Bryan,

What is your problem with hating our enemies?
When he referred to the “the j-word” and “Nazis”, it was clearly in a context of WWII, not modern Japan, and was no reference to *race*.

What about when our British members referred to us as “yanks”? Yankee was a derogatory term, once upon a time, and still not a popular term in the South. But guess what? It’s history. It’s a slippery slope when you start cherry picking what terms your membership can use; look at the abuse we regularly dish out on the French.

For the record, I hate the Japanese, I hate Japanese culture, I despise the fact that they continued fighting the war until the 1970s when they finally won (the tactic). With an effort I refrain from expressing that hatred openly, out of respect for fools people with other sensibilities. You’ll note that I didn’t take this opportunity to childishly use the term you (for whatever reason) find offensive.

How is your condemnation of his usage of a nickname for Japanese of the WWII era any different than any other liberal, PC attempt to control what language we use? Mustn’t use the ‘n-word’, they’re “gay” not the “q-word”, but we can say redneck, redneck, redneck.

I fully expect you to stomp on the next member who uses the term “redneck”. I find it at least as offensive as you find that reference to the Japanese. Again, I’m not being facetious; I DO find the term ‘redneck’ offensive, so why shouldn’t my “feelings” be as sacred as anybody else’s? Because you don’t think I should be offended by the term? Pot. Kettle. Black.

What next, will we be chastised for referring to Iraqis as ‘desert trash’? Or will that be okay only until the war is over, when we’ve rebuilt their country, they’re building our cars and electronics, and everyone thinks sharia and suicide bombers are “cool”?

(side note; a co-worker of mine, a guy who’s genetic makeup changes with his mood and who admits to having “a problem with white people” was a devotee of Japanese culture; he spent 3 years there, and is trying to get a graduate degree here so he can return higher up on the totem pole. While doing his paperwork on day, he openly stated “God I hate this country” (in spite of being a Taoist). I didn’t kill him, I didn’t fight for his dismissal (the company owner is ex-secret service, so you can figure out how he would have reacted). But if I can put up with that, surely you can thicken your skin enough to recognize an archaic term for what it is.)

Hiraghm on May 8, 2007 at 1:42 PM

tickleddragon,

I had a 2nd cousin who was at Pearl Harbor, another couple of uncles who fought in the Pacific. Like Ann Coulter, I suffer from Irish Alzheimer’s… I forget everything except my grudges.

I’ve watched my country embrace Japanese culture for all of my life, and I’ve seen it decline. I’ve seen the Japanese adopt (not embrace) some of American culture, and they’ve prospered (granted, partly through economic warfare and our largess). Personally, I do not like anything I have learned about Japanese culture; it is barbaric, egotistic and cowardly… in my opinion. That is neither here nor there. But it is as important that I be able to hold my belief about Japan as it is for a preacher to be able to condemn homosexuality. And as my opinion is of Japanese culture, I don’t support derogatory terms for individual members of the Japanese race. As a nation, IMO, they suck. As a culture, IMO, they suck.

Freelancer, I read it the same way, after I made my post.
Bryan didn’t explain that he found the term offensive, he said, ‘don’t do that ever.’

The staff here at HA don’t need a lecture on excessive tolerance, or intolerance.

Obviously, they do.

Disobey at risk to your privilege.

It is not a privilege. I can post at any number of other blogsites, I can create my own; I contribute to the …interesting nature… of this blogsite when I post here. I certainly pull it to the right, which is something an allegedly conservative blog should be.
My unique point of view and way of looking at things, in my opinion, pays for my right to express myself however I wish. I choose to be civil in my discourse, but object to being censored when the context of the conversation doesn’t warrent it. An example, a discussion of social diseases should allow for the usage of vulgar nicknames for certain body parts for the sake of brevity and clarity.

’m sure that some of the reason for their diligence about racial slang

That’s the problem; it wasn’t racial slang, any more than referring to the French as ‘frogs’ is racial slang. Heck, redneck is more racial than is a nickname for the citizenry of Japan during WWII.
I honor Senator Inuye and others who fought for the U.S. during WWII… but the Senator is NOT Japanese any more than I am British. He is an American of Japanese ancestry, just as I am an American of Welsh ancestry. I think it’s a subtle racism to suggest that, because his racial features are not the same as Europeans, he is more closely associated with nations of his racial makeup than are Europeans with nations of their racial makeup. For example, I don’t see any German Americans object to the “nazis” reference above. Just because German Americans don’t look distinguishably different than German nationals doesn’t mean that they are of the “German” race and insulted by derogatory references to a Germany of the past.

Hiraghm on May 8, 2007 at 2:53 PM