Labeling FG's

[Bucky]

Over on JapanToday they have the following Quote of the Day taking comments. I thought it might be worth bringing it to the attention of the FG's over here:

Japan should create a society where people with various cultural backgrounds are accepted and called, for instance, Chinese-Japanese, without any discriminatory connotations.

Takashi Miyajima, professor of sociology at Hosei University, saying it's time to broaden the definition of Japanese, just as in the U.S. where hyphenated terms such as African-American, Italian-American, etc, are used. (Asahi Shimbun)

You can see it here"http://www.japantoday.com/jp/quote/2094

Like labeling folks like this is going make them "accepted" more than when they're just plain "henna Gaijin"

[Samurai_Jerk]

I hate the over use of hyphenated labels in the US. Of course in some contexts it makes sense. Like if we're talking about Japanese-American internment during WWII.

One question I hate is when one American asks another, "What nationality are you?" I usually hear Asians ask this to other Asians. I was in a bar with a Japanese-American (in this context it makes sense to use) friend one time when this Asian girl asked him, "What nationality are you?" Knowing exactly what she meant he said he was American, and they she said something like, "No I mean umm..." then she tried to explain what she was trying to ask in a very roundabout way. I guess just coming out and asking "What race/ethnicity/etc. are you?" isn't politically correct enough. Then finally she just asked in Korean "Are you Korean?" The funny thing is don't think he understood but I did. He just got mad and walked away. I answered no he's Japanese which confused her.

I thought it was a weird thing to ask someone you just met right off the bat. But it seems to be pretty common for Asians in the US to do. Maybe they need to determine whether or not you're part of the club so they know how to relate to you. When they see me it's obvious I'm not so they don't need to know my ethnicity.

[American Oyaji]

I ask people about their ethnicity or ethnic background all the time. I do that so I know what their mental context about certain subjects might be. and which language I should use.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I ask people about their ethnicity or ethnic background all the time. I do that so I know what their mental context about certain subjects might be. and which language I should use.

I find it an interesting subject myself, but it's not usually the first questions I ask somebody. I spent a lot of time around Asians-Americans when I was living in Seattle and I noticed that many of them seemed to want to know the ethnicity of other Asians right away. There was something different about their need to know and a discussion about heritage that you might hear other people engaging in.

[GomiGirl]

All sounds like racial profiling to me.

[kamome]

I just phrase the question like this: "What is your ethnic background?" If you ask the question politely, there's nothing offensive about it. SJ, my guess is that Asian-Americans ask that question with each other because if they have the same ethnic background, then they will have a similar frame of reference for things.

[dimwit]

Tagging people with an ethnicity is a wonderful way for liberals to be racist.

I remember from my university days dating a very politcally correct girl who was obsessed with whether I was english in origin (the oppressor) or scottish (the oppressed). To me the only way in which this would make any difference was in S/M play.

I can understand to a certain degree what the professor is trying to do -make people aware that it is possible to be Japanese and not be from Japan. It won't work. Few Japanese even accept the fact that there is racism in Japan.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I can understand to a certain degree what the professor is trying to do -make people aware that it is possible to be Japanese and not be from Japan.

I understand what the professor is trying to do too. The problem with that idea is that "Japanese" is more than a nationality. Your average person (Japanese or gaijin) sees it as a race or ethnicity so no matter how many generations your family has been in Japan or what passport you hold, you can never really be Japanese if you aren't ethnically Japanese. That could change someday if enough people immigrated to Japan, but it's not going to anytime soon.

It's interesting how racial/ethnic/national identity develops in different places. Technically speaking there were (are?) three distinct ethnicities in recent Japanese history: Japanese, Ryukyu, and Ainu. They're pretty much all seen as Japanese now, but anyone from outside those three groups isn't.

I guess it would be the same in India. You have hundreds of ethnic groups, languages, and dialects. However, I doubt a white guy like me would ever be seen as Indian even if he had Indian citizenship, spoke native Hindi, and was third generation born and raised there.

[Mulboyne]

I guess it would be the same in India. You have hundreds of ethnic groups, languages, and dialects. However, I doubt a white guy like me would never be seen as Indian even if he had Indian citizenship, spoke native Hindi, and was third generation born an raised there.

I'm not sure about that. I know the circumstances are exceptional but Sonia Gandhi is President of the Indian National Congress after all.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I'm not sure about that. I know the circumstances are exceptional but Sonia Gandhi is President of the Indian National Congress after all.

But does the average Indian consider her to be a "true" Indian?

[maraboutslim]

of course one can't be "japanese" without japanese blood (sorry debito), but that's not enough: one also needs to have been raised in certain traditions and being all keyed into all the set behaviors expected of a true japanese (sorry debito). In fact, the latter is often more important than the former - witness the suspicion of those who live abroad even briefly in their childhood. in their absence it's assumed they must have missed out on something that every good japanese would have had drilled into them, and so are always viewed as less than "japanese" after their return.

[TFG]

in their absence it's assumed they must have missed out on something that every good japanese would have had drilled into them, and so are always viewed as less than "japanese" after their return.

I tend to lean more towards the point of view, that returnees are considered by your regular Japanese grunts to be a threat as they have linguistic skills which have allowed them to understand a different way of life, understanding of a different set of values other than the brand buying idiots who drape themselves in the most expensive rubbish they can find in an attempt to conceal the fact that they are superficial human beings with little or no core nor understanding of the world around them nor themselves. This is the threat they sense.

[Uhhuh35]

All sounds like racial profiling to me.

Could you elaborate on that point please?

[GomiGirl]

Could you elaborate on that point please?

Racial profiling.. ie trying to figure out what a person may think or how they might act based on what you think a certain racial group is like. Building up a profile of a person based on what race they are.

Why do you ask?

[Mike Oxlong]

in their absence it's assumed they must have missed out on something that every good japanese would have had drilled into them, and so are always viewed as less than "japanese" after their return.

Like learning kanji at school. Gotta love those returnees classes. So they can have the life-skills they learned themselves replaced with those The State expects you to memorize by rote.

I know guy who sent his kid to a Christian school just in order to get him a foreign education. The kid learned kanji in his after school time by going to Kumon. Now the kid's graduating Philips Exeter (after abandoning Japan completely) after studying elective like Existentialism. He's Japanese, but mo better

[sublight]

I appreciate the guy's intent, but it's going to take a lot of intermediary steps to get to what he's thinking. The most basic of course being that people whose ancestors 20 generations back weren't all born in Japan can be anything other than 'foreign' or 'half'. Hell, we haven't even gotten to the point Japanese people who spend a few years overseas aren't considered to have lost their Japaneseness.

By the way, when did JapanToday start attributing quotes again? Back when I started my boycott of them, they had recently dropped attributions in order to spur more click-generating flamewars.