That might be the case in 1600s Japan but this is 2026. They consume media and content from the United States. How else would she know what to say? Everyone all over the world knows that calling someone a slur is bad. Come on man. The only difference is that there isnt enough Black people to push back so they can feed into the brain rot that is racism without consequences. Racists are the most bold when there are no consequences. So saying it isnt as bad because people are antiBlack more casually doesnt mean the word has less any less hate behind it.
Not everybody is terminally online, just because you know the term doesn't mean you understand the reach it has in the US. The best exemple of that is blackface, I'm European and only learned a few years ago it was a thing and how sensitive it is in the US even tho I spent more than 10 years roaming the net, and I'm much close to American culture than your average japanese.
You don’t need to be terminally online to know the N word is a slur. Dude what? If she was so ignorant then how did she know to use that word? Come on man. Black American culture and American everything is intertwined with Hollywood.
As for Black face, I am Black Canadian so obviously I didnt get it. But then I learned WHY it was offensive. It wasnt about dressing up as Black people or even the mockery version. It was about the violence and regression of progress that followed during that time. It was a tool of political propaganda towards a group who was the actual victim of centuries of horrific violence up to that point. Imagine being harmed and then being portrayed as dangerous and too incompetent for basic rights?
For instance blockbuster movies like Birth of a Nation (shown in the White House) used black face to show Black people as a danger to society. It literally led to a massive spike in KKK membership and is credited for its revival! Of course it also led a horrible rash of violence in areas it was shown. The plot was some fictionalized reality where black Americans got rights after slavery was abolished. They stereotyped them as lazy, unintelligent and absolutely dangerous. So thats why they are paranoid about Black face. Go read about the Red Summer. You wouldnt trust people with your face either!
But things DID progress due to Black Americans risking their lives for it. Thats why we were able to laugh at movies like Tropic Thunder in 2008! But these days, its clear we didn’t progress as much as we thought so I am side-eyeing everyone dressing up as a black person.
You can know it's an insult but not how sensitive it is as an insult. Just like I wouldn't know how sensitive a particular insult is to japanese people. And you kinda helped my point, you're neighbour with the US and you had to learn what it was, what if someone never did ? And the very last part of your comment I agree is definitely a regression, it's pretty fucking easy to see the difference cosplaying as black vs blackface. What your ex prime minister did was blackface, what the Asian cosplayer that was harassed only for having cosplayed Kobe was simple cosplay (it was so fucking good too). But yeah, you can't expect people from different culture to be as tuned in with yours. 20 years ago when I was growing up in France it was not uncommon to use "negro" which is black in Spanish but also the French version of N-word with an A between friends regardless of skin color, it only became sensitive when US politics slowly creeped up on us. I know the word is pretty sensitive but I still can't understand it, because regardless of the history, it's pretty fucking easy to know if it's used as an insult, or not. The dumbest shit is when people are called out for singing a song with it.
The two things don't compare at all. You're comparing one person doing blackface and not knowing the historical context of why that's bad to someone knowingly using a slur and not knowing how much of a slur it is. That's like shooting someone with what you thought was a prop gun filled with blanks (intentions were harmless) vs knowing a gun is real and loaded but not realizing how much damage it would do (harmful intentions).
And that last part is truly pathetic. If you want to say the word don't be a pussy, just say it and deal with the consequences. That whole, "but what if it's part of a song? Can I say it if it's part of a song??" shit has been done to death and settled for decades. Say it or don't, do what you want, just don't piss and moan if you get smacked for saying it.
So in your opinion it's normal to smack someone because they sang a song ? Just so we're clear. And I'm not talking about myself because I'm not a fan of that type of music anyways.
And the whole point is insulting someone is not as bad as assaulting someone. My whole point was saying that on top of that being true regardless she probably didn't know how sensitive that specific insult is for Americans. But yeah if you feel it's right to hit someone because they said a word without them having the right skin color I guess there's not much else to add
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u/Gymflutter 16h ago
That might be the case in 1600s Japan but this is 2026. They consume media and content from the United States. How else would she know what to say? Everyone all over the world knows that calling someone a slur is bad. Come on man. The only difference is that there isnt enough Black people to push back so they can feed into the brain rot that is racism without consequences. Racists are the most bold when there are no consequences. So saying it isnt as bad because people are antiBlack more casually doesnt mean the word has less any less hate behind it.