I think as a white guy living in Japan, I'm supposed to be angry and offended right now. But after watching the commercial-- in which two actors portraying ANA employees and speaking in English discuss changing Japan's image abroad, leading to one of them to suddenly sport a blond wig and a large false nose-- I found I couldn't summon too much outrage. I have my reasons, and I feel some of the responses to the ad I've read are disingenuous at best.
After all, unlike Japan, we Americans have grown and changed in the US and don't stereotype people of color anymore, do we? I mean, especially since we have a whole holiday devoted to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? I'm going to have to go Louis CK on this one.
PS-- I'm aware that a number of the above links don't specifically relate to Japanese people. I seriously doubt very many people engaging in some of the behaviors in those stories make that distinction, which is my final reason why I'm not particularly sweating ANA right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment