I have been, for the most part, specifically avoiding this topic on this blog, and being very careful about how I engage with it elsewhere. The environment right now is very toxic, and quite frankly, it’s not really on topic for this blog (or, if we’re to be honest, many of the other places it’s being discussed right now). There’s a lot of virtue signalling going on right now – like, an almost intolerable amount of it, and I do not have any desire to get on that bandwagon. Plus emotions are running very high, and it’s impossible to have a productive discussion on any topic when one or both sides are primarily driven by emotion. Emotion is, by its very nature, irrational.
Unfortunately, a few days ago, it became topical for this blog.
Japan does not have the same kind of racial struggles that the United States does. In actuality, our racial struggles are somewhat unique, as we have a history that many other countries do not have. It is an unfortunate fact that, until somewhere around the mid 1850s, we were a country of people that kept slaves.
Even though the slaves were freed and no one currently living has any memory of either keeping saves or being kept as slaves, the consequences of that unfortunate fact continue to be felt. Recently, because of some events in the news, this has come front and center in the consciousness of my country. Some discussions that have been happening have been productive. Some, unfortunately, have not. And some have been violent, which should be in no way condoned, and it is one of the greatest failures of the leadership in my country – from local to national – that it has been tolerated as much as it has.
It is, however, an unfortunate fact that the discussion has been hijacked by those with an agenda that has nothing to do with furthering the discussion, and, instead, has everything to do with promoting other, very destructive, leftist “ideals”. And that is being exported to other countries. Like Japan.
Japan does not care about our racial struggles, nor should they. As they have some struggles of their own that have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with hakujin or kokujin. In fact, from what I can gather, they really can’t or won’t tell the difference in a very real way. So us trying to import our particular brand of activism to their shores is not being taken very well.
I can’t say I blame them for that, to be honest.
But this exposes a different issue.
Japan does have racism, but it does not look like the racism that exists in my country. As I said, it has nothing to do with “white” or “black”, but instead nihonjin and “everyone else”. This is very ingrained in their culture and has been for centuries.
Japan belongs to the Japanese – of course. And far be it from me to be overly critical of their country when mine seems to be (almost literally, in some places), in flames. It is, and should be, very offensive to the Japanese that some elements of my culture our trying to export our brand of activism to their shores. On the other hand, racism in their country is very real as well, and I would hope that they would reflect on that fact.
I really, really would not like to see some kind of extreme activist movement popping up in their country and wreaking the kind of havoc that has been wreaked in mine. Because the very justifiable offense of racism seems to have the unfortunate effect of opening a toehold into much more unsavory things that have nothing to do with racism and everything to do with an incursion of leftist ideology. America is very robust against those kinds of incursions, as even with the full complicitness of the government and the media, it is being greatly resisted. Because of the particular way that Japanese society is structured, I am not sure how resilient they would be to such a thing.
I hope, for their sake, that they can withstand the disruption that is almost inevitably coming. It seems that no country, right now, is immune from disruption. I don’t know if it’s too late for the US yet, but I’m rooting for them.