What connotation does the term "gaijin" have for you ?

[changedonrequest]

You know there are times that I read threads like this and get the impression that people are truly misunderstanding the use of the term in most situations.

Some posters are out to make it sound like there is some huge conspiracy among the Japanese public to be racist towards all gaijin and that the use of the word perpetuates that racism.

In my experience here it all depends on the person and HOW it is used. Let's say a 6yr old kid runs up to you on the street point a finger at you and says; Ehh gaijin-da! Are you going to accuse that kid of being a racist? Come on now.

Ok another example, you are shopping in the local grocery store and an elderly obaa-chan looks at you, smiles and says; Konnichiwa gaijin-san!, Is she being racist? I think not.

Of course everyone could come up with examples to counter that and I have heard of pretty much all of them in my time here, so dont start saying what about this case or that, I used those as examples only.

There is no underlying mystery about the people or the word, there is no conspiracy about it's use as well. People from foreign countries that come here or live here in Japan have become IMO overly sensitive to it's use, because they don't like being thought of as being outsiders, which in most cases is the case.

Once the shoe is on the other foot people complain. You want to call me gaijin, fine I dont care, I will call you one back too if I see you here in Japan.

So what it isn't that big of a deal. I think that people need to get the chip off their shoulders and worry about more important things in life like whether or not Japan is going to be able to continue on to the second round in the WC and if they (surly) dont, if Zico should be fired or not. Now that is a better topic to discuss, IMO.

[GodEmperorLeto]

There is no underlying mystery about the people or the word, there is no conspiracy about it's use as well. People from foreign countries that come here or live here in Japan have become IMO overly sensitive to it's use, because they don't like being thought of as being outsiders, which in most cases is the case.

That is because in many of our home countries, we have been educated to be extremely sensitive to any racially/ethnically motivated labelling. When we go to college, our housing associations and student networks tell us to "celebrate diversity", and encourage us to make as many friends as we can that are of different races, creeds, and sexual orientations. We have high school classes about the Holocaust, and every single American north of the Mason-Dixon knows about how evil slavery was, and how bad Jim Crow was, and how horrible the White Man was to the Native American.

Plenty of people from outside the United States will be happy to point and say, "Political correctness is a bunch of crap, you Americans are dumb!" But little do they realize that the politicians most non-Americans would prefer running the U.S. are the exact ones that have foisted P.C. upon us in the first place.

We've been taught to be sensitive to this. It's been bashed into our brains since we were children. That Japanese kid pointing and yelling "gaijin da!" would get suspended from school in the U.S., especially if he was a white kid yelling, "Look at that slant-eyed kid!"

So what it isn't that big of a deal. I think that people need to get the chip off their shoulders and worry about more important things in life....

You'd probably be amazed at how many Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese students I tutor who are very quick to claim they've been discriminated against. 9/10 of the time they think someone is discriminating against them because they are Asian or foreign, it is really simply that someone is being an *******.

I'm not sure if it is because they are in a foreign land, or if they know a little about racial difficulties in the U.S., or if they expect the same sort of treatment here that they'd give foreigners to their own lands, or if it is something else. But it definitely seems like my students are coming to the United States expecting to be discriminated against, and take even the slightest incident as a personal attack motivated by racism/ethnocentrism/xenophobia.

[Mike Cash]

every single American north of the Mason-Dixon knows about how evil slavery was, and how bad Jim Crow was, and how horrible the White Man was to the Native American.

While every single American south of the Mason-Dixon reminisces about how righteous slavery was, how good Jim Crow was, and how wonderfully the White Man was to Injuns?