Groups Sue to Change Name of 'Jap Road'

[omae mona]

Well, we haven't had a discussion about the "J Word" in at least a month, but thankfully this timely story has just come along.

Groups Sue to Change Name of 'Jap Road'
Reuters, Wed Dec 3

DALLAS (Reuters) - Several civil rights groups have filed a discrimination complaint trying to get a small community in southeast Texas to remove a racial slur from its city maps by changing the name of its "Jap Road."
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The three-mile stretch of road in Fannett, near Beaumont, has been around for about 100 years. It was named to honor a Japanese family who moved to the area and helped introduce the region to rice farming.
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A similar effort to change the name of the road 10 years ago was met by stiff resistance among local residents, and even some of the descendants of the original Japanese settlers.

http://pws.prserv.net/JACL_Houston/Roads.htm






Is Jap Lane next?

[Caustic Saint]

What will become of the resident of Slope County, North Dakota?



Are they going to have to change their addresses too?

[GargoyleTS]

And will they force helicopter blades to go "Italian-Italian-Italian" instead of "wop-wop-wop"? How far will they go? Is anyone safe? WHAT KIND OF WINE GOES WITH DOLPHIN???

Will we ever answer these questions that burn in everyone's minds? Who know's that?

[omae mona]

OTOH, here in Japan, you can live in this monthly mansion with little fear of a lawsuit. And cheap, too!

[Big Booger]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3243656.stm

Hard drive terms, slave and master have been axed.. which is utterly comical..

GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK.

[kami gaijin]

All I can really say about this topic: HUMANITY IS DOOMED!!!

Have these PC idiots gone insane? They named the road to honor usefull people who did something noteworthy. And now they want to change it?!? Excuse me, but isn't that an insult to the same people they are trying to protect?

I thing the movie PCU should be a mandatory study coarse(six credit hours, yippie!) for all higher education students in America.

Don't mind me; I'm probably drunk, alone, and angry right now. But don't worry...you know what I'm going to do tommorrow night? The same thing I do every night: Try to take over the world...

[Dood_Mon_Dang_]

Ugh.. damn politically correct bastards....

[Robato]

If the road was named nigger or kike would you guys have a different opinion?

[Caustic Saint]

If the road was named nigger or kike would you guys have a different opinion?

No, I'd move there, just so I could tell people my address over and over and say, "What?!? It's where I live, dude."

[GargoyleTS]

If the road was named nigger or kike would you guys have a different opinion?

Not this again. Please refer to articles:
http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4088
http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4108
http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3709

And yes, I would. Did you read the story though? Hmmm, they named Jap road BEFORE the term Jap was turned into a racial slur by the United States, so is it still racist?

[Big Booger]

If the road was named nigger or kike would you guys have a different opinion?

Always the devil's advocate.

If the people on the street don't give a shit about the damn road name, that should be all that matters...

To subject them to outside influence is beyond me. This isn't a national scheme to make everything PC...

This should be handled locally by the locals and town officials living there.

The point that it was named that way to honor the people living there, seemingly has been overlooked to make this story sensationalized... to draw more clicks to a website or for wackos to turn their tube on and pay more attention.

Native Americans objected to the use of the word sqaw in names of places and things, among other things..

But I think when we start giving in to groups who get offended, the question has to be raised, when will it ever stop? If we tell them to fuck off, when they come calling for a change... they'll eventually give and get over it.

Words are powerful, but so is the ability to ignore something that bothers you.

[Robato]

And yes, I would. Did you read the story though? Hmmm, they named Jap road BEFORE the term Jap was turned into a racial slur by the United States, so is it still racist?

yep I read the story

The Anti-Defamation League, Japanese American Citizens League and others filed a discrimination complaint Tuesday on behalf of two Japanese-Americans with two U.S. government agencies asking for them to suspend paying federal tax dollars to Jefferson County in Texas until the county renames Jap Road.

Appearently Japanese American Citizens find the word hurtful and dont want to pay taxes in that area until they change the name.

Over the years, the name has remained the same but the meaning of "Jap" has changed to become a racial slur.

I wouldnt want to live in a city with a road or street called "gaijin increase crime" even if it meant something else 100 years ago. Would you? I sure wouldnt want to pay taxes to repave the road.

Anyway, Im not flaming (disclaimer incase someone wants to get pissed)

If the people on the street don't give a shit about the damn road name, that should be all that matters....

but they do....two japanese americans are offended who live there. That was the only reason why I mentioned it

Native Americans objected to the use of the word sqaw in names of places and things, among other things..

But I think when we start giving in to groups who get offended, the question has to be raised, when will it ever stop? If we tell them to fuck off, when they come calling for a change... they'll eventually give and get over it.

Words are powerful, but so is the ability to ignore something that bothers you.

I see your point. You are right about your statement "Words are powerful, but so is the ability to ignore something that bothers you."

I dont feel however that the Japanese American citizens have to pay taxes there and put up with driving up and down "jap" street everyday to work though. I wouldnt want to be in that situation if I were in their shoes.

If I were in their place I wouldnt feel so bad about "jap" street if they added a honkey, nigger, kike, spik and wetback road though...I mean after all a lot of whites, blacks and hispanics have done a lot for America. Lets all be equal.

I see your point in people being over pc about everything....but then again, I am not japanese american and dont have to worry about such things....the street name doesnt directly effect me.

[Caustic Saint]

yep I read the story

The Anti-Defamation League, Japanese American Citizens League and others filed a discrimination complaint Tuesday on behalf of two Japanese-Americans with two U.S. government agencies asking for them to suspend paying federal tax dollars to Jefferson County in Texas until the county renames Jap Road.

Appearently Japanese American Citizens find the word hurtful and dont want to pay taxes in that area until they change the name.

No, read it more closely. They want the Federal Gov't to suspend payment of tax money to the county. That's quite different from "citizens don't want to pay taxes."

So what if they find the word hurtful? If the word "Jap" is the harshest thing they've got to deal with then they're doing better than 90% of the rest of the people on the planet.

Get a frickin' helmet, it's a big, bad world out there.

[Robato]

So what if they find the word hurtful? If the word "Jap" is the harshest thing they've got to deal with then they're doing better than 90% of the rest of the people on the planet.

Get a frickin' helmet, it's a big, bad world out there.

Like I said, they are paying tax in the county they live in that has a racial slur towards them as location markers. (and the thousands of japanese americans in those associations pay federal income tax as well, which goes to fund that street...I dont even want my federal taxes going towards racial slurs...do you? Why does it matter if its federal money or state money? Its still money from people that dont want this type of name calling going on)

Yes it is a big bad world out there....but this shouldnt have to be tolerated in the US....just as much as we shouldnt have to tolerate blinky saying its our fault for causing all the crime in Japan. Its not very hard to change the name of a street.....the name of the main street in my neighborhood in florida was changed 3 times during my lifetime. What is the big deal?

Just because there is worse shit going on in the world doesnt mean people have to put up with lesser evils. Again, I am not Japanese American, so I honestly agree with you....but I also dont blame these two japanese american citizens not wanting to fund a street that is a racial slur of their people.

[ramchop]

damn, the invasion of the Japanese happened 70 years ago....to top it off the majority of the Japanese people dont even know that their country invaded china, much less throw it in the face of the great grand children of the people who were actually invaded.

So Japanese-Americans are allowed to be sensitve but Chinese aren't?

[Caustic Saint]

I dont even want my federal taxes going towards racial slurs...do you? Why does it matter if its federal money or state money? Its still money from people that dont want this type of name calling going on)

I don't pay federal taxes, income or otherwise. The IRS says I don't have to.

[GuyJean]

I don't pay federal taxes, income or otherwise. The IRS says I don't have to.

So the opinion of those two tax-paying, offended, Japanese-Americans is worth more than yours.

Why not change it to Japanese Road? Or J-Road?

In the Oregon town I lived in, we changed a road's name from Dead Indian Road to Dead Indian Memorial.. Improvement? I say "we" because it was put to a vote by the community.

Street name's change all the time. What's the big deal? The PC complain; the anti-PC complain about the complaining PC; the atheists complain cuz their non-complaining opinions aren't about complaining.. It IS an evil world, isn't it.

Futako-Tamagawa was Futako-Tamagawaen
Nishi-ShinYokohama was ShinYokohama-Nishi
Istanbul was Constantinople

Where's the outrage, people!?

GJ

[Caustic Saint]

Istanbul was Constantinople

"Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.
Why they changed it, I can't say.
People just liked ti better that wayyyyyyy"

[GuyJean]

Istanbul was Constantinople

"Even old New York was once New Amsterdam.
Why they changed it, I can't say.
People just liked ti better that wayyyyyyy"

Love that song... Makes me happy.

GJ

[AssKissinger]

[devicenull]

If the road was named nigger or kike would you guys have a different opinion?

Not this again. Please refer to articles:
http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4088
http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4108
http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3709

And yes, I would. Did you read the story though? Hmmm, they named Jap road BEFORE the term Jap was turned into a racial slur by the United States, so is it still racist?

lol, i would pay a premium to live on nigger road in nigger county. that would be the best address EVAR

[Robato]

So Japanese-Americans are allowed to be sensitve but Chinese aren't?

They didn't name the car dirty fucking chinks. You quote out of context...Chinese are reading in between the lines where as the name of the road in the US is a racial slur.

As I said, the Japanese probably don't even know the invasion happened much less trying to throw it in the face of the Chinese (whom none who actually went through the invasion are still alive today)

where as US CITIZENS who have Japanese blood have to pay a tax on a street which basically calls them "niggers"

You can think jap is a harmless word all you want, but the Japanese Americans don't like to be called that. Its not about being sensitive, its about getting rid of racial slurs funded by government money (which is partly funded by the very same people being hit with this crap)

I don't see how you can confuse the two subjects. A car ad with lions saluting a truck and a road in the US called "nigger" that African Americans have to pay for. Two absolute different things.

Just to bring up another point...you are bringing up something about the Chinese (which have no human rights...or at least the UN calls them on that all the time) and comparing it to America....which is SUPPOSED to be the melting pot of the world with all men considered equal. So in that respect, I would say yes...Japanese Americans are allowed to be more sensitive because, first they are supposed to be just as equal as blacks and whites AND they are also allowed to do this type of protest without disappearing the next day.

I dont even want my federal taxes going towards racial slurs...do you? Why does it matter if its federal money or state money? Its still money from people that dont want this type of name calling going on)

I don't pay federal taxes, income or otherwise. The IRS says I don't have to.

I wish IRS said that to me, I pay about $50,000 a year in income tax. I still owe $12,000 from last year and IRS keeps sending me letters threatening to freeze accounts and levy wages and property.

I don't pay federal taxes, income or otherwise. The IRS says I don't have to.

So the opinion of those two tax-paying, offended, Japanese-Americans is worth more than yours.

No its not. I dont want to have a jap road in the US either. Its a dehumanizing racist word towards the race of my wife. I agree 100% with getting rid of the name.....also the American Japanese League is protesting this as well (which is made of 1 million Japanese American citizens who pay taxes???)

So no, not 2 but millions...along side the African Americans that hate the white man pushing down human beings with racial slur words. Add a few whites who arent "good ol white boys" that dont like this racism crap....and you have a LOT of americans who pays taxes that want the name of this street changed.

I mean if the news didnt think it was news worthy, they wouldnt have put it in....there are going to be a lot of Americans pissed off that this road exists....then there are going to be others who defend it and say things like "I would love to live in Nigger county on nigger street"

Why not change it to Japanese Road? Or J-Road?

Thats what they are trying to do.

Street name's change all the time. What's the big deal? The PC complain]

I would say its a PC argument, if they werent Japanese asking for it to be changed....but they are. So now its not PC its about derogation.

Futako-Tamagawa was Futako-Tamagawaen
Nishi-ShinYokohama was ShinYokohama-Nishi
Istanbul was Constantinople

Where's the outrage, people!?

GJ

now you are talking about a different subject again. Its about tax paying citizens that have to drive down a street that slanders them.

Istanbul wasnt changed to "towel head sand niggers"...it was changed to constantinople. There shouldnt be any outrage.

[GuyJean]

Futako-Tamagawa was Futako-Tamagawaen
Nishi-ShinYokohama was ShinYokohama-Nishi
Istanbul was Constantinople

Where's the outrage, people!?

GJ

now you are talking about a different subject again. Its about tax paying citizens that have to drive down a street that slanders them.

Istanbul wasnt changed to "towel head sand niggers"...it was changed to constantinople. There shouldnt be any outrage.

Robato - basically my whole post was in jest.. Three winking icons means 'not really serious'.

Would 'Faggot Road' be acceptable if it were named before 1960?

i would pay a premium to live on nigger road in nigger county.

How bout' Faggot Road in Faggot County?

GJ

[Robato]

Would 'Faggot Road' be acceptable if it were named before 1960?

no, but silly gay road might have.

[cstaylor]

I wish IRS said that to me, I pay about $50,000 a year in income tax. I still owe $12,000 from last year and IRS keeps sending me letters threatening to freeze accounts and levy wages and property.

I hope you're posting from the U.S., because if you're living in Japan and paying $50,000 dollars in American Federal taxes, you need a new accountant. There are plenty of ways to legally reduce your tax burden when you're living abroad.

If you're living in the U.S. and paying that much in Federal taxes, you need to contribute to some charities or something. Paying your fair share is one thing: getting taken to the cleaners by a poor accountant is something else altogether.

[jez]

Get a frickin' helmet

I have a better idea. Instead of trying to ignore this 'big bad world', how about doing something about it?

[jez]

As you said, it's not just people of japanese descent that this offends, but anyone who is offended by racism. Therefore, even if I, a white english/french man, were to complain about the use of 'jap' in naming a road in the US, I shouldn't be accused of being PC either. The word 'PC' is used too often in the way 'anti-semitism' is by the pro-Israeli lobby, or the word 'anti-americanism' by the fascistic propaganda makers in Washington.

[Socratesabroad]

They didn't name the car dirty fucking chinks. You quote out of context...Chinese are reading in between the lines where as the name of the road in the US is a racial slur.

As I said, the Japanese probably don't even know the invasion happened much less trying to throw it in the face of the Chinese ()

I would say its a PC argument, if they werent Japanese asking for it to be changed....but they are. So now its not PC its about derogation.

I've already made my little point in the Chinese ad thread, but the ad isn't just a few lions saluting a Japanese car. It appeared in a car lovers mag with a backdrop of a historic site where Japanese troops invaded China. Because of the staggering casualties on the Chinese side, I'd say that's one reason why, as you said, none who actually went through the invasion are still alive today. And the ad copy of 'Prado - You've got to respect it' is not reading in between the lines, it's just in bad taste, period.

I agree 100% with getting rid of the name.....also the American Japanese League is protesting this as well (which is made of 1 million Japanese American citizens who pay taxes???)

And that's probably similar to why the paying readers of the car mag objected to the ad (and one other).

After all, as you said, its about derogation.

[devicenull]

Futako-Tamagawa was Futako-Tamagawaen
Nishi-ShinYokohama was ShinYokohama-Nishi
Istanbul was Constantinople

Where's the outrage, people!?

GJ

now you are talking about a different subject again. Its about tax paying citizens that have to drive down a street that slanders them.

Istanbul wasnt changed to "towel head sand niggers"...it was changed to constantinople. There shouldnt be any outrage.

Robato - basically my whole post was in jest.. Three winking icons means 'not really serious'.

Would 'Faggot Road' be acceptable if it were named before 1960?

i would pay a premium to live on nigger road in nigger county.

How bout' Faggot Road in Faggot County?

GJ

as long as i have a fresh supply of faggots for which to stoke the fire, i have no complaints

[GargoyleTS]

This Holier-than-thou, respect-everyone's-feelings-even-if-they-aren't-hurt bullshit is getting old. You probly think the Civil War was about Slavery too. I got news for you, it was about states rights. The Confederate flag stood for that. Not Slavery, but the right of a State to decide for itself what it would deem legal within its borders, be it Slavery or alcohol, or tariffs on imported goods. But you will say I am wrong (and be incorrect yourself) and claim ther Confederate flag is a symbol of slavery and oppression. Because that is how you perceive it. Perception. Individual human perception, is at the heart of this issue. Some say the word "Jap" is racist (even though new evidence shows that Japanese are decended from Korean stock, thus technically NOT AN INDIVIDUAL RACE) and thus choose to be hurt and offended by it. I have news for you, THAT IS YOUR CHOICE! You choose to give power to a word, and thus tacitly agree to the continuing usage of that word as a racist term.

Hey, I'm fat. I've been fat since I was a child. The word used to hurt. Why? It's only the truth, why should the truth hurt. Cause I don't look like what people think everyone should look like? Boo-friggin-hoo. I got over it. Little kids see me in public and will say to their parents "He's fat" and I have to suffer their parents apologies or hear the child berated for saying "mean things". You know what I do to those little kids? I smile at them. I let them know that what they have done isn't wrong. Telling the truth is NOT wrong. I smile so they know that I am not hurt by their words, no matter what their parents may say to them.

Now, this isn't the same as racism you'll say because I can lose weight but someone can't change their race. And you are partially correct, they cannot change their race, but do they have to accept the pain that goes with racism? Why should I allow some-one else's small minded perception of reality take even the tiniest amount of happiness from my day? I uinderstand the craving for social acceptance, but do you really want to be accepted by someone who thinks less of you because of your race? Words only have the power you give them, and just because a bunch of other people can't see that doesn't make a word wrong. Words are Words. They only mean what people understand them to mean and if you can convince enough people to accept a new meaning for a word, or FORGET a meaning of a word, then that words either falls out of use or becomes something else in daily use.

I'm an Okie. Not a Sooner, not a Cowboy. I am an Okie cause I am from Oklahoma. I have no problem being called an Okie, even from those bastard Texas sports fans (whom I dislike based on simple college football rivalry, no more, no less). I have no problem telling people around the world that we do indeed have cars in Oklahoma, we do not all have nor ride horses, nor am I a wheat farmer. We have computers and telephones and all the same luxuries that one finds in any major city in the world (except decent gambling and night clubs). But some people try to turn this word into an insult. They want it to mean back-asswards thinking and bible-based leadership. They want it to mean that I am somehow inferior to them because I don't live where they do. They want it to mean I am less than they are for not having shared all the experiences in life that they have. Too bad. I refuse to let it bother me. My time and emotions are worth more than that.

The word nigger... Do you know who I see saying nigger nowadays? Black people. I haven't heard a white person call a black person nigger in quite some time. Yeah, I know they say "nigga" and somehow its not the same word (ever hear a deep south accent say it? sounds the same...) they have made the word their own, but they have yet to release it, thus they still give it power over their emotions. It's pathetic. They took a word that they hate and made it so they use it everyday. That's is proof enough of the insanity rampant in America. And unfortunately it is spreading like a cancer thoughout the world.

People need to be LESS sensitive, not more. If someone I care about calls me a name, I am hurt. Not by words, but because they made the effort to hurt me. They wanted to hurt me and that hurts. Someone I don't even know calls me a name, I am not hurt. I don't care. I don't have to, and they can't make me. Jap and Okie are the same. Jap and Brit, Jap and Kiwi, Jap and Aussie...all the same, they identify where you come from with the American (or maybe merely English) tendency to shorten proper nouns in a effort to make you part of "our group". If it is indicative of anything, it a signal of continuing American arrogance by "naming" things to make them ours, because the things you claim cannot be better than you, thus assuring (at least in your own eyes) that you are the best. Don't give them the satisfaction.

I have come think that perhaps renaming the street for the family that was to honored in the first place is a very good idea, and here's why.
1) The family deserves it. It was to honor them, and is a little unspecific.
2) It will get the town "good press" for responding to this non-issue quickly and "properly"

I only ever (intended) to object to the particular angle of this issue. I am actually pretty sure that if it had been a campaign to change the to more specifically honor the family, with the negative connotation of the word being used as an arguement in favor of change instead of the reason to change it period, would have been suffiecient to get the entire county's residents involved and get it changed. But I notice this is more of the "Butt-insky Syndrome", several civil rights groups, AKA people who think they know whats best for everyone, have filed this suit. The people who live there seem fine with it. The JAPANESE-AMERICAN people who live there seem fine with it. But a group of people who live hundreds of miles away and have far too much time on their hands think its bad, and want to throw their weight around because they have a persecution complex. No wonder some people react to this with insane statements, it is insane behavior! People you don't even know who have most likely never even been to the area want to tell the people that live there that they are stupid, ignorant, racist and lower than their precious little group. No wonder why the name wasn't changed last time.

America may be a melting pot, but we are also about Independance, and these piss-ant Holier-than-thou groups better start learning that, cause we in the interior of the US remember it, and still fight for it. Independance means doing your own thing, not what everyone else does. Not being sheep and allowing the world to run our lives and dictate how we should think. And that's all these groups care about, controlling our thinking. To be Human is, in their eyes, to act just like them. And now, just to have wasted all this space and automatically lose this arguement: Do you know who else wanted to control people's thinking and dictate to them what a real, genuine Human is? The Nazi's!