| Morrissey – Asian Rut Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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That would be racist, though. You can be East Asian and still be racist against other East Asians: look at (my mother country) Japan's own imperialist past as an example. They had their own version of the Nazi ideal of the 'ubermensch': the myth of the 'racially-pure' Yamato people (i.e. the Japanese), destined to rule over all other, so-called 'inferior' Asian races in a Pan-Asian Empire (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Asianism) as a pretext to commit unspeakable atrocities against non-Japanese Asians throughout Asia. Those horrors were on par with most anything the Nazis did, to the point where even some Nazis were disgusted by what the Japanese Imperial Army was doing, despite their alliance under the Axis banner. I wasn't even born then but I still feel guilty every time I meet Asians of the Second World War generation who survived the Japanese occupation of their country, and I'm always surprised when so many of them don't seem to hold a grudge against all Japanese despite what they and their fellow countrymen went through at the hands of the Japanese Imperial Army. Honestly, if that had happened to me I'd be less than forgiving if the tables were turned, nevermind being friendly. Anyway, you can't say you "don't like Chinese people that much" because each person is different, it's not like they're cloning people over there. Even if you are Chinese, it's still a form of self-hate, and it's still racist. Racism is nothing if not the assumption that all people of a certain ethnicity, race, skin colour, etc. are the same and to be looked down upon or discriminated against. I love dogs and I'm not comfortable with animal cruelty in any form, but Morrissey was totally out-of-line saying what he did, making that kind of broad generalization about an entire group of people. Just recently there was an article on Care2 (a website for petitioning for social change around the world) where Chinese people rescued hundreds of pet dogs which had been kidnapped and destined for the meat market, so Morrissey can hardly claim that all Chinese are one way or another: there are Chinese who love dogs, love animals and do their best to protect them just as Morrissey does: he's just too blinded by racist thinking to see that there are all kinds of people amongst the Chinese, as there are in any group of people in any nation. Instead of going around making up racist generalizations about people of other countries, maybe he could try actually travelling there and meeting like-minded animal rights activists who do share his values and care about animal protection. Then he might start to see that people are people, wherever you go. Some are bad, some are good, and most are simply unaware or indifferent, but the key is to educate them and make them care, not just write them off as "a subspecies". :P |
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| Morrissey – Asian Rut Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Just to clarify, from what I understand, in the UK, 'Asian' doesn't refer to East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc.), it refers to South Asians (eg. Indian, Pakistani, etc.), and East Asians are referred to as 'Oriental'. Whereas in North America, 'Asian' commonly refers to East Asians, and 'Oriental' is considered a derogatory term when used to refer to people (although fine for objects, like 'Oriental Rug' or 'Oriental Food'). Maybe not _derogatory_ per se, but very Anglocentric and old-fashioned, perhaps, in the idea that 'The Orient' means 'The East'. The east of what? East of the British Empire, of course. ;P So the song is not about 'Orientals'. Personally, I think 'Bengali In Platforms' is much more offensive lyrically (in terms of racism), assuming Morrissey holds the same views as the narrator of the song does. And he apparently does, from every interview I've ever read regarding Morrissey's views on national identity, race, patriotism, immigration, etc. I do think in this song, the South Asian lad is portrayed in a negative light, despite his friend (and presumably himself) being the victim of racist violence. There's virtually no description of the English boys who committed the racial murder, but the character of the South Asian boy is described as someone who might be on drugs, and who is carrying around a gun (even though who could blame him, if a bunch of racists murdered his best friend?). I love the Smiths and a lot of Morrissey's solo work, but I have grave reservations about his personal views on things like racial identity politics and immigration. His idea of what it means to be British seems to preclude the possibility of a non-white being British, even though Jamaicans (the descendants of African slaves brought to the West Indies by the British), as members of the British West Indies Regiment, laid down their lives to fight for and defend Britain in various wars and in doing so earned the right to be called British, to be seen as equal citizens in their adopted home. Similarly, South Asians fought on the British side in the Second World War and earned the right to call Britain home as well. And then there are the East Asians who lived for a long time under British rule in Hong Kong and other former British colonies, and have been living and working in the British Isles since the 17th century. They too helped continue to shape and build what Britain is today. To deny them their rightful share of British identity is a slap in the face to every non-Anglo Brit who fought and even died for the right to call the United Kingdom home, and that _is_ racist. |
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