Forum - View topic
NEWS: Tarō Asō Again in the Picture to become Japanese PM

Hoo Booy! I really didn't want to start a political argument, I was just using McCain as a convenient example of how racism is not obvious in America. What McCain said was obviously racist. But the individual reactions to what he said reflect a less obvious ethnic/cultural bias in our country.

The Xenos, what do you think would have happened if McCain had used the "N" word? Would you forgive him? Would America forgive him? DEFINITELY NOT. That is a career ending word.

But is it career ending because people are actually sympathetic to the feelings and plight of African Americans? Or is it because its just a reflexive response?

Why are people more ready to forgive a man who uses the "G" word than the "N" word? What does that reflect of us?

I think it shows that people gauge racism by a check list, rather than by actual values. They just haven't learned that the word "gook" is a terrible, ugly, dehumanizing word. It troubles me that people have to be told on a case by case basis what is racist, rather than having the innate feelings to figure it out for themselves.

Also, yes, I'm sure if I spent 3 years being tortured by the Vietkong, I probably WOULD become a racist.

So yes, it makes sense he'd use that terrible word. But the fact is, he is a public figure, he could become president, he used it in public, and no one really gave a damn.

Instead they said "oh it's ok, you know, he was tortured. He's earned the right to use that word. Anyway, he was only talking about the BAD Asians. And he sort of apologized, so it's fine."

I'm don't want this discussion to be about McCain, but rather how easily people forgave him for his slip up. I believe this tenuously relates to Aso, because in the US we only tend to hear from him when it relates to Manga or its another CRAZY ASS quote denying the evils of imperial Japan. But in Japan that stuff probably gets lost among the daily flow of life, just as these political slip ups get lost in the US.

I think these things need to be discussed. We shouldn't be afraid of being too "pc" and we also shouldn't be afraid of being labeled "racist". We should have honest open discussions, even if it means venturing out of our comfort zones as we are doing now.

So thanks for your comments. I'm not trying to upset you, and I know if we were talking in person, rather than over the internet, we'd probably be getting better insights from one another and getting along just fine.

Oh so now McCain's a racist because he referred to a set of specific individual people by a racial slur? Wow. You're sure quick to toss around your own slurs.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

It's not even defending McCain that I'm trying get across here. It's that there's a whole other prejudice going on here. Some people are so quick to label someone as a racist, they miss that they're using the same prejudice to label people as the people using racial slurs are.

Plus, if anything, this example of McCain using that slur shows an example of how racism is obvious. Here a leader flat out said a racial slur. He not slyly saying that war crimes never happened, as is the example we're talking about. McCain using that racial slur contrasts what Aso has said.

As for comparing his use of that word against Asians to the slur against blacks, it doesn't work. You're comparing it to something that never happened. Plus you and other totally ignore the context and who he was talking about. He wasn't talking about all Asians, he talked about his captors specifically. Plus, as I said earlier, the word was an unfortunate part of the war our troops were sadly tossed into that was engrained into their head.

Again, many people are too quick with their own slurs and labels. If you say that word, you're automatically racist, not matter the context? What kind of close minded thinking is that? If you ask me that's an ouroboros of thinking that just leads to more prejudice.

You know it's funny. A friend who says he's liberal constantly uses racial slurs. He maybe thinks because he's a minority, it's okay. It gets rather weird. He affectionately calls a couple friends by mixing in the g and n words into their nicknames. It's.. really weird.

Anyway, that's not the issue here and it never was. We're not talking about the simple and outright use of racial slurs. We're talking about underlying racial overtones of politicians. Again, McCain's slip in talking about his experience in Vietnam is the opposite of that. We were talking about Aso having nationalistic views and comments to the point of disturbing racial overtones.

	Anime News Network Forum Index -> Site-related -> Talkback	All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4
Page 4 of 4

Forum - View topicNEWS: Tarō Asō Again in the Picture to become Japanese PM

Forum - View topic
NEWS: Tarō Asō Again in the Picture to become Japanese PM