Funny how it's always white guys who say stuff like this.
Stereotyping = Racism? (Avril Lavinge's Hello Kitty video)
- Thread starter ALF
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Funny how it's always white guys who say stuff like this.
Hmmm...I know plenty of non-white people (men and women) that say it as well.
The original version by The Vapors is much better.
It's like saying a country music video with trucks and cowboy hats is racist.
Racist.
^^ 
Exactly. And it's not harmless. People who are desperate to find racism (or whateverism) everywhere they look (and change the definition of the terms), only succeed in compromising the credibility of the issue, give ammunition to the racists (or whateverists), and make it that much more difficult to deal with real problems. And there's enough real problems that people don't really have to invent them.
We were all dancing to this song at work last night.
Well, I wish I could have witnessed that!
Thanks for providing the alternate link, J.Allen, and I think the YouTube takedowns were partially responsible for the media getting this one so very wrong.
Seems like lots of YouTube users were ripping the Hello Kitty video and reposting it, leading to the copyright holder taking down the other videos whack-a-mole style, then when people tried to use those links they would get a page saying the video was removed. The assumption was then that the video was pulled by Avril's team, which was not the case. There was some sort of region locking issue from the release last week, ripping and re-uploading it bypassed that.
All this to say that when Avril Lavinge appears more reasonable than the media, that's the day you re-examine everything.
On the topic of race, Japan is a unique example. It's an island country with very few immigrants and even fewer nationalized foreigners. I had the great pleasure of living there several years.
Remember the campaign before Hallowe'en, suggesting it was racially insensitive to wear Kimonos for Hallowe'en (among several examples)? I know a number of Japanese people whom I polled casually, none of whom considered a non-Japanese wearing a kimono, or any other traditional dress racist in any way. It's common for foreigners/locals in Japan to dress up in samurai/kimono garb for photo sessions and it's highly prized and celebrated.
Perhaps those with Japanese ancestry feel differently?
On the other hand, I can completely see how perhaps First Nations people for example wouldn't want to see people appropriating their traditional dress on Hallowe'en. In particular this group has been trod upon by history so much that it completely makes sense for such costuming to be off limits. The backlash against the film The Lone Ranger, I believe, tapped into this sensitivity as well, despite Depp's insistence that he approached his role of Tonto role with great care and respect.
These sensitivities can exist on a case by case basis so I can see why some may knee-jerk their way into misappropriating those feelings in a blanket generalization.
Do nothing = offend no one!