[ SECRET POST #353 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #353 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 08 pages, 200 secrets from Secret Submission Post #051.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, 0 not!secrets, [ 1 ] not!fandom.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 25th, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[silverfox1027.livejournal.com]

36. I've heard personal accounts from some of my friends who've been to Japan/East Asia, and they've said that the racism they experienced there was no different from the racism they experienced living in the United States (assuming that you, in fact, live in the U.S.) and that it didn't prevent them from enjoying their trips. Japan is notoriously xenophobic (anyone who isn't Japanese = watch out), but if you're a black American, chances are you've experienced your share of racism, so you'll probably be used to it. If you do decide to go to Japan one day, don't worry too much about it...thinking about it too much will only ruin your trip.

Not OP

[(Anonymous)]

I don't understand this assurance. Having experienced racism and being used to it makes it okay to expose yourself to that kind of treatment?

Re: Not OP

[silverfox1027.livejournal.com]

I never said it was okay. All I'm saying is that if s/he shouldn't be too discouraged from going to Japan because of racism, as it really isn't too different from the United States in that respect (like I said before, I'm going off of what I've been told...I've never been to Japan myself, so I don't have personal experience to back this up). Of course, if s/he still decides against going to Japan, hey, that's his/her prerogative. I'm just saying what I think.

Re: Not OP

[empezar.livejournal.com]

I'm not trying to flame, so hopefully this doesn't come off in that way. :D;

You can't really say the level of racism in Japan is the same as the US. In the US we're all pretty diverse (depending where you are of course), whereas Japan throughout is overwhelmingly homogeneous. Racism (including just getting a lot of stares or people pointing at you) is made much more apparent/obvious/blatant in these types of environments that generally don't deal with the issue upfront, and where a lot of the conceptions people have of other cultures/people is based on stereotypes and little else. Certainly there are places in the US that are similar to this, but in general, diversity isn't exactly a novel concept here... It's more a fact of life, right? (Or at least ideally. :P)

Anyway, that's just my take on it... One thing I can appreciate about being American is generally we're quite diverse. A lot of my friends are half this, half that, quarter that (myself included), which I think is really cool.

Re: Not OP

[silverfox1027.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, it doesn't come off as a flame.

It's fair to assume that racism in Japan is more blatant---it's a more homogeneous society, so they don't necessarily have to cater to the needs of everyone (not saying that this is okay, but the minority populations are so small that blatant racism will have less of an impact on social interactions).

That being said, when my friends tell me that the racism they experienced their was not too different from what they've experienced here, I feel inclined to believe them. Racism in the U.S. probably isn't quite as blatant, but it's taken a more covert form that, in my opinion, is actually much more annoying than overt racism. The United States is a rather diverse country (strictly speaking in numbers, at the very least), but many perceptions are still grounded in stereotypes despite this, and racism is still somewhat of a guarded issue.

But I dunno, perhaps I'm just jaded.

Re: Not OP

[empezar.livejournal.com]

Yeeah, I realized after commenting that I sounded way too optimistic about the US. You're not jaded by any means... Nothing's worse than people who act like racism doesn't exist in the US. :/ Like it's something we've ~overcome~. Lol...

Although I don't think covert racism is worse than overt. I'd rather someone not say anything at all than try to declare/show in any way that because I'm different from him/her, I'm somehow less a person.

[neon-geisha.livejournal.com]

Popping in here to add my experience, and to say that the xenophobia, while still there, is not as bad as it's made out to be on all sides. I'm Arab and Muslim (and look my ethnicity enough for people to notice), and the prejudice I've experienced living here in South Florida is far, far more than anything I experienced while I was in Japan. Here, I've been called everything: "terrorist", "Taliban", told to "go back to my country" (which is, by the way, Canada), and had people, Americans, be genuinely shocked that I do things like, I don't know, dye my hair, or not wear hijab, or swear.

In Japan, no one who I spoke to about my background was anything but appreciative, sympathetic, or even enthralled. I did get the usual curious stares, but no more than any other foreigner did. The only prejudice I experienced (and it wasn't just me, but also the Filipino friends I was with) was in Kyoto, and that was from a group of Korean student tourists who refused to even talk to us, but were eager to talk to the white American friend we were travelling with. I don't know how much this speaks to the situation in Japan towards other ethnicities, nor in Korea, but I just wanted to give perhaps another perspective on the issue. The US is by no means a bastion of political correctness.