TV news ponders if Japanese perseverance may prevail over Africans in the heat of the 2020 Olympics

[Bran Van]

Hold up



They're also saying that foreigners are in it for the money, while Japanese do it for honor

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I don't know how much the rest of you know about Japanese culture (I'm an expert), but honor and perseverence are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful in a marathon just by wanting money. If you go into a marathon over in Japan for money, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

 

[MBeanie]

You could totally use that conveniently placed report button next to my post if it bothers you so much you know.

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I didn't say it bothered me. Nice try though. ;)

So remind me, where was the racism against Japan in this thread?

 

[Keeng]

Imagine caring about the Olympics this much? Caring at all seems like too much. This is just something else.

 

[Turin Turambar]

Explain the racism toward Koreans then...

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Is that racism? Are they even a different race?

FYI, you can hate other people for different reasons: their culture,their religion, their nation, old relationships and actions, etc

They are plenty of examples of people of the samre race hating each other!

 

[Pandaman]

It's pretty cold right now ("winter month", around 15-20 degrees celsius), but a warm month will be around 30-35 degrees celsius. It's also a very dry heat which may be perceived hotter than it is.

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Dry heat is muuuuuuuuuch more manageable than humidity. 30-35 without humidity is a nice day. 30 with humidity is murder.

 

[JonnyDBrit]

Is that racism? Are they even a different race?

FYI, you can hate other people for different reasons: their culture,their religion, their nation, old relationships and actions, etc

They are plenty of examples of people of the samre race hating each other!

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Racism in the colloquial and most basic usage is synonymous with xenophobia, and otherwise treating someone negatively based upon some cultural or ethnic difference. It does not require that the 'races' in question fit a western - particularly US - model of such, or that their treatment of each other be systemic. Though in Japan's case it has and still sometimes does veer into such, because Korea has long been a stepping stone for Japan's Imperial ambitions - gateway to China from their perspective - and there's a lot of bad blood as a result, even without active colonialism in play.

 

[Zoe]

Dry heat is muuuuuuuuuch more manageable than humidity. 30-35 without humidity is a nice day. 30 with humidity is murder.

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Yep. One of the professional Kenyan runners at the Austin marathon who was slated to win underestimated the humidity we have here. She ended up crawling across the line to get 3rd. I believe a resident runner won that year.

Funnily enough, the Japanese male runners who were invited the next year took first and second place.

 

[Celestine]

So many ads. So many inane shows about nothing. It's not even something they watch, it's just background noise.

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Yep. The most popular Japanese You Tuber even, Hikakin, attributes his success to his striving to be "something you can have on during the background during a meal" or something. So much brain static.

Edit:
To the poster complaining about generalizations of Japan—nah, just the TV. It's really shit.

As for "whitening creams" mentioned earlier, that has nothing to do with white people. I don't think anyone has ever complimented me on my skin shade and I'm super white. But there are people with skin equally as white as mine here, even if most people tend slightly darker or have a slightly different pigmentation.

 

[travisbickle]

Yep. One of the professional Kenyan runners at the Austin marathon who was slated to win underestimated the humidity we have here. She ended up crawling across the line to get 3rd. I believe a resident runner won that year.

Funnily enough, the Japanese male runners who were invited the next year took first and second place.

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It'll be funny if the conditions do play a part at the olympics, but I don't think people offended really care about the actual race.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

You have to understand that there was no such concept as racism in asia, it was homogeneous society ( more so in Japan/Korea, less in China and the rest but majority of the people are from mongoloid race ), we didn't invade other country land and bring anyone in for slave ( only our people ), so yes, lots of people are less aware of racism concept. People can just make joke, or say things like that without any worry.

I'm not saying it is a good thing being ignorance, but you just need to see the context here. Asian culture background are totally opposite from the west. I mean it gets to the point where you can tell them it is racist and they might not even understand what does that mean. Hence racism joke, ads , etc all over the place not just japan but most of other asian countries.

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This is bullshit. Japan has a long history of racism, they know what racism is, they just dont care. Also Koreans and Chinese people arent exactly treated well in Japan.

Yes other Asian countries are racist too, that doesnt excuse Japanese racism.

 

[Harry Potter Obama]

Everything in Japan has stats, from product advertisements to people.

Off topic, but where do all you guys experiencing all this racism live? I'd expected it when I moved here, but although it's happened I can count the number of times I've been outwardly discriminated against on one hand, and I've been living in Japan for 2 years. I wonder how much of it is luck (or obliviousness on my part) and how much is regional.

Unfortunately, the average Japanese gobbles it up, like most bullshit. I've actually been asked, by a very good friend, "they don't have hay fever in gaikoku, do they??"

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When people first come here from other countries it generally doesn't affect them for a few years. Maybe that's why he thought that?

 

[Encephalon]

Everything in Japan has stats, from product advertisements to people.

Off topic, but where do all you guys experiencing all this racism live? I'd expected it when I moved here, but although it's happened I can count the number of times I've been outwardly discriminated against on one hand, and I've been living in Japan for 2 years. I wonder how much of it is luck (or obliviousness on my part) and how much is regional.


When people first come here from other countries it generally doesn't affect them for a few years. Maybe that's why he thought that?

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I have a feeling it is pretty regional.

 

[MagicDoogies]

I seriously wonder if the news anchors themselves know how dumb this sounds but they have to go with the script.
Let's omit the ethnic background of the participants here.
If you are a person that comes from a predominately hot place you are going to have a much higher resistance to heatwaves than someone who has lived in a region with moderate climate for most of their lives. This statement literally only works if both nations came from moderate climate regions and one of them decides to blast through the track with zero regards to body health and exertion in relation to the heat.

Other than that? I don't think they are trying to go on a super racist angle here. But either way it's a mind boggling moronic comment. African athletes are used to it. And so far I have yet to see them be so irresponsible that they would literally over exert themselves and collapse due to heat exhaustion giving Japan a win. That's fucking stupid. Just send your fucking athletes to Africa or something to train so this won't be an issue. Or don't, and give them a free win while having this broadcast be a big fucking laughing moment for all of us.

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

lol the truth

Although, Japanese watchers of cable TV do have incredible perseverance. I have no patience for all that shit.

People on the train love to sit by me and immediately use me as a shoulder pillow. But I'm a small white girl. People love their stereotypes, honestly I would not enjoy being a man or having darker skin here.

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I must ask this, since I find this really odd but random people actually sit next to you and place their head on you?

 

[Deleted member 9986]

Sounds more like a very bad analysis than racism that you can get angry about. This is more on the level of laughing because of how dumb his logic is.

lol the truth
Although, Japanese watchers of cable TV do have incredible perseverance. I have no patience for all that shit.

People on the train love to sit by me and immediately use me as a shoulder pillow. But I'm a small white girl. People love their stereotypes, honestly I would not enjoy being a man or having darker skin here.

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Pretty sure being a foreign girl (especially white girl) is worse than man (of darker skin or not) in daily life. Basing this on the stories I've heard of sexual harassment and so on.
Like, exactly as your anecdote shows. Not sure why I would prefer that over being treated like a generic foreigner as a brown man.

 

[Notaskwid]

There's a reason Japanese people tell you to ganbare instead of wishing good luck.
I'd hate being a Japanese with any kind of clinical mental disorder.

And yeah, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a Japanese person that is not at least casually racist, most people don't think to much about that stuff and will assume that the foreigner won't understand them anyway since they are Japanese, so it's ok for them to not try to understand.

 

[sibarraz]

I mean, there is a good reason why Bobby Kimball didn't bless the snow down on Africa

 

[Theodran]

When people first come here from other countries it generally doesn't affect them for a few years. Maybe that's why he thought that?

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I wish that was the case but I stopped years ago trying to wrap my head around how people think around here.

This guy in particular stayed a year abroad in Ireland.

 

[Powdered Egg]

Black people have persevered for 500 years, lol at Japanese marathons being our breaking point.

 

[Facism]

This thread is full of generalisations and even some actual racism against Japan. I'm not sure if that's the right way to call that presenter and his racist shit out.

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happened in the Ozil thread and nobody even caught a warning.

 

[hibikase]

Although, Japanese watchers of cable TV do have incredible perseverance. I have no patience for all that shit.

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Broadcast TV all over the world is mostly garbage. Lowest common denominator shit like reality shows dominate everywhere.

 

[Feral]

Oh dude, I've lived here for 10 years. People still refuse to sit next to me on the train. People will straight up get up and move a compartment away the minute I sit down.

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oh, cool, that's a normal gaijin thing then. Had the same experience in less crowded trains in Japan and SK, though some also people didn't give a fuck

 

[Harry Potter Obama]

Broadcast TV all over the world is mostly garbage. Lowest common denominator shit like reality shows dominate everywhere.

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At least in the US there was variety in lowest common denominator shit. Outside of anime and dramas it's all variety talk shows with people reacting to various things, 75% of which are food. It's like watching a bad YouTube Let's Play of real life.

I must ask this, since I find this really odd but random people actually sit next to you and place their head on you?

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It happens to everyone. People (especially salarymen) fall asleep on the train incredibly frequently and their head will end up on your shoulder at some point during the ride.

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

At least in the US there was variety in lowest common denominator shit. Outside of anime and dramas it's all variety talk shows with people reacting to various things, 75% of which are food. It's like watching a bad YouTube Let's Play of real life.


It happens to everyone. People (especially salarymen) fall asleep on the train incredibly frequently and their head will end up on your shoulder at some point during the ride.

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Okay that makes more sense for people to pass out I guess. I was under the impression it was on purpose or something.

 

[MBeanie]

happened in the Ozil thread and nobody even caught a warning.

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Which posters have made racist comments towards Japan in this thread and what did they say that was inflammatory. We're only on page 3 of this thread, so it shouldn't be hard to compile.

 

[Jom]

Black people aren't patient? That's definitely a new one to add to the list of racist black stereotypes.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Well they need to find some way of overcoming "the muscles only a black person has" lol

Spoiler

This is a reference to something from the manga eyeshield 21 that was pretty dumb and ignorant

 

[KillLaCam]

Africa is hot though. I don't understand

Is that racism? Are they even a different race?

FYI, you can hate other people for different reasons: their culture,their religion, their nation, old relationships and actions, etc

They are plenty of examples of people of the samre race hating each other!

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It's more like nationalist xenophobia or something,but that doesn't really change the effect or anything.

 

[Not]

Is there any pushback to this shit at all in modern Japanese culture? Any academic or cultural anti-racist criticism present there or do they really just not give a shit?

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

You have to understand that there was no such concept as racism in asia, it was homogeneous society ( more so in Japan/Korea, less in China and the rest but majority of the people are from mongoloid race ), we didn't invade other country land and bring anyone in for slave ( only our people ), so yes, lots of people are less aware of racism concept. People can just make joke, or say things like that without any worry.

I'm not saying it is a good thing being ignorance, but you just need to see the context here. Asian culture background are totally opposite from the west. I mean it gets to the point where you can tell them it is racist and they might not even understand what does that mean. Hence racism joke, ads , etc all over the place not just japan but most of other asian countries.

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Further chiming in to cite this as an example for the rest of Era of how not to downplay/excuse racism.

It's gross in all forms, and feigning ignorance is bullshit.

 

[Zoe]

Africa is hot though. I don't understand

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It's the humidity that's going to be a problem in Japan.

There's a reason marathon season is in the winter. I don't know how Olympic marathoners do it. When you run, the rule of thumb is to add like 20 degrees to get what it would feel like. Add in high humidity and then your body has no way of cooling itself off because your sweat won't evaporate.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Further chiming in to cite this as an example for the rest of Era of how not to downplay/excuse racism.

It's gross in all forms, and feigning ignorance is bullshit.

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I think there are cases of legitimately ignorant racism in Asian cultures (the eye shield 21 thing I joked about is one imo), but there's also a shit ton of actively hostile and malicious racism in those cultures as well. And the two are intrinsically linked at some level because the hostile racists actively prevent mingling and such which leads to more ignorance

 

[Aaronrules380]

It's the humidity that's going to be a problem in Japan.

There's a reason marathon season is in the winter. I don't know how Olympic marathoners do it. When you run, the rule of thumb is to add like 20 degrees to get what it would feel like. Add in high humidity and then your body has no way of cooling itself off because your sweat won't evaporate.

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I mean, there are humid countries in Africa too. It's a continent with a bunch of diverse ecosystems, from deserts to rainforests

 

[passepied joe]

Explain skin whitening creams, or how all of the Asian countries treat each other

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I'm pretty sure skin whitening creams have more to do with colorism than racism

 

[Cantaim]

Well they do have their secret weapon for such occasions

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God that was a legendary thread on the old site.

Ontopic damn guess I better let the rest of the world know it isn't hot. After all heat is a Japanese thing.

 

[kamorra]

happened in the Ozil thread and nobody even caught a warning.

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Doesn't surprise me tbh.

 

[KillLaCam]

Well they do have their secret weapon for such occasions

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What's the yellow one supposed to be haha?

 

[Pet]

Come to think of it, anyone would be at a disadvantage of running a marathon in Tokyo, how could you resist stopping at every 7-Eleven and buying Melon bread? Shits good, yo.

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Hahaha

 

[Wrapped in Black]

Yo news guy: look at your skin, then look at ours. Which do you think is better-suited to handle heat?

 

[Soundscream]

Wasn't there an Australian athlete before the 2000 olympics who said black people wouldn't perform well because it would be cold?

 

[Owarifin]

This thread is full of generalisations and even some actual racism against Japan. I'm not sure if that's the right way to call that presenter and his racist shit out.

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Yep, oh well, it's not gonna change though.

 

[Deleted member 268]

Racist as fuck.

They're gonna get dusted so fuck 'em.

 

[You Are Viewtiful]

It's the humidity that's going to be a problem in Japan.

There's a reason marathon season is in the winter. I don't know how Olympic marathoners do it. When you run, the rule of thumb is to add like 20 degrees to get what it would feel like. Add in high humidity and then your body has no way of cooling itself off because your sweat won't evaporate.

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Equator area I imagine would be more humid than Japan. It's all rainforests. It rains everyday and it's 30c-35c everyday and there are no seasons. It's forever hot and humid.

 

[Sly Chimera]

Belgium must have had more patience and perseverance.

 

[jwhit28]

Some one should tell the Ethiopian and Kenyan marathoners they aren't supposed to dominate in Boston because it's cold.

 

[Deleted member 19066]

Yep, oh well, it's not gonna change though.

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What comments? Making fun of Japanese TV? Critiquing their concepts of Japanese Exceptionalism? Calling out prejudice?

 

[kamorra]

What comments? Making fun of Japanese TV? Critiquing their concepts of Japanese Exceptionalism? Calling out prejudice?

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Stating that every single Japanese is at least casually racist? Just read the thread, it's full of these stupid generalisations.

 

[psynergyadept]

apparently it only gets hot in Japan...who knew?

 

[MBeanie]

What comments? Making fun of Japanese TV? Critiquing their concepts of Japanese Exceptionalism? Calling out prejudice?

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If you're expecting reciepts, don't bother. This thread is literally 3 pages long, its not hard for anyone to quote a post thats problematic.

 

[kamorra]

If you're expecting reciepts, don't bother. This thread is literally 3 pages long, its not hard for anyone to quote a post thats problematic.

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Stop trying to fight, he already got a 'receipt' from this very page. Of course if you don't actually read the thread you can't know that or the stupid shit that gets posted.