1
point
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Calling this video racist is completely ridiculous. The monkey is the company's mascot, and has been used in their previous commercials. It seems completely backwards to me that these people are angry that many people don't correlate blacks with monkeys. They're basically encouraging and perpetuating these stereotypes. They should be happy no one made the connection, it demonstrates a lack of racism. What a bunch of idiots. Side: No
It wasn't racist to represent George W. Bush as a Chimpanzee as seen in countless comics and internet photographs literally comparing him to a chimp, so there's no reason why it should suddenly become racist for Obama-san to be represented as a monkey, especially since this Japanese company clearly had no mal-intent. It's not like the monkey wasn't already their bloody mascot! There was no harm intended at all by the ad. Side: No
Bush was portrayed as a monkey because people thought he was stupid, not because bigoted people think all white people are stupid. However, one of the historically bigoted slurs against blacks is that they're monkey-like. So I'd say this commercial is definitely racist, but possibly unintentionally. The company ended up pulling the commercial when it started getting heat. Side: yes
2
points
Not racist. The company's mascot is a monkey. I doubt that the average Japanese person knows that monkeys were once used to attack blacks. I do think cluelessness is an excuse. If nobody even recognizes that it's patterned after Obama, and people don't know about monkeys being compared to African Americans overseas then who cares. I am an American who has lived in Japan for many years and have a good feeling for the Japanese way of thinking. I cannot see any malicioius intent from this ad. This whole argument is what happens when foreigners try to improperly analyze content that is designed for Japan (a country with a completely different culture, people, and way of thinking) using their own cultural bias. I really can't believe the Africans interviewed in the CNN clip who live in Japan are honestly offended, when the Japanese people who made that video had no ill intent, and the average Japanese person does not associate monkeys with blacks, and does not associate the ad with even Obama, and there was never the discrimination against Africans in Japan that there was in the US. It looks like they are just trying to pick a fight and complain about something. Better to just let the ad run its course and forget about it; this isn't a sign of anything big or getting bigger. Of course it's nice to be culturally sensitive. But Japanese are pretty bad at foreign relations and had no ill intent here either so I have to forgive them on this one... Side: No
1
point
I heard quite a peep, but it wasn't a racist peep because there's no general stereotype about all white people being stupid. However, there's clearly a lot of bigoted people claiming all (or most) black people are stupid, which this video plays towards (hopefully unintentionally). Side: yes
1
point
fuckin' morons, did they do ANY RESEARCH before opening their fuckin' mouths? it's funny how the people complaining were blacks and one Chinese dude. fuck, i would keep the ad up if i were that dude, it's actually a pretty brilliant ad. Tired of the PC police bitching about every little thing that might be considered offensive. Side: No
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