It’s almost beautiful, huh?
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If you’re referring to me, I specifically said I’m not offended, but I believed it to be worth bringing up nonetheless. It’s really difficult to even bring these topics up without sounding offended, I am well aware of that.
I’m afraid no subject ever can be free from politics. And saying otherwise is the equivalent of sticking your head in the sand (in other word, denial).
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Those are the words of someone obsessed with politics. Last time I checked, there were no politics in Castlevania, or Back to the Future, or learning Japanese.
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Words in and of themselves aren’t inherently offensive, but the cultural and personal context in which they are used can potentially carry a negative connotation. Plenty of words can be both perfectly benign and deeply malicious based on context. Offense is of course subjective, because we have different cultural and personal experiences and frameworks. So both the intent of the speaker and the understanding of the listener bounce off one another, and yeah it gets complicated fast!
Anyway if there’s reason to believe that using the word 白人 in a Japanese context could imply a negative connotation, sure it’s valid for WK to point that out, to prevent its users embarrassment if they use the word inappropriately as much as anything else. Should be pretty uncontroversial.
But they didn’t make a remotely big deal out of it (certainly far less than some people in this thread with their knee-jerk reactions to the very concept of “political correctness”) so it’s a non-issue.
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I couldn’t have put it better myself, language is a tool and context is very important. I am glad WK gives us these warnings in a language that we are not particularly well versed in.
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Technically, this is also politics. Discussion is inherently political in its nature.
At the end of the day, I don’t see why this is an issue, like that time a Jewish guy was moaning because one of the mnemonics on here could be (mis)construed as ever so slightly offensive; if you don’t like something that Koichi and co have put on the site I recommend either ignoring it or finding a different resource to use…
And god forbid you listen to the Tofugu podcast, because Koichi loves adding pieces of political commentary into that as well.
TL;DR: Politics is everywhere, don’t get all mad/upset/triggered/whatever over nothing.
Also, this dude gets it.
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Yeah, I guess the tofugu people self-censored by giving it the “politically correct definition”. Although “Caucasian” has a very politically incorrect past, it comes from the notion by some 19th century “race scientists” that the people of the Caucasus are the most beautiful people in the world, and are therefore where the human race and/or white race originate.
This always boils down to how you define “politics”. If you view politics as literally “government officials in a room crafting legislation” then it seems weird to say “everything is political”. But that is not what that phrase means. “Political” in that phrase means something more like “any and all ideas that come together to form a worldview, and the ways in which that worldview is expressed”. And yeah, in that way Castlevania totally conveys assumptions (in very simplistic ways, sure) about heroism, good and evil, the appropriate way to deal with conflict, etc.
Analogies are always dangerous, but it’s like the word “vehicle”. The narrow definition would be like “a wheeled or tracked (or dragged?) object used for transportation” e.g, a bus or chariot or dogsled but the broader definition is “anything that aids in the transmission of anything else”, e.g. language is a vehicle for ideas, or fiberoptic cables are the vehicle for the data I’m typing into this post.
“Everything is political” is the broader definition of political. Both definitions have their place, but we can’t just say one doesn’t exist.
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Again, not an issue, was just wondering why put something political into something that could have been inherently apolitical. However, this was under the assumption that the description implies the English word itself to be politically incorrect as opposed to the Japanese translation having politically incorrect connotations. The latter is perfectly fine and if that is the case then I again apologize for misunderstanding.
I’m not obsessed with politics. I just live in the real world.
For me, learning Japanese is not just about learning the language. It’s about learning the culture as well. To understand Japanese culture, we should understand a bit of its history and politics.
Why the LDP is such a dominant party. What was the shogunate, and why was it more powerful than the emperor. How is Japan’s relationship with its neighbors, including South Korea and China.
And other questions such as...
What was Japan’s role in World Wars I and II. How do Japanese people view the Japanese internment camps in the US during World War II. How do they view Pearl Harbor. How do they view atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Is Japan going to come clean about the “comfort women”. How about the Nanking massacre.
How did Japan rise from the ashes of war to become one of the foremost industrial countries. How does Japanese culture influence the world (including anime, manga, and yes, Konami’s own Castlevania). How do Japanese people consume popular culture from other countries. Why are some bands “big in Japan” and nowhere else.
How is life in Japan as a race minority. How is life as a woman in such a paternalistic society. How is life as a member of the LGBTQ community. How does Confucianism influence the Japanese worldview.
My goal is not to answer these questions, but rather to hear opinions from various sources, and probably also forming my own opinion about them. By the way, some of these topics (probably even all of them) have been discussed in this forum. I don’t see these topics as politics, it’s human history and cultural heritage.
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Language is inherently political. I suppose they could make a website that was heavily sanitized–but then wouldn’t that itself be a political act? Not talking about certain topics to appease some members?
You’re only level 3. You’re going to see a lot more political stuff if you stay on. There are (or were?) sensitive vocabulary words on here (I–and others–have been dinged by that, so please don’t use wanikani vocab in the wild unless you know what you’re doing). And some people have argued that some of the intentionally offensive mnemonics go too far or shouldn’t be used at all.
[EDIT: In this case, 白人 is transparent in both pronunciation and meaning from the two kanji it is composed of–so it’s a good word to include on wanikani. That it comes with a caveat to use it carefully in Japanese is a necessary disclaimer.]
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TRIGGERED!!!
IMO this is way over-harded, I mean it’s hard but by not in the top five of the game, let alone the hardest mario level ever. you just gotta chase away the ducks before you go anyplaces. I thought it was fun.
That last fail is fucking hilarious though…
Sure you don’t mean patriarchal?
Ah yes, one of those two fo’ sho!
Also as regards to Back to the Future: how do black musicians feel about the retcon that a white boy invented rock n’ roll instead of Chuck Berry.
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Well I guess it doesn’t matter either way. I am not one to be offended or triggered, my skin isn’t that thin. Again, I just thought it was worth pointing out. I understand that people have different views on politics and what even constitutes politics. I personally appreciate anything and anyone who refrains from touching anything political as much as humanly possible, as such works seem to be in the vast minority today.
I’m not a black musician but I’m totally ok with this because what it really means is that Chuck Berry indirectly taught Chuck Berry rock n’ roll through Marty who was inspired by/learned by listening to Chuck Berry.
Also Chuck Berry plagiarized from himself by stealing Marty’s rendition of a song that he wrote after listening to a single partial rendition of Marty playing his song. [head explodes]
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It’s not that there are less “apolitical works” today. It’s that there are more works that engage with a politics that diverges from the historical “default”. Such as how for some people a black female protagonist is considered “a political statement” but a white male protagonist is “normal” and thus “apolitical”. Culturally ingrained defaults are just as inherently political as anything else, but they’re so familiar that many of us don’t take special notice of them. (Which is itself a deeply political fact with profound impacts on all aspects of life, but that’s going even deeper down the rabbit hole.)
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Was that before or after Marty went to Hogwarts?
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Hollywood is only making superhero flicks. Why can’t we have a Back to the Future/Harry Potter crossover instead? 
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