Word: racism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...trial may be simple: Did Woodland rape the woman, or didn't he? But in Okinawa, the already murky case has been churned into a raging whirl by nationalist politics, screaming media, a half-century of dammed-up local grief and--roiling beneath it all--an undercurrent of racism...
...black American serviceman stands accused of raping a Japanese woman. Which means an already murky case has been churned into a raging whirl by nationalist politics, screaming media, a half-century of dammed-up local grief and?roiling unmentioned beneath it all?an undercurrent of racism...
...proliferation and power of global image peddlers like MTV to very basic questions of racial and sexual identity. There is an objectifying component to the kokujo's particular infatuation, and by definition that is dehumanizing. If you are saying a black is better than a white, that's racism, albeit through a twisted, hip-hop hula hoop. And isn't part of the appeal of these black Americans that they represent some taboo, the stereotype of potency and virility, combined with the perception that Western men are more romantic than Japanese...
...Both racism and sexism are relevant because they may dictate this case. Still, the media tries to pretend otherwise. In the days immediately following the rape charge, most news outlets didn't report on the race of the accused. Some Western journalists did, but they didn't note that his accuser was almost certainly a kokujo and that the nightclub culture around the Okinawan bases is almost as segregated as the Jim Crow South. When off duty, most military personnel tend to congregate according to race. The clubs that black servicemen frequent are also the haunts of kokujo. Of course...
...time to grow up and recognize that on the issue of racism, we live in a world covered in warts, scars and open wounds. Healing those is always going to hurt. In fact, unless a global discussion on racism is painful and uncomfortable, it's probably not getting anywhere...