What are "Gaijins"?

[Mike Cash]

jrivera wrote:
American, white, caucasian is acceptable... but would you be offended by cracker, honky, whitetrash?

Not offended by any of those, or by pretty much anything else. I have a policy of not allowing myself to be defined by the smallness of others.

[Ezrach]

jrivera wrote:
American, white, caucasian is acceptable... but would you be offended by cracker, honky, whitetrash?

I encourage others to refer to me as "Saltine".

[two_heads_talking]

Mike Cash wrote:

jrivera wrote:
American, white, caucasian is acceptable... but would you be offended by cracker, honky, whitetrash?

Not offended by any of those, or by pretty much anything else. I have a policy of not allowing myself to be defined by the smallness of others.

I follow a similar policy. If you someone wants to stereotype me by what they consider to be racial slurs, it only cements my earlier thoughts of them as simple, smallminded and shortsighted.. other than that, no call me a cracker all day long.. it won't bother me at all.. and i do honk my horn alot, so i suppose i am a honky.. and whitetrash.. hmm, does living in a townhouse next to the trailer park count? i guess i am whitetrash and trailer trash all in one.. oh well. i am ok in my own skin.. even when it does get sunburnt.

[jrivera]

Ezrach wrote:

I encourage others to refer to me as "Saltine".

I guess that'd make me Ritz.

[Stefan]

well back on subject i guess lol. like someone said earlier gaijin means non Japanese-foreigner. Anyone WHO IS NOT JAPANESE. as for skin color, if anything base they're racial views on nationality rather than color like European and African cultures.however that does not mean that Japanese racial slurs do not exist. i know of a few, they do exist how and when they are used is unknown to me though.

[Ezrach]

Stefan wrote:
well back on subject i guess lol. like someone said earlier gaijin means non Japanese-foreigner. Anyone WHO IS NOT JAPANESE. as for skin color, if anything base they're racial views on nationality rather than color like European and African cultures.however that does not mean that Japanese racial slurs do not exist. i know of a few, they do exist how and when they are used is unknown to me though.

Except that in actual use 外人 is used to describe white people mostly,　黒人 is what they call black people, and Asians are labeled by their country of origin, like 中国人, 韓国人, etc. Why this is I couldn't say, and no Japanese person has been able to tell me why either, just that it's what's done.

I'm not offended by this at all, but I'd never pridefully refer to myself as a 外人. Actually, I don't even refer to myself as American. I prefer San Diegan, because I associate myself with San Diego more than anything else.

Has anyone had a different experience with these labels? This is all I seem to hear in the areas that I've lived (Tokyo and Fukushima).

[hiwa]

These days, the word 外人, when it is used in a quirkish sense refered in this forum thread, is mostly written in katakana as ガイジン. The katakana version has slight flavor of irony and sarcasm for the part of us Japanese, the user of the word. It is like 'so-called gaijin' or 'thing the word gaijin refers as we used to do in the nearest past'. In other words we have managed to make the word innocuous and neutral, or bleached and sanitized the word. You don't need to be aware of nor to worry about that a smallest bit, though. It's just our business. The phenomenon might show that our traditional xenophobia has become much milder these days.

[zengargoyle]

cool, i can deal with ガイジン, and i can sorta understand the difference between 外人 and ガイジン in an odd sort of way....

and in English, the closest i can think of the 'N' word is "pecker-wood", not "cracker", at least in the nice sense... as far as i can tell, it's a 'prison/jail' term mostly. but all the same, when 'N's say: "what's up 'N'?", the in-group vs out-group for a white person is: "what's up 'wood'?".

at least during my time on the streets, i learned to take "pecker-wood" as the slightly offensive 'white' version of 'N', and "wood" as the mostly friendly version of 'N'. "cracker" was delegated to those white people totally outside, as in: "those SUV driving, Starbucks coffee drinking, etc..." type people.

the sorta same could be said of 'blood' and 'crip', when somebody said: "what up blood?" it was normal, but nobody *ever* said to me: "what up crip?".

anyway, back in those days, "what up wood?" or "what up blood?" was about the nicest thing i could hear from a random group of people... the friendly equivalent to "what up 'N'"... "what up pecker-wood?" was slightly more derogatory, but a little bit of getting to know each other would fix that. "what up cracker?" ... those are fighting words...

[keatonatron]

So... Zen used to be a real life gangbanger? I must say I'm a bit shocked. Usually life on the streets doesn't lead to a comfy IT job.

[two_heads_talking]

zengargoyle wrote:


the sorta same could be said of 'blood' and 'crip', when somebody said: "what up blood?" it was normal, but nobody *ever* said to me: "what up crip?".

anyway, back in those days, "what up wood?" or "what up blood?" was about the nicest thing i could hear from a random group of people... the friendly equivalent to "what up 'N'"... "what up pecker-wood?" was slightly more derogatory, but a little bit of getting to know each other would fix that. "what up cracker?" ... those are fighting words...

considering blood and cryp are usually reserved for those who belong to either one of those gangs.. and in the area i live and in the area i grew up in, no while boy was ever a member of the either gang, someone saying "what up blood" or "what up cryp" usually meant you were about to get yourself beat down in the dirt.

funny that you are ok with being called a pecker wood.. both terms for your junk that would is the considered the lowest term in the joint.. being called a pecker wood is nearly the same as being called a pole smoker or other "gay" terminology.. usually about the same time you are getting it from one of the inmates..

I guess it all depends on which gangs you hang with and which ones you don't.. even hanging with a blood or cryp is nothing compared to being one.. and if you think you are one, you definately are not..

having said that, i realize gangs morph and change all the time and nothing is ever static.. one day "hey blood" won't be what it is now.. and gang colors will be neon green and yellow.. instead of black, white and reds..

[jrivera]

I've heard "what up blood" used by people who have no knowledge of or connection to gangs. Being that "youngblood" is a popular term of endearment in some circles, blood could just be an shorter version of the term.

[two_heads_talking]

yes, it is also a term used by relatives.. meaning blood relative.. blood being thicker than water.. etc..

it's slang so it is constantly evolving.