Race- Privilege, Relations, Racism, etc.

No problem. Looking back on it, I can see how that could be read into it.

Everybody's all "Jerry's old and feeble" till they see him run down a skyscraper and hijack a helicopter mid-flight.

I view Mugabe as particularly heinous for the legacy he left behind - his greed and cruelty gave white supremacists the perfect material to trumpet their BS about how blacks can't rule themselves.

CNA report of Christopher de Souza highlighting multicultralism having a long way as current P Ms are of Chinese origin.

Does stonetoss still have a page? I remembered that he used to be the page image on Motive Decay, went to see if his page still existed, and couldn’t find it.

Good riddance, in any case. I think when it did exist it said his work “could be interpreted” as racist/antisemitic.

Oh, we got rid of it a while ago. It was deemed that it was impossible to accurately represent it while also holding the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement. Plus, there was one individual who was a bit too fond of it.

SoundCloud

Oh yeah, now I see that. I unfortunately remember when the tv tropes Twitter featured one of his strips and various people replied “based” and such. Hopefully the user who loved it so much was banned.

Yeah, I think they got the hint after the account they used to ban-evade also got banned.

SoundCloud

We they were ranting against Orwell and trying to say that Franco wasn't a fascist as well.

"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."

What.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210227/p2a/00m/0na/020000c

An interesting article on microaggressions affecting Zainichi Koreans in Japan.

Oh that dude who got banned. Lol. I wrote That when I was tired and going to bed. Sorry about that.

"That's right mortal. By channeling my divine rage into power, I have forged a new instrument in which to destroy you."

It should be noted that Stonetoss is a literal nazi. He got asked if he was one on twitter and his response pretty much was Yeah, so?

Hes so infamous for being an asshole that its a meme to call him anything else but Stonetoss and to constantly mess with his comics.

Yeah unrepentant jerk

What makes you say that?

---

I honestly dislike a bit how he conflates the concept of microaggression with people expressing doubts/questions/curiosity because of his non-Japanese ancestry. Indeed, there are blurred lines, and the fact that he was frequently disrespected, if not downright treated with contempt may have made him less tolerant on that aspect. I was aware that Koreans still suffer serious marginalisation in Japan after genereations. Anyway, interesting article.

Edited by gc10 on Mar 2nd 2021 at 6:56:02 PM

People expressing doubts (of your ability, frequently) as a foreigner is a universal experience if you're not Yamato Japanese. I'm white and living in Japan, and you can generally count on one hand the number of sentences you'll get before a native speaker compliments you on your Japanese. Generally they mean well by it, but if you're conscious of your own stammering or misspeaking and someone says "wow, you're so good at Japanese!", it really comes off as sarcastic. And it doesn't really matter if each person who says it is individually sincere; you hear it so often that you can set your clock by it. And I can't imagine what it's like for him to face it growing up in Japan.

Like the article points out, "people expressing doubts/questions/curiosity because of his non-Japanese ancestry" generally is microaggression. Each instance may not be too much trouble individually, but being asked to speak Korean, asked his opinion on Korean-Japanese politics (perhaps not a question he would feel comfortable being honest about), and other things add up. Every question or doubt is a reminder that Japan views him as an outsider despite his family living here for three generations.

It's been fun.

On the definition of "microaggression" itself, I'll reformulate: when it comes of generic "curiosity", it seems to me wrong to include that in the definition. Even if on a personal level it's perceived just as frustrating, before defining "microaggression" one should not disregard the distinction between a genuinely curious, maybe ignorant (in the neutral sense) person, and a more blatantly insensitive and disrespectful person (such as Yoshiro Mori or his boss mocking him for his lack of knowledge of Korean).

Indeed, there are so many psychological factors, details, blurred lines to consider about it. I won't pretend to know better. When he asks "Am I being too sensitive?", I'm sure he's not and I understand why he's frustrated.

On the other hand I would listen to Red here, Yamatai person here, and like... Yea "Your Japanese is really good" is indeed a boilerplate compliment given to any one who isn't to the point that I can indeed see how it would be bothersome even if its sincere.

Which is a bit annoying on my end, because a lot of my forgigen friends will ask how there Japanese is doing, and it makes giving an answer.... substantially harder. But it is indeed something that I can understand on there end after thinking about, and would definitely qualify it as a microaggression.

On the other hand if you mean on the politics and how things work side of things, I am going to agree with you here, often people connected to the topic even minorly may have insight that you just don't, I don't see much of a reason not to ask some one there thoughts.

Ignorance isn't a defense agians't microagressions though, infact that is why most of them are MICRO agressions, often when the person realizes what there doing it becomes a macroagression isntead. Since at that point they understand what there doing hurts, and do it any way.

Edited by Imca on Mar 2nd 2021 at 3:01:17 AM

My question then would be: What's supposed to be done about it? Mostly people aren't doing anything bad on purpose, and often it's not any one thing one person does but more of a 'death by a thousand cuts' situation, so what can you even do to stop it?

Everybody's all "Jerry's old and feeble" till they see him run down a skyscraper and hijack a helicopter mid-flight.

Let people know it's an issue exactly like there doing.

Agian most of the time microaggressions arent done on purpose, so once people know... they stop.

Like the treating it like it's some horrible thing tends to come from the people who are fighting trying to get them to stop rather then the people bringing them to light

Edited by Imca on Mar 2nd 2021 at 3:54:37 AM

It takes time, lots of time for these situations to be solved. Japanese society as a whole should start to be more attentive on the matter, making an effort in spreading awareness about Koreans in Japan and their history. First the most blatant acts of cultural contempt and disrespect should be ostracised, then people who are only genuinely curious but misinformed will know how to act properly. They'll remember that there are some Koreans in Japans so some Japanese have Korean surnames but they actually arrived here generations ago and so on... and won't be surprised when they meet them, nor they'll feel the need to ask too many questions.

Easier said than done lol.

Reminds me of people who keep asking me and my family where we are from whenever we're vacationing in the USA since we look East Asian.

They always seem surprised for a brief moment whenever we answer "California".

Edited by M84 on Mar 2nd 2021 at 10:26:31 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised

I've heard that's something a lot of Asian people complain about - the whole "where are you really from" thing.

It is pretty annoying, yes. It's particularly annoying for me since I was born in the USA and grew up there, to the point my English is much better than my Han Chinese.

Disgusted, but not surprised

M84 preempted me but this is very much something that happens in the US, pretty much for anyone who isn't white or black.

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn

That's true, but it doesn't really matter if there's no ill intent. What matters is the way it piles up on top of the person being asked, time after time after time. Like I said, I'm white - I've never faced discrimination in the States, and only the barest definition here in Japan. I don't mean to equate the brief moments of inconvenience I've suffered with what Zainichi Koreans face here or what Black people face in the States (or in Japan, for that matter). But knowing the "nihongo jouzu desu ne" is coming for basically any non-shopclerk interaction, even if you only say a single sentence, and knowing that they're basically just impressed that my visibly non-Japanese ass can comprehend Japanese at all - it's tiresome. The fact that individual people may genuinely consider it a compliment doesn't change that.

It's been fun.