I've not met Vivian, and I know next to nothing about her, except from a few blogs I have glanced at.
She seems to have a good heart and is an intelligent and thoughtful person.
However, in her recent blog (link HERE), and posted below, she takes on the concept of racism in Japan. Good for her. The Japanese can sometimes be racist. Not all of them, but some of them. It is what it is.
My problem with Vivian, however is that she appears to be completely naive when it comes to racism - especially in her own backyard.
Read her article below in the Blue. Then read my spewing vitriol...
We, The Japanese.... Are Totally Not Racist.
I'd like to preface this post with a statement about how much I truly love and treasure this country. Japan is amazing, and it's brought me a considerable amount of joy and insight during the past 2 years I've been here. That being said...Man, you guys are SUPER RACIST.
I'm not going to sugar-coat it. As a Canadian, I grew up surrounded by all kinds of people. Heck, as a Torontonian, I was exposed to one of the most multicultural societies in the world. And I loved it. Being surrounded by people of every shade of beige was simply normal. In my home city, there was no real concept of the 'foreigner.' We were all immigrants, in some way or another. The racist stereotypes associated with different cultures existed, but were always acknowledged as something that could be overlooked, since we were all 'in the same boat.' Toronto is considered something of a 'melting pot.'
See, Canada is a very young country. We've only been around (officially) for about 160 years. So technically, we're all immigrants. Anyone who says otherwise is either a self-entitled douche, or simply ignorant. Neither of which is a particularly admirable quality. So I never felt like an outsider. Granted, I'm a super-white girl who's family has been in Canada for at least 6 generations, so I suppose I had a certain socioeconomic advantage. I never felt like a true minority. Although, TECHNICALLY I WAS. White people in Toronto are certainly not a majority, despite the financial hold they seem to have over that great city. The vast majority of the people in my life were of mixed backgrounds. A Sea of Beige, if you will. As teenagers, we used to shrug our shoulders and say 'we'll all be beige in 100 years,' when comparing our heritage on the playground. It turns out, qu'elle surprise, I was naive.
Enter Japan.
'Homogenous' was the word they first used. At least, that's the first word I heard that really rang true. You have to see it to believe it. In downtown Tokyo, the millions of black-suited business men on trains, all dressed the same, and all with a seemingly same purpose. All headed to a job in an office where they'll work for the better part of their life. All with the same strong genetic material that make their hair jet-black, and their skin the same colour. Japan is truly an island. An island of one. Honestly, they look like penguins.
If you watch NHK, the local news broadcasting agency, you'll hear a lot of sentences starting with 'Nihongin wa...' or, 'We, the Japanese...' This kind of sentence structure, however simple, further ingrains the idea that the Japanese are a secluded and "special" people. It subconsciously negates any inclusion of other cultures or integration of any kind. And it makes us "outsiders" feel inherently unwelcome. Well, not unwelcome, just not really part of the team. And Japanese people are really keen on being part of a team.
Now I'm starting to sound bitter, which was not my intention. I'm simply trying to point out that a 'homogenous' society can feel pretty unwelcoming to someone who is not part of that genetic strain. And although I do occasionally enjoy being treated like a rare-and-delicate flower, it can get kind of tiresome. One of the greatest parts of being Canadian is that we're all different. We cannot simply be identified by our skin colour. This is one Canadian-ism that I am genuinely homesick for.
But, Japan, let's get real for a second. If you're gonna be racist, at least OWN UP TO IT. Let's review;
Not sitting next to a guy on the subway simply because he's black? THAT'S RACIST.
Immediately assuming that someone is going to steal your shit because they're Chinese? THAT'S RACIST.
Thinking a guy wants to sleep with your girlfriend because he's from some Hispanic background? THAT'S RACIST.
Automatically assuming a fat guy is from America? Well, that's statistically probable. But still, THAT'S RACIST!
Okay - thank-you Vivian. Your thoughts on racism are appreciated. But... wow... I sure think she is naive.
I think what upsets me the most about Vivian's comments - well-meaning though they may be - is that she actually believes that when it comes to racism, Canada is a better country than Japan.
Really? You can't tell me your sh!t smells better than my sh!t. It's still sh!t and it still smells.
Let's read on:
"So I never felt like an outsider."
What? The self-proclaimed 'super-white' girl whose family is six generation removed from wherever they emigrated from has never felt like an outside even though White people are now the minority.
Uh... White people are only the minority if you ADD TOGETHER every other colored skin under the rainbow. White people who throw that 'white minority line' out (and I've heard it before!) tend not to mention that qualifying statement I added.
Now, for the record... I'm not super-white despite liking hockey and Star Trek, and am actually an immigrant to Canada - born in England of parents from India. I'm not Indian. I'm not English. And while I am a Canadian citizen and feel very much Canadian, some people just can't believe it and want to know your whole genetic lineage before exclaiming that I am indeed Indian.
I don't speak the language(s), don't eat the food unless it's ordered for me, don't have an accent (not that it matters), don't have a foreign-sounding name (not that it matters), have a physical presence and knowledge of things that suggest North American schooling, and have never actually been to India, though I would go to check out the architecture and history.
So... I am Canadian. In my body, mind and soul. But I am also a visible minority. There's that word - minority. And - gasp - I have experienced racism. It kind of comes with the territory when you have Brown skin and live in Canada.
In fact, while racism in Canada hasn't been a burden to me, it has helped define who I am today, and even played a part in getting me into the JET Programme, but perhaps not the way you think.
First off... for all of you who are like Vivian and actually believe the hype that Canada is one big melting pot of multiculturism, get your head out of your ass. It's not.
We certainly are full of multiculturism, but Canada sure ain't no melting pot.
Canada has its fair share of racism.
I've been called a 'Paki' more times than I can remember.
I've been told that I'm all right for one of those Brown guys because I don't smell like curry or talk funny.
People stare at me in disbelief when I tell them my name and wonder what my ethnic name really is.
Or that I'm Roman Catholic.
Or that I was born in England (no... where were you really born?).
In many instances, I am the one and only non-white friend super-white friend have ever had.
My White wife often regales me of the stories from the playground where mothers chat while their kid's play after school... and the racist crap that comes from their mouth is incredible. They obviously don't realize that my son doesn't merely have a tan - that's he's not Italian, and that having the last name Joseph doesn't mean his dad is White. They tip the crap out of the Browns, Blacks and Yellows with regular impunity thinking their sh!t don't stink.
As for the melting pot mentality that was pushed by various ad campaigns in Toronto in the 1970s and 1980s (along with 'Toronto the Good') when Brown people were repeatedly being pushed onto the TTC subway tracks by racists, well... Toronto is NOT an ethnic melting pot.
Toronto is a city of enclaves.
This was truly hammered out to me during my first year of university in 1983 when I expected to see freedom and truth and ideas expressed. None of that crap happens in university. Ever.
There at York University was the East Indian Federation, The Italian Federation, the Jews For Jesus... whatever, it was segregation... you can't join our club because you aren't one of us.
More enclaves? We have enclaves - whole cities - where ethnic cultures congregate.
Mention Brampton, and everyone knows its Indians and Scotch and Newfies.
Markham - Chinese and Italian.
Etobicoke (where I live), I'm still the only visible minority on the street. It's your white Christian neighborhood - though nouveau riche Russian and Serbs are making a claim to the neighborhood.
North Etobicoke - Black.
Scarborough - Black and rednecks.
East of Toronto - white.
French Canadians hate English Canada.
English Canada loves French strippers, though the Russian chicks were nice, too.
Japan's racist? Where did she get her examples?
Japanese people don't want to sit next to foreigners, period - but in Tokyo or Osaka - no one cares.
I never saw any real racist activity to me in Japan because of my skin color - unlike in Toronto.
In Toronto many people are afraid to sit next to a lot of different colored skin people. It doesn't even matter what color, be it White, Black, Brown or Yellow...there's someone who doesn't want to sit down next to someone of a different color.
Yes, Vivian... Japan can sometimes be racist, but her opinion that Canada or the US isn't, is naive. Super racist? Maybe she should talk to my Black buddy Tristan, who will gladly tell her what it's like to drive a car and be stopped for DWB three times a week (Driving While Black) in a part of the city known to be white.
How about me and my Brown friend Nigel having a rich old Jewish woman come up to us as we looked for our second row seats for Joan Rivers concert 25 years ago: Do you belong here?" she asked. Why ask that? Because we had better seats that than her and her ilk? My grandmother was a Jew! She got the tickets for me because she knew people! I'm kidding. My grandma certainly was Jewish, but she lived in India and actually born in the former Palestine.
Japan is as racist as any other country out there. Maybe a little more... maybe a little less.
Vivian - the blog writer - probably also confuses the Japanese calling foreigners - a gaijin - as offensive. It's not. We are outsiders.
Super-white girl - shut the eff up.
Racism exists in damn near every country you can shake a pointed stick at. Hey - at least the Japanese will call you an outsider to your face. Apparently some Canadians don't even know racism exists in Canada because most people don't whine about it. As such, some of White Canada buries its head and pretends it doesn't exist.
Whatever.
Most educated Canadians aren't racist. Then again, some are. There's no accounting for why some people are racist. Family upbringing, naivety, fear, socio-economic concerns, media - some people are easily swayed by things, hate, war, terrorism, political ideology, religion, sex - people love to hate.
Where I work, I doubt there's a person I don't get along with - people of every race, color, creed, sexual preference...
Vivian... there are real racist bars IN Toronto (Etobicoke, and one in Mississauga) where when I walked in... everyone stopped and looked at me telling me non-verbally that I didn't belong there. I backed out.
This is in Toronto. Liberal guilt from a super-white girl is nice, but misguided.
I don't begrudge people for not knowing something - being ignorant of a fact because of a lack of experience (IE growing up in white middle Earth)...
Seriously Vivian - bless everyone who is against racism - even if they haven't faced it, but please... please don't ever think your sh!t smells better than someone else's.
That's my real rant.
That girl just isn't aware of what things are like for visible minorities. I'm glad she is against racism in all its forms, but, again, Toronto or Canada isn't as lily white in innocence as she believes, just because she we live in a multicultural melting pot.
Even here in the work place - though not officially designated as such, there is a competition between the Italians and the Portuguese. Every time one of their ilk is hired, it's a celebration.
Meanwhile - the point that these people consider themselves Italian or Portuguese makes me ill. They weren't born there! They are all from Toronto. They are Canadian of Italian descent! Just as I am Canadian of Indian descent even though I was born in England. I'm way more Canadian than English despite me knowing all the rules in soccer, know every Monty Python character and believe that Liz II is the Queen of Canada.
My comedy cabaret act was called 'The Great Off-White North (or a Passage To Etobicoke)' for a reason... and deals with racism - or at least what it's like to grow up a visible minority in Toronto. I don't hate the world or blame society.
And - to turn things back to Japan....
I truly said to the JET folks during my interview:
"Andrew... the Japanese are sometimes accused of being racist. How would you handle it?"
"The same way I do here in Canada. Diplomacy. I would try and educate without losing my temper."
Now in reality, I would ignore it... and did so until I was my early 30s and back from Japan (but a couple of years after I made myself a lot larger muscle wise), when I would get into a few verbal scraps knowing that people would back down. I wouldn't care. I would gladly let someone hit me twice just to get one punch in. They had better make those two punches count.
Did you know that I never saw my first Jewish kid until I was 16? That's how Christian white my neighborhood was/is.
My pal Tristan (Black), Nigel and myself (Browns)... we blow the stereotype out of the water because we are all Canadian. Tristan blows it back INTO the water because he and the mother of his two children never got married - in typical Jamaican style. He said that... even though I was thinking it. Canadians think a lot about racism, but rarely say anything, one way or the other.
And Nigel and I... we both suck at Math, and are not lawyers or doctors, don't drive cab or work at the Quickee-mart.
I completely blow it out of the water by being athletic.
Nigel and I blow things back INTO the water by liking white women. Though I am sure we don't care one way or the other... it's just that Indian girls won't go out with Indian guys unless they are just off the proverbial boat.
I really liked an Indian chick named Rinki... 4-11 with big D boobs... she really liked me, but we couldn't date because I wasn't the same religion as her. Racism... yeah... she ended up doing some freshly arranged marriage thing where she comes back and says she is very happy.
Indian's are said to be huge racists... My family is not, but it's hard to argue with thousands of years of it.
See Vivian... even Brown people can be racists. I have relatives who hate Canada - and I do everything in my power not to scream at him and tell him to get the fug out of my country if he doesn't like it and go back where he came from.
Yeah... Japan has some racism in it. Canada too... But that doesn't mean one is better than the other.
Vivian... go seek out a visible minority the next time you are back in the western hemisphere... ask them if they have experienced racism... then listen to their story.
I get to live with racism all around me... knowing full well that many of the parents of kids who play with my son are racist assholes. Racist assholes who have recently moved into the neighborhood - who have arrived in this country 20 years ago.
I actually had one honky (that's 1960s slang for the nasal sound an Eastern European makes when he/she speaks) tell me in his thick Slavic accent to go back to what ever country I came from.
Really? I moved into this house in 1973 - twenty years later Glasnost happened.
In this super-White neighborhood to boot.
Cheers
Andrew Joseph
I found the egg photo at: http://hasungjacobkang.edublogs.org/2011/05/19/racism-is-not-bad/
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