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Of course, I say this as a diaspora Asian of sorts.

Noizumi is half-Japanese, and she found herself thinking, “Why am I so excited that my daughter has blue eyes? What’s the big deal about that? And why am I so excited that I have a baby who looks more white?”

This is the kind of statement that would get a white celebrity cancelled for saying it, but apparently it’s just a fun tidbit for Netflix.

In their early creative conversations that would eventually span 15 years, they started spinning a tale about how “back in the Edo period starting in 17th-century Japan, it would’ve been illegal to be white.

Wtf based Edo period.

CW: Rape

According to some of the promotional materials, the main character is a product of rape of a Japanese woman by a white man, which is a terrible and insensitive if they play it straight and a weeb fantasy if they redeem the dad at the end.

Idk if the series is as good as they say, but how the fuck did they think that publishing any of this was a good idea?

  • loathsome dongeater@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Why am I so excited that my daughter has blue eyes? What’s the big deal about that?

    Internalised racism and white supremacy maybe

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        When the global empire rewards people for a physical appearance that aligns with the Supremacist Ideal, it isn’t unreasonable for a parent to think “Wow! My kid really dodged a bullet, by looking like someone the Aristocracy will not actively seek to exterminate.”

        Its an instinctual survivalist response. I wouldn’t want my kid targeted for ethnic cleansing either.

          • zifnab25 [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            They’ll have to deal with the racism and self hate straight from their parents.

            Idk about that. They’ve got blue eyes, so they’ll be treated like the Golden Child.

            I’m more worried about any siblings who didn’t win the genetic lottery.

            • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              1 year ago

              Every wasian I’ve met raised by these people has been deeply traumatized. Most of them aren’t far away from being the next Elliot Rogers.

            • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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              1 year ago

              Even if the parents treat the kid well, it’s possible that they’ll get fucked up in the head if the parents’ expectations don’t match society. That Elliot Rodger incel mass shooter was by all accounts treated very well by his parents, but he ended up as an incel mass shooter because he thought he was entitled to women anyway. If you read his posts, he definitely thought he was special because he was half white.

        • TranscendentalEmpire
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          1 year ago

          When the global empire rewards people for a physical appearance that aligns with the Supremacist Ideal

          I think wanting your child not to stand out in their current environment is pretty common among all parents. If you live in the west it is more socially advantageous to look Western. If this child was living in Japan, looking white would make them an outcast.

          I think people tend to forget that different ethnicities have different ideas about racial/ethnic supremacy. Japan, Korea, and China all have their own issues with ethnic Chauvinism and how it relates to nationalism.

          I’m half Korean, in America that makes me a Korean, but in Korea it makes me western. I think with a lot of East Asian people who have interracial children hope that they will look more western as it will make their lives easier in the west. Plus, they know that an interacial child will never be truly accepted by their own homeland.

  • heartheartbreak [fae/faer]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Every sentence is twice as racist as the last one lmfao.

    These people really looked at their 3/4 white child and said “I LOVE how white it is. Also Japan Samurai!!”

    • booty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      I love references to Yasuke. His life is just such a fun story. It feels so innocent in a way. Imagine seeing somebody who looks really unusual and literally just not knowing why. You haven’t really heard stories of people who look like this. Nobody’s got any racist tirades they can go on. It’s just a novelty. He may as well be from another planet as far as you’re concerned. I think it demonstrates quite well that racism isn’t some kind of ingrained behavior that’s inherent to humanity. The natural reaction to somebody who looks different is to be like “Huh, that’s neat. I wonder if he wants to be friends.” You have to be taught to be racist and afraid of the unknown.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      1 year ago

      People like Yasuke and General Ganibal are very interesting to me because Gamers love to screech about “historical accuracy” as if Africans would have been killed on sight back then but irl it’s like “Cool, a person with black skin. Let’s make him a samurai or general if he’s good at his job.”

  • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Ugh, they could have just made it a genuine romance and it would have been…still problematic…but at least potentially a good exploration of early colonialism and it’s complexities.

  • Trudge [Comrade]@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    It’s a natural reaction to the American social dynamics. Asian Americans instinctively understand that they’ll always be a foreigner in other American’s eyes (and their own eyes as well due to internalized racism). They wish the best for their children, which means fitting in by being white. Getting a white spouse is a deliberate defense mechanism against a hostile society as well.

    Racialization of national and personal identity isn’t a problem only in Israel.

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Noizumi is half-Japanese, and she found herself thinking, “Why am I so excited that my daughter has blue eyes? What’s the big deal about that? And why am I so excited that I have a baby who looks more white?”

    What the actual fuck. Blue eyes can look cool, but why tie it in with race? What the fuck

    • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Almost all Japanese people have dark brown eyes. The only other eye colours you might see are light brown or green and those are only in pretty specific regions of the country.

      Because of this blue eyes are viewed as a distinctly caucasian-ancestry thing.

  • muddi [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    I am a brown guy and wore colored contacts for a phase in my life. It was for myself, and yes admittedly it was an icebreaker for the ladies if nothing else.

    But it ended up really creepy and sad how people only noticed me then, specifically in terms of how not-brown I looked and what my possible genetic background might be. And if I revealed that they were “fake” (in their words), some of them were really harsh about me trying to be someone I can’t be.

    I don’t wear them anymore.

  • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    More like White worship was a mistake. Lots of non-white people talk like this and it’s gross. These types will pass up gorgeous poc for some mediocre or ugly white person just so they can have kids with lighter skin and colored eyes. The kids usually grow up with a number of mental health issues too.

  • darkmode [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    Noizumi is half-Japanese, and she found herself thinking, “Why am I so excited that my daughter has blue eyes? What’s the big deal about that? And why am I so excited that I have a baby who looks more white?”

    pain

  • Umechan [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    back in the Edo period starting in 17th-century Japan, it would’ve been illegal to be white.

    Sounds like America in 2023. /s

  • Alaskaball [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    what the fuck?

    Also I’m fairly certain there was some part of the japanese cultural historical period that had being as un-sun-kissed pale white as possible being a desirable trait among imperial courtiers because it was a sign of not being a stinking poor peasant. I’m thinking it’s from the Heian period.

    And I’m gonna go out on a limb based off of the historiography I’ve read, it wasn’t illegal to be “white” in the Edo period, it was illegal to be a gaijin bleach demon imperialist invading Japan - something that’s not exclusively “uniquely Japanese”, much to the Japanese ultra-nats and weeb nazis chagrin, as Korea and China generally considered the roving european bandits who called themselves “explorers” and “traders” to be barbarians to be kept away. - which means this diasporian asian’s been yankeefied to the point she’s obsessed with becoming european to the point of mythologizing history

    • usernamesaredifficul [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      that had being as un-sun-kissed pale white as possible being a desirable trait among imperial courtiers because it was a sign of not being a stinking poor peasant. I’m thinking it’s from the Heian period.

      yes but a white guy who works in the sun would also have their skin tan so it wouldn’t really make any difference. East asian people don’t actually have skin that looks all that darker than white people do

      race is made up and arbitrary, before the opium wars the chinese were considered white. In south africa being Japanese made you legally white

      it was once popular in england to call the Irish white skinned black people (and that’s the nice way of putting it)

  • CrushKillDestroySwag@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    All I’ve done is read the article and watched the trailer.

    I hate the animation style

    I hate the music

    The story sounds formulaic

    I’m probably gonna skip this one.