It is interesting to hear that David Blecken ("The usual level of xenophobia," Aug. 7 letter) is "sick" of David Arudou's Op-Eds. I have a suggestion: Stop reading them. Otherwise, although Blecken's pessimistic assertion that Japan is "no more xenophobic than any other society" certainly may be true, this does not diminish any of Arudou's points raised by his article on the use of the term "gaijin."
While I am sure Blecken has had sufficient experience in Japan to reject the notion that xenophobia here is worthy of comment, might I suggest, as one born and raised in the deep south of the United States, that similar exasperation may have been raised regarding protest over what in the past was a commonplace adjective yet today is the unprintable "N-word" — a point that Arudou made, though perhaps too subtly for some.
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