racistscarf.jpg

Accusations have been made.

Lindy West was born an unremarkable female baby in Seattle, Washington. The former Stranger writer covered movies, movie stars, exclamation points, lady stuff, large frightening fish, and much, much more....

150 replies on “Is My Scarf Fnarf Racist?”

  8. Aren’t those Japanese masks, from Kabuki theater? I’ll bet a Japanese could even identify which characters those are; the red-faced guy with the long nose looks familiar.

  11. It’s Japanese theater masks, yes.

    Coming from a time in Japan when the Japanese were mostly a homogenous society.

    Applying 20th century American ideas of racism to this makes NO sense, other than to show just how progressively sensitive and culturally ignorant the author is.

    Look at me! I see prejudice and oppresion EVERYWHERE!

    Very nice. How enlightened. You should travel more if you’re going to put on airs like that.

  20. I don’t see anything racist in it unless you’re trying to imply that the clown with the wide open mouth is a depiction of a black person.

  23. Coming next in the Slog:

    The “Have A Nice Day” smiley-face and what its yellow color says about current Asian-American stereotypes!

    In addition: how come there’s two shades of brown for M&M’s but nothing in a caucasian shade? Racism? Or just fucking candy? You decide.

  26. @12, are you a Japanese, or are you a Japanese-American? I was referring to the former. It’s sad when immigrant groups that have previously been subject to racial discrimination start adopting the same xenophobic, US-centric attitudes as their former oppressors. Japan is not part of the US.

    Maybe you’d have better luck folding your fucking cranes if you’d pull your head out of your ass.

  28. If sexy == racist, then, yes, your scarf is racist, Lindy, cause it’s ultra-sexy.

    I hear that Racism is the new Black.

  30. @26 Is this a grammatical argument for you, then? Because I really think it’s OK to just say “Japanese” rather than “a Japanese,” which is weird.

  36. My original phrase was “a Japanese would know”. How else would you say it? “Japanese” is both a noun and an adjective: a Japanese, a Japanese person, the Japanese language, the Japanese islands. If it sounds weird to you, I don’t know what to tell you; it’s the first definition in any dictionary.

  37. Using article + racial adjective to describe a person is, if nothing else, quite dated. Difference between “American” and “Japanese” is that “American” is very, very seldom used as a racial identifier. And probably wouldn’t be understood if it were used that way.

  38. Oh c’mon fnarf. Are you claiming that you haven’t noticed the vast movement of the cultural vernacular from “a Chinese” to “a Chinese person” or “a native of China” or whatnot over the last, say, four decades?

  40. @37, what the hell are you talking about? “Japan” is not a race, it’s a country. The people who live there are called “Japanese”, as is their land mass and their language. A Japanese is the ordinary way to refer to a resident of Japan, just as “an American” is the ordinary way to refer to a resident of the United States.

    Are you seriously suggesting that no one says “Chinese” anymore because it’s racist? You’re, uh, wrong about that.

    Am I really having this argument?

  41. “TOKYO (Reuters) – Baseball-mad Japanese celebrated outside electronic stores and at work on Monday morning after Japan crushed the United States to reach the final of the World Baseball Classic.”

  44. I don’t know about it being racist or not, but, clearly, most people now say a “a Japanese person” or “a person from Japan” (as opposed to “a Japanese”) when referring to an individual. When it’s plural, I think there’s a little more variation — “the Japanese”, “Japanese”, “Japanese people”, etc.

    Unless you’re my 80 year old neighbors, I guess, who still use the word Orientals, as in, “the Oriental couple next door”.

  45. “Maybe you’d have better luck folding your fucking cranes if you’d pull your head out of your ass.”

    ROFFLE!!!!!

  46. I’m suggesting, fnarf, that some nationalities are closely aligned with races in the public mind (Japanese and Chinese being two prime examples). I clearly did not suggest that no one uses the term “Chinese” anymore (although nice removal of the word “a” from my example); instead, I pointed to the large-scale move away from using article + nationality/race to refer to a person: “a Chinese”; “a Japanese.”

  47. I have never in my life until this day heard of a single person referred to as “a Japanese.” Not necessarily racist, but definitely unusual.

  48. It’s only racist if someone else thinks it is – which means they have to get up real close, stare at the offending scarf, briefly judge, then state their irrelevant opinion. It’s like those ties of old with the letters FUCK cleverly woven into the design – if you see FUCK then you’re probably a sex maniac. Or a womaniac as they case may be.

  49. There do seem to be some adjectives that sound more natural functioning as nouns. Race aside, it would be very odd to say “a French” or “an English” (generally one adds “man” or “woman” to the end) but less odd to hear “a Belgian” or “an Italian.” I wonder if it has something to do with words that look more like our common notion of nouns.

  50. @48 – if they’re doing that, accuse them of sexual harassment.

    which works for either guys or gals staring that close at you.

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