What difference should it matter where the word originated? Surely anything that can carry a racist connotation can be racist regardless of it's history?

I'm not dead set on this being racist (until my g/f said she didn't like it, I used to use the word) but nobody can give a convincing arguement why it is NOT racist other than 'yeah, it just means you are not Japanese' which doesn't really prove it either way

Dunno if that was directed at me. If such was the case then you misunderstood me. They can hate the word, but I feel that it would be wrong that a japanese person goes around and feels bad and offended by a word directed solely at foreigners (whom mostly doesn't care).

It's like white people going around bitching about how bad they feel when they hear the n-word, although it's admirable that they care and have a sense of what's right and wrong; they (we) don't _really_ get personally affected. So stop the terms that discriminate people, but dont get all high and mighty and speak about how "offended" you personally are.

Any black men/women here? I'm just curious as to how you percieve a white man/woman talking about how offended they are when they hear words discriminating black people?

Also, as this thread indicates...

..."gaijins" don't really care. So save the drama.

How is it racist when it's not directed at a race?

ok, you need some help so here we go:

rac·ism Audio Help /ˈreɪsɪzəm/
–noun 1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.


It doesn't need to be aimed at a single race to be racist

Well i will still write a little question in here.
I have got a T-shirt saying "Baka Gaijin" in Kanji (and there is a small translation saying "Stupid foreigner" underneath).
do you think i can wear that in Japan? Because i actually thought that people might find it funny. But i dont want to be offending or anything, so what do you think? Of course i wont wear it if im working or meeting older Japanese, but is it ok to wear it in the evenings, karaoke, or stuff?

Firebird

I do not think Japanese are racist, I just think they are xenophobic. That's different from being racist, because racism is the belief that some races are superior/inferior to others. The Japanese are just not used to or qualified to help foreigners, because they are not so many foreigners in Japan at the moment, and because they are worried that foreigners would speak to them in something not in Japanese, and they won't know how to help them. Also note that very few Japanese can speak English (or any other language besides Japanese).
I personally don't like the word "gaijin" because it literally translates as "outsider", calling a foreign person an ousider to me sounds quite harsh. When I went to Japan last year I used the word "gaijin" to describe myself sometimes, but I still find (and have found) that word politically incorrect. If a Japanese called me a "gaijin", I would be quite offended.

Because Jap is a derogatory term. There is no time that is isn't derogatory.

Bastard is also a derogatory term. There is no time nice way to use it in a sentence and not offend the target.

Gaijin is not a derogatory term. It can be used in a derogatory way, of course, just as words like "bald", "short", "black" and any other adjectives can be. The fact that it also has neutral connotations means that it is in a different catagory from "Jap".

From wiki: The official three-letter and two-letter international country codes (ISO 3166) for Japan are JPN and JP, while the international language codes (ISO 639) for Japanese are jpn and ja (not jp).




It's not a double standard, that's just the way language is. Of course different countries and different people treat different words differently, but I am just to my American ears, Jap is a term soaked in so much anti-Japanese sentiment, it cannot be anything other than derogatory. "gaijin" doesn't have that problem.

I wouldn't wear that t-shirt in Japan not because I would worry about offending someone. I wouldn't wear it because it will make you look like an idiot.

Did you just step off of a time machine from 1925. Things have changed a little over the last 70 years or so.

So I wonder how the millions of non-Japanese speaking tourists are able to function. How can such a backwards land host things like the Olympics and World Cup championships? Mind-boggling.

Literally translate "sensei" (teacher) and it means "born before". Literally translate "beikoku" (USA) and it means "rice country". Literally translate "gaijin" foreigner and it means "outside person". Literally translate the English word "foreigner" and it means..."outside person".

But in practical use when people say "sensei" they aren't thinking "born before", when they talk about America they aren't thinking "rice country" and when they talk about "gaijin" they aren't thinking "outside person". So there isn't much use worrying about literal translations, but what people really mean.