The beauty contest winner making Japan look at itself - Polidicks

[b]The beauty contest winner making Japan look at itself[/b] Source: [url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32957610]BBC[/url] (video in source) ____________________ [quote]At first sight even I am a little confused by Ariana Miyamoto. She is tall and strikingly beautiful. But the first thing that pops in to my head when I meet the newly crowned Miss Universe Japan is that she doesn't look very Japanese. In just two years here I have clearly absorbed a lot of the local prejudices about what it means to be "Japanese". My confusion lasts only until Ariana opens her mouth. Suddenly everything about her shouts out that she is Japanese, from the soft lilting tone of her voice, to her delicate hand gestures and demure expression. Well of course she is. Ariana was born in Japan and has lived here all her life. She knows little of her father's home back in Arkansas in the United States. But to many Japanese, and I really do mean many, Ariana Miyamoto is not Japanese. Not fully anyway. Ariana is what is known in Japan as a "hafu", taken from the English word "half". To me the word sounds derogatory. But when I ask her Ariana surprises me by defending the term, even embracing it. [/quote] The rest of the article is very disheartening. I knew the Japanese tend to be very secular, but holy shit... most of the stuff she experiences over there is mind-blowingly racist.

I never interpreted the term "hafu" in a derogatory manner at all. I just see it stated in a de facto manner. It's easy to say "half".

Pretty much the same issue as Miss America, except the US is a huge country. Japan is tiny and has huge population issues which are only made worse by the rampant xenophobia. [editline]5th June 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=FetusFondler;47881621]I never interpreted the term "hafu" in a derogatory manner at all. I just see it stated in a de facto manner. It's easy to say "half".[/QUOTE] It's a problem when people see it as a diminished state. You're not "fully" Japanese if you're hafu, you're only kind-of part of it. It's xenophobia, pure and simple.

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;47881638]It's a problem when people see it as a diminished state. You're not "fully" Japanese if you're hafu, you're only kind-of part of it. It's xenophobia, pure and simple.[/QUOTE] I don't really understand the bad thing about being half Japanese. Could you explain?

[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;47881717]I don't really understand the bad thing about being half Japanese. Could you explain?[/QUOTE] to some people Japan ( not all I believe most are out of this essence ) you're either 100% Japanese ( both Mom and dad or you're just a half to them or they like to call is hafu ) [editline]5th June 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Rocket;47881729]It's not bad, but people think it's bad because they're xenophobic. [editline]4th June 2015[/editline] Like you're not "pure" Japanese.[/QUOTE] this guy sum's it up

[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;47881717]I don't really understand the bad thing about being half Japanese. Could you explain?[/QUOTE] I guess it's because you're not truly "one of them" despite being the same other than looks

[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;47881717]I don't really understand the bad thing about being half Japanese. Could you explain?[/QUOTE] Because people who aren't considered 100% Japanese face systematic discrimination and are distrusted by others. This doesn't extend to tourists because tourists can be kept at an arm's length and don't insist on being treated as Japanese; people who feel themselves to be wholly Japanese (there's no reason this woman shouldn't consider herself Japanese anyway) do insist and run into trouble. It happens to Japanese-Koreans as well, who are called Zainichi (a word implying they're just staying there).

[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;47881717]I don't really understand the bad thing about being half Japanese. Could you explain?[/QUOTE] it's bad in a society that doesn't see half-japanese people as "real" japanese people

[QUOTE=Rocket;47881526]Sounds strikingly similar to all the complaints about Miss America 2014.[/QUOTE] Hardly. Over there she's facing real discrimination, as opposed to a handful of nasty comments on twitter or facebook.

[QUOTE=ZestyLemons;47881717]I don't really understand the bad thing about being half Japanese. Could you explain?[/QUOTE] Reminds me of Australia's darker side of history where we tried to breed out the aboriginal population to make them white. Children with a black mother/father were half-castes and then even a generation later you could be considered a quarter-caste or a mixbreed. You're less than the average man and always will be because you're born like that. It's disgusting but I can understand why she defends the term because without it she's just an outsider, and has nothing.

[QUOTE=Ganerumo;47881638] It's a problem when people see it as a diminished state. You're not "fully" Japanese if you're hafu, you're only kind-of part of it. It's xenophobia, pure and simple.[/QUOTE] Sure, some people might use it in such a way, but many people use the word without meaning it like that, and just use it to point out that the person has western and japanese genes in them, and wouldn't really use it to try and take away the japaneseyness of someone born in Japan and of Japanese nationality. I know this for a fact, personal sources and all that. Also, the "rampant xenophobia" might not be as rampant across the younger population as you might think, the problem is that much of Japan's population is elderly and that particular problem is getting worse, and throughout the world statistics show that the elderly have more racist tendencies.

Japan being very [del]secular[/del] insular led to few if not many Japanese people being xenophobic or racist

[QUOTE=Crash155;47882312]Japan being very secular led to few if not many Japanese people being xenophobic or racist[/QUOTE] okay im sorry but how does a lack of religion create a xenophobic or racist culture

Urgh OP you could add a pic of her at least [t]http://www.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/2015223/rs_634x1024-150323180352-634.Ariana-Miyamoto-Miss-Universe-Japan.ms.032315.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=Zombii;47882341]okay im sorry but how does a lack of religion create a xenophobic or racist culture[/QUOTE] I used the wrong word, I meant them being very tight-knit and to themselves [editline]b[/editline] insular is the word

Well she's not really Japanese.

[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;47882482]Well she's not really Japanese.[/QUOTE] [quote] Ariana was born in Japan and has lived here all her life.[/quote] Huh. If that doesn't make her Japanese, what does?

[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;47882482]Well she's not really Japanese.[/QUOTE] yes she is

Lol just because you're born somewhere doesn't make you that race. If I was born in China I wouldn't be Chinese. [highlight](User was permabanned for this post ("still an alt" - Orkel))[/highlight]

Chinese isn't a race in the first place.

[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;47882568]Lol just because you're born somewhere doesn't make you that race. If I was born in China I wouldn't be Chinese.[/QUOTE] Chinese is an ethnicity you dolt.

[QUOTE=thisispain;47882573]Chinese isn't a race in the first place.[/QUOTE] [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese[/url]

[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;47882583][url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese[/url][/QUOTE] Don't link stuff without reading it. Han Chinese is an ethnicity, and far from the only one within what is called the Sino-sphere. The Han are incredibly genetically, linguistically, and physically divergent.

[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;47882583][url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese[/url][/QUOTE]"Ethnic group". You should've read the wiki before posting.

[QUOTE=thisispain;47882590]Don't link stuff without reading it. Han Chinese is an ethnicity, and far from the only one within what is called the Sino-sphere. The Han are incredibly genetically, linguistically, and physically divergent.[/QUOTE] ethnicity and race are the same buddy

[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;47882595]ethnicity and race are the same buddy[/QUOTE]Not at all. Haha, please educate yourself about race and ethnicity before posting any further.

[QUOTE=Carlton Dance;47882601]Not at all. Haha, please educate yourself about race and ethnicity before posting any further.[/QUOTE] you are the uneducated one buddy.

[QUOTE=VietnameseCat;47882595]ethnicity and race are the same buddy[/QUOTE] Not if you actually know what the terms mean. Race is an old concept based on physical characteristics while ethnicity is not. Ariana Miyamoto is ethnically Japanese because she speaks the language and is integrated into the cultural system. Whether she's racially Japanese or not is a different issue, but generally we consider race to be a scientifically-outdated concept.

[QUOTE=thisispain;47882609]Not if you actually know what the terms mean. Race is an old concept based on physical characteristics while ethnicity is not. Ariana Miyamoto is ethnically Japanese because she speaks the language and is integrated into the cultural system. Whether she's racially Japanese or not is a different issue, but generally we consider race to be a scientifically-outdated concept.[/QUOTE] She's not Japanese because she's not Japanese, even the Japanese know this.

The Japanese have their own "indians" in the north called the Ainu. They basically committed cultural genocide on those people.