fuckyeahtanuki:

Taking a break from our regularly scheduled program…this has absolutely nothing to do with the usual content of my blog, but I’ve seen a lot of angry ranting by non-Japanese people about how “offensive” the new Avril Lavigne music video is, and I felt the need to set the…

You have got to be kidding me.

Okay so, I’m gonna go ahead and start by saying that I’m not Japanese, I’m Korean. Being so, I don’t really have any right to be upset about Avril appropriating the Japanese culture. However, being Asian American, I wanted to share why this video is harmful to us.

Here’s what’s up. Things found offensive to native Asians and Asian Americans tend to be very different. Why? We don’t have the same exposure to racism. Back in high school, I sat with four other girls, one of which was a close Korean friend of mine. She had only moved to the country in middle school so her exposure to America was as long as 6 years. One day, the word slur ‘oriental’ was thrown around. However, my Korean friend paid no mind to it, even using it herself. When I confronted the group about it, no one would believe that it was a racial slur. The next day my friend came to me, saying she had asked her family about the term. No one had found it offensive. The topic came up again recently when I was talking to a Chinese coworker of mine, who had admitted to not realizing the term was racist until he moved to America and was informed so by Asian American friends. Again: native Asians and Asian Americans do not share what they find offensive.



I’m also going to tell you that Avril Lavigne has been a mega hit in Japan since her song “Girlfriend” (maybe longer?? Iunno) I happened to visit Japan the summer that song came out. I hadn’t even heard it until I got onto the plane. From take off to coming back to America, that song was all I heard. In the plane, in the stores, on commercials, it was everywhere. Avril’s music is loved much more in Japan than it is in America. Asking the Japanese fans to see Avril’s bad side is like asking Sherlock fans to acknowledge the casts’ problematic behavior.

Here’s what Avril’s video promotes that pissed us off: the fetishization of Asian people. Her video took those Japanese women in the background and turned them into accessories. When white popstars make these videos, it diminishes our status as people and turns us into pretty little things to fawn over and look at. To white men, we are exotic sex toys. To white women, we are adorable play things. No one is actually interested in the culture. If they were, they wouldn’t make stupidly bright videos about Hello Kitty and call it a representation of Japan. Japan is a lot more than just sushi and anime.

Now, I’m gonna go back to the differences in Asian Americans and native Asians here. Here’s what sets us apart: we grew up around a shit ton of white people. Racist, ignorant white people. And here’s the thing, racism comes in different forms. We are exposed to both negative and positive racism throughout our lives. Avril’s video just happens to be an example of positive racism. And when I say positive, I’m not saying it affects us positively. It’s just done or said in a way that’s expected to be flattering instead of harmful, like when someone says that all Asian people are good at math. I passed calculus 1 with a C I hardly think good math skills is a genetically rooted phenomenon. Let me tell you about just a few of the moments I have personally experienced that most people in Asia wouldn’t.

This year, my roommate brought her dance group to our apartment. Korean music has been getting much larger in the world with Psy, Wondergirls, and Girl’s Generation making big leaps in America. One little white girl caught my distaste that night with some of the things she said. She didn’t mean any ill, but she had a bit of an Asian fetish, saying things like,

“I feel like I should have been born in Korea. I would make a great Korean person.” “Asian guys are so hot. I only want to marry a Korean guy.”

I grew up in Fayetteville, NC. For those unfamiliar with the military, this is where Fort Bragg is. Being a military town, there are lots of military retirees that were stationed in Korea. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had old white men come up to me at Wal-Mart, the grocery store, at work, at the fucking auto shop, trying to get a 'little asian wife’. I shit you not, one man actually went as far as saying “I’ll take care of you, you just have to keep me company.”

Okay one more big one. Back in middle school, I got a lot of shit for being Korean. Kids would always ask if I had eaten dog or cat, called me panda, asked me to read Chinese characters (which still happens to me, btw). You know what that shit did to me back then? It made me ashamed of my own culture. I didn’t want to be Korean. I wondered, no, WISHED daily that I had been born to a white family. I’m over it now, but it made my youth pretty miserable and hard.

And that’s what stereotypes do, you know? It works into every insecurity you have and makes you hate yourself for not being able to live up to those standards people put on your race until eventually, you accept that yeah, that’s how Asian people are! That’s how I am! I actually spent time with a diverse group of Asian people and the two Indian people there actually said that India wasn’t Asian. That it didn’t COUNT. How messed up is that shit.

And this brings me back to the main focus here. No, Avril’s video isn’t really inaccurate of one aspect of Japanese culture: Harajuku has lots of cute shit. But that’s not all Japan’s about. When Avril and Gwen and Katy took it upon themselves to 'promote’ Japanese culture, they just reinforced the stereotype that Japan is all sparkles and anime. They took what they thought was the culture and made it into a showcase for people to gawk at and obsess over.

The reason why native Japanese people don’t find this racist is because they’re not even exposed to racism. They don’t have to deal with white people constantly harassing them or telling them how much they LOVE ASIA OH MY GOD I WISH I WAS ASIAN LOOK I CAN USE CHOPSTICKS AND I WATCHED EVERY EPISODE OF NARUTO AND I HAVE NEKOMIMI KAWAII DESUUUU!!!

Shit’s fucking annoying we get it you like anime but how about actually researching the country a bit? Japan isn’t all shits and sparkles. It has a deep root of racism and violence directed towards Korea and China, which is still pretty prevalent to this day. Sorry I kind of went off longer than I meant to, but don’t try to say this stuff isn’t racist by going to a group of people that doesn’t even know about the racism in America.

tl;dr: Japanese people aren’t exposed to racism in their own country and what they find offensive isn’t what we Asian Americans find offensive. This wasn’t just about appropriation it was about being fetishized and taken as accessories instead of people AGAIN