Debito Arudou's Aug. 5 article, "Once a 'gaijin,' always a 'gaijin,' " definitely raised some eyebrows. As a black American, I'd like to comment on one aspect -- Arudou's view that "nigger" and "gaijin' seem one and the same. I have to disagree. Although the origins of "nigger" date back centuries and its earlier usage did not have an explosively negative connotation, the reality today is that it is a far more loaded word than "gaijin" will ever be. Anyone can joke about "gaijin" -- Americans, Europeans, Africans, even other Asians. Of course, we can infuse the word with hatred and xenophobic overtones, but they can be defused quite easily.
Go into East Los Angeles or Southside Chicago and use "nigger' jokingly. See what kind of response you get. Go into the Deep South and say the word in any crowd -- you could become "strange fruit" overnight. People talk about defusing the word, but it never seems to stick. History has given "nigger" a weight to bear and it must be respected. American hip-hop and rap artists have talked about "owning" the word, yet it's still a bombshell that causes uproar throughout the community. It takes a certain sensitivity, cultural understanding and other variables that I can't even describe before one can say, "Let's approach the word."
Now if you can say the same about "gaijin," then I stand corrected. But I doubt I'm wrong. Arudou's article definitely raises issues with regard to how Japanese people deal with foreigners, and that needs to be tackled by Japanese and gaijin alike. But to equate the use of "gaijin" to "nigger" is, as someone else said, "hyperbolic." I would say it's 180 degrees off target.
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