[quote=“Rambler, post:360, topic:3080, full:true”]
Someone called me out a while back for referring to Minamino as our Jap and yet their car industry hold Japfest every year in the UK.[/quote]
The Japanese car industry does not hold an event with that name. It is an event at Silverstone for people who race souped-up Japanese cars. No Japanese company would associate itself with anything by the name of Jap. I expect for historical reasons, people here in Japan see that word as offensive as black people see the N-word. You might disagree but it is true.
I used to do business with the Nissan factory here in the UK and it was explained to me that in the USA, no doubt because of WW2, the word is much more likely to be regarded as a pejorative word than in the UK or Europe.
The following sums up how I would see it (from a discussion on this very topic)…but obviously if I have offended anyone then I apologise.
I’m Japanese-American (Nisei), having lived in both countries for a good amount of time, here’s my 2 cents.
I’ve grown to find “Jap” to be analogous to “Jew.”
Let me explain in simple terms, “Jew” is one of the few words that can either take a descriptive meaning (Oh yeah, I’m a Jew) or an offensive meaning (You *** Jew!).*
Same as “Jap,” it can be an abbreviation with a descriptive meaning (Yeah, I’m a Jap) or an offensive word (That *** Jap!).*
A couple of weeks ago over here there was a bit if a stink over a female Korean America sports reporter being the subject of a racist joke by some dickhead talk radio guys. They were discussing the city of boston banning single serve bottles of alcohol, commonly called Nippers, or Nips, and one of them answered Mina Kimes when asked what his favourite Nip is (Nipon being the Japanese word for Japan).
The radio jocks tried to back track, but were supported by no end of people arguing in their defense with brain dead arguments
“my dad fought in the war, and that’s just what he called Japanese people so it definitely isnt racist”. Yes you moron, that’s exactly the point
“It’s not racist, it’s just a shortened form of the word Nipponese, like using the word Brit”…Pakistanis just exited the discussion
Well a lot depends where you come from. In Liverpool when I was younger you shortened everything.
Plastic - Plassy/placct, electric - Leccy - Off licience - Offy - Chinese take away - Chinky etc. Nobody meant offense by it at the time.
My grandson and his mum…a few years ago…were waiting for their chinese takeaway delivery…mum was in the bathroom and grandson heard a knock.on the door…opened it up…and shouted to mum…“Mum the chinkys here”…and there was the delivery, delivered by a young chinese gentleman, who couldn’t stop laughing…(an innocent statement by a young boy who doesn’t have a nasty bone in his body)…
Surprised to see he still has two years left on his Juve contract. Feel badly for him, his career has taken a sharp downward turn with that move to Juve.
Not a great prospect having to go back and join Mason Greenwood in your team is it…
The guy just did not get an ounce of luck while he was here… wish him well
