the mindset behind the compliments is that the compliments are intended as icebreakers or niceties, made deliberately predictable as a way of easing into a conversation with a foreigner. Japanese use similar boring, ignorant niceties with one another (blood types, stereotypes about people from different prefectures, etc.). I don’t believe that this is a practice specifically applied to foreigners (even though the specific phrases used sometimes are) and that it emerges from a subliminal mindset of racial superiority, at least not most of the time.
Who is right? I don’t know. Who knows what is going on in the psyche of another person? All we can do is observe, process and theorize. I can accept that other people can live here and form different views and interpretations of the same things.
My biggest concern about this observation of Debito was however the negative impact it can have on first contact conversations between new arrivals and Japanese – what kind of a conversation are you supposed to have with someone you think has greeted you with a racial slur? If I accepted this theory as presented without alternate positions and personal experience to balance it, I would not have formed any of the friendships I have with my closest Japanese friends and colleagues, and my quality of life here would be greatly diminished as a result.
There are deeper issues behind this raised in this blog above and not the original Japan Times column, that I know go to the heart of your activism – what about when chopstick compliments are passed on to our children? I asked a good friend who raised her son in rural Kyoto with her Japanese doctor son the same question once. Her thoughts were that if your kid isn’t going to get a hard time for looking half, it may be because he is a nerd. Or fat. Or ugly. Or whatever… You can’t protect your kids from everything in the world, only raise them with the love and confidence to deal with it themselves.
I admire and respect your drive to improve Japanese society, but over the years living here (and becoming an “apologist” I guess), I’ve become squeamish at the way some foreigners ignorantly, contemptuously, or even maliciously beat up on Japanese over these things without incorporating an understanding of the mindset that it comes from. I’ve met Japanese who have had unpleasant experiences with foreigners in these kinds of situations, where such behaviour has only served to foster separation and mistrust. I think you can’t effect positive internalized change without showing understanding. You can browbeat someone into not doing something you don’t like any more, but that isn’t to my mind the best way to foster deep cosmopolitanism. Only cantonized multiculturalism, as exists in many western societies where different racial and cultural communities live together but separately, which I think shouldn’t be the goal here.
Anyway, that’s the philosophical/intellectual bit over.
I try to avoid personal drama, although I’ll admit occasional hypocrisy, including in moments on the video you linked, where I let my guard down while talking about the topic at hand and generally about Debito (note that I did try to put things fairly and pay credit where I sincerely believe it is due, and I halted talk relating to your personal situation). My “schlong comparing” thing is something I use for where people compare standards on completely meritless, mainly testosterone driven criteria – I joked that comparing Japanese language ability falls into this category but gave a childish response to the question nonetheless. I also wrote a blog over a year ago putting the majority of interaction I observed between forum members here and Tepido fans as being in that same category of testosterone driven schlong comparing than meangingful discussion, and hence why I never posted here or there. I can’t remember when or why I followed the Tepido twitter (or indeed, the Debito twitter either…), but I guess I did it either when I came across the site or at some time finding the articles it posted links to as Japan related and interesting. Ken Yasumoto asked me about being linked with Tepido, and I told him I think that the back and forth personal stuff that seems to dominate both sites is really just “schlong comparing” and seems to be mostly a waste of time. That said, Debito obviously has no qualms about coming back purely on a personal basis, coming back with “apologist”, linking and discrediting me in his eyes by associating me with Tepido, and suggesting that my friendship with Loco was tokenistic (an interesting jibe from a race activist…). He’s entitled to his views, but for a guy who is capable of putting together lucid and intelligent arguments, it was disappointing to get that kind of a response.
“Apologist” btw is a lazy response, the inverse of “Japan Hater”, both terms being a Japan Blogger equivalent of “Nazi”. It’s an intellectual cop out. I think people that Japan Haters call “Apologists” and that Apologists call “Japan Haters” are generally motivated by a common interest in and concern for Japan. It’s a lazy, emotive and categorically dismissive way of avoiding legitimate debate.
Anyway, yes, while dismissing schlong comparing, I also admit I do it myself occasionally. Yes, video blogging has an element of vanity and self gratification (as indeed does writing, blogging and forum commenting). That’s all fair comment. My hope is that we can put the drama aside (as Loco invited us both do – not something I asked for) to get to the crux of the topic at hand. My thought is that there are valid contributions and additions that can be made to this debate from multiple sides, and in the end, thoughtful debate can result in a stronger and more applicable theory. Peace
— Maybe. Thanks for the reasoned response (albeit a pretty lousy summary of the definitions and the issues in my columns).
It still doesn’t get you beyond your clear lie about “no connection to Tepido whatsoever” (click to expand):
A Twitter connection is still a connection, and most people have the good sense not to be associated with Tepido (at the time of the scan only twelve people ever signed up after all those years):
You’re still up there now, just checked. Even though Tepido as a Stalker Site is dead. Ding dong.
(And you are not connected to the Debito Twitter, so don’t try to lie there either.)
Nor does your “reasoned” response above get you beyond your ad hominem nastiness (the video is but one sample) and pretty consistent (not “occasional”) hypocrisy within your MO. (“Thoughtful debates” from you in light of that video?? Break choudai!)
For example, don’t try to turn the tables on me with snarky tones of “disappointment” with my “obvious” lack of “qualms about coming back purely on a personal basis”. I do have qualms. Serious ones. Which is I’ve been taking shit from you guys for years and years now without responding in kind, just focusing on the issues while you focused on my schlong. I just kept working away building up a case (or rather, have you pricks build your own case — Tepido’s stalking of Debito.org Commenters was the tipping point) in the court of public opinion, which finally got your ilk to stop it. (It’s also the reason why you’re responding here — you can’t ignore it or me and clearly don’t want to be associated with these creeps.)
So now don’t look in the camera with the afureteiru doe eyes and say, “Gosh, why me?” You run with dogs, you get bit.
Now get lost and take your personal issues back to your own forum. You’ve been figured out, and you’ve been served. Goodbye.
I find it amazing that Anonymous knows exactly how Scott’s children think, how they are treated, how they will be treated in the future, how much they will suffer, and how deluded Scott is as a parent for listening to his own children – one of whom is 16 according to Scott’s very own words. He even has the gall to call them naive for considering themselves Japanese!
On top of that, he constantly refers to Scott’s kids as ‘half-gaijin’, which, according to Debito’s previous Just Be Cause, is the same as calling them ‘half-N word’. All this to project a very hostile and denigrating image onto Scott’s children to prop up a ridiculous straw man argument that all Japanese are racist.
That he also repeatedly puts this in terms of DNA is simply unbelievable because he’s also indirectly commenting on genetic purity, an extremist point of view that has no place on a blog dedicated to making Japan a more open and welcome place to non-ethnic Japanese.
— I agree. Anonymous, I warned about civility. Do that again and your comments will not be approved.
@ Hikosaemon
Wow that’s some apology…
Clearly you think that the new people who arrive “all starry-eyed” on the shores of Japan – need videos from people like you to help us see the way?
Its nice that you feel that you “become squeamish at the way some foreigners ignorantly, contemptuously, or even maliciously beat up on Japanese over these things without incorporating an understanding of the mindset that it comes from”, but who made it your job to police the interactions of Japanese and foreigners?
I don’t think you have anyone to apologize to but maybe yourself…YOU posted that video on the internet, you took that pic of yourself, and (hello – maybe you need some policing) YOU are responsible for what you say and do..
of course, you can and are allowed to apologize later – but it seems to me that you’re doing that here because you can’t take the heat – or hey have any real conviction. When its not “funny” anymore – then apologize?
Funny how no one commented when Loco posted that same pic of you on his blog…
You also had no issues with putting up a link to Debito’s article on your blog…perhaps the drama you created generated more than your regular 2+ google likes…
Consider his link now to your video a gift of more traffic…
and Debito – I’m glad you are fighting back. I’ve been bullied by those sites too and its time that someone outed the bullies and made them accountable for what they post in a public forum.
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