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Revanche1367 • today at 12:42 AM • 1 reply • view on HN

As it turns out, I'm also of a very similar background to your kids, a South Asian American that is, and one who would be accepted in Japan just fine (I already have highly educated and well off relatives living there permanently). Frankly, I have to say, you sound like a typical self-hating (if you're also desi) brown person who is thoroughly convinced of his/her own ethnic/racial inferiority and looking up to the great Japanese people; you probably have a similar perception of America/Canada and western Europe. I would hate to have my parents think of my race/culture that way (if only your kids are desi but not you).

Also, what exactly are you asking me to do here? See people rejected by the enactment of a law that just recently passed and in all likelihood is just barely beginning to impact people's lives? Are you actually thinking before writing your comments? You seem fine as long as you're allowed to visit and ogle at their society, but oh no, how can we/those brown people from the same place/background as me or my kids be allowed on this holy land permanently when we/they don't know how to behave!? To be honest, I don't even disagree that a lot of people of South Asian origin are hard to get along with, I struggle sometimes myself, but I would never think that I had any right to think of myself as their better because the circumstances of my life led me to be richer or more "cultured" than them. I believe this is what some circles consider a "colonized" mindset, but funny thing is your mind is colonized by the western perception of glorious Japan and you're not even remotely Japanese.

Funny you call my questions handwaving but attempt no answer to them and just declare "it has nothing to do with race." I expected as much. It's all about 2026 now ("it's CURRENT YEAR don't ya know?!"), not even recent history matters nor future contingents. This is not even an argument, put the keyboard down man, you're drunk.


Replies

rayiner • today at 1:39 AM

> you sound like a typical self-hating (if you're also desi) brown person who is thoroughly convinced of his/her own ethnic/racial inferiority ... I would hate to have my parents think of my race/culture that way

Why are you saying "race/culture" like it's the same thing? It's like you're trying to use race, which is superficial and irrelevant, to shield culture from criticism. My dad grew up in a village in Bangladesh, but hated the culture, so he left. That's not a problem, it's smart. There are better ways to think and act and worse ways to think and act.

> To be honest, I don't even disagree that a lot of people of South Asian origin are hard to get along with, I struggle sometimes myself, but I would never think that I had any right to think of myself as their better

So you're just in denial! You can see it, but you can't make yourself acknowledge it.

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