By Rei Tanotsuka, 22 August 2019
“Experience proves that those are most abused who can be abused with the greatest impunity. Men are whipped oftenest who are whipped easiest. Peace between the races is not to be secured by degrading one race and exalting another by giving power to one race and withholding it from another, but by maintaining a state of equal justice between all classes.” Frederick Douglass
Oh crap, White Guilt is a fairy tale???
It bemuses me to hear in 2019, from my real life acquaintances to weird conspiracy theorists, public intellectuals and social media pundits, that people believe there is a White guilt pandemic in the West. This malaise sweeping the West is allegedly accompanied by a stampede of coloured folk demanding not only for their rightful share of human dignity, but for a bigger slice of the equity pie.
Ostensibly, centuries of egalitarian, democratic entitlement bestowed upon the rainbow faction of our world by the White saviour, has now endangered the very folk who introduced the concept of equality to the coloured barbarians in the first place. Fact or fiction?
Growing up Gen X style in OZ
If it is only through idle speculation about the insidious way Western propaganda takes root in the mind, I would not be so adamant in dismantling it. I have first hand experience on the corrosive nature of planting racial hate in the nursery mind of a child and watching that seed blossom into full xenophobia that can not be remedied, only moderated.
As a child I was exposed to a lot of negative Vietnamese propaganda. The American depiction of these “gooks” made their way into the vernacular of their Aussie comrade, though not quite laced with the same venom, but none the less, highly stigmatized.
If all you saw were images of poverty stricken children and adults, played against a backdrop of fields and barn houses, juxtaposed with angry young Vietnamese men pointing knives and rifles at the camera, a child can not help but feel fear towards these people who starred in those images.
Without a brief pause to explain Australia’s direct involvement in causing Vietnam to have one of the youngest populations in the world, the stereotype of the poor and violent Vietnamese was exported to Australia, where the sullying of their image continued.
This time through the media broadcasting every squabble they had, with the focus resting solely on their use of extreme violence to wreck havoc on Australia’s naturally ‘peaceful’ society.
Never, were there counter balance screenings of the adorable little Vietnamese lady at the grocers carefully selecting her greens for the day to feed herself and her extended family.
Never, did we get a glimpse of the filial son, who studied and worked at his parents restaurant to become the local doctor in his neighbourhood. We were exclusively showered with images of the sanguineous, the brutal and the cruel. This is how Australia willed its citizens to see the Vietnamese – inherently a brute.
Japan, the rising sun in our cross hairs….
Once the pony show ended and the younger generation of the Vietnamese angst of being ripped apart from family and familiarity subsided due to acclimatisation, we turned off the villainization of the destitute Asian, and aimed our next target squarely on the most successful one – the Japanese.
Since my pecuniary circumstances did not warrant me buying a lot of gadgets as a child, the ubiquitous’ Made in Japan’ label belying every electronic product made less of an appearance in my home than in others. However, the brand of Japan, secured its position of dominance in every Australian’s home.
” The Japanese media rarely included Australia in lists of advanced countries against which they rated Japan, while the Australian media usually cited the Anglophone US and UK as the most relevant comparators, even when Japan was Australia’s biggest trading partner, and Australia was Japan’s main supplier of several commodities. That, instead of generating mutual admiration, tended to reinforce mutual stereotypes. Australian business people surveyed in the mid-1980s thought Japanese xenophobic and inscrutable.3 In 1997 a Japanese observer asserted that Australia and Japan had less a relationship than a series of transactions. ” The honbako is bare: what’s become of Japan/ Australia fiction?
I have a vivid recollection of hearing my friend’s parents speaking to each other, lamenting about the “Japs” taking over the Gold Coast. Apparently the Japanese were buying all our resorts and golf courses and refusing to let the local Australians in (except to wait, hand and foot on them).
Even as a child, this sounded a tad fiendish. I had marked the evil Japanese with a line of mistrust because of their thirst for dominance. Little did I then know, the Japanese were the tame version of Western dominance that lampooned every race it trampled on to reach the top. A “No (insert race) and dogs allowed” mantra, decorating every land patch they plonked their flags upon.
I once heard my friends parents whisper, as adults are wont to do, that if I was Japanese, they would surely not let their darling Angie play with me! I thanked the Almighty with my little fists, in that I was NOT AN EVIL JAPANESE…….
Tanks, but no Tanks! Remember this catchphrase?
But Never This!
Nor this………
Forget About This!
China, China, China…….Yes, we have finally reached the demonization of China. Like they say, fool me once, shame on you, try it again and I will call you out when ever I see you!
As Nietzsche says, ” ‘I dislike him’ – Why? ‘I am not a match for him.’ – Did any one ever answer so?”
Third Time Round…….
The insidious propaganda of the West always vilifies the intention, the human aspect of any action to arouse a sense of malice. To build up hatred for an entire nation, it must always begin with severing any semblance of familiarity of the other.
Please read this post for the skewed reporting of Australian media towards China, China Bias
By playing up the evil intent behind each action, we skew the odds of hating the demonised in the propagandist’s favour, because a genuine error is forgivable, but premeditated planning? It’s war!
Instead of stating that China is striking a mutually beneficial, zero interest loan deal in African countries against the exorbitant rates of the IMF, the West gives us ‘debt laden neocolonialism’. Despite the African leaders themselves declaring that China is not colonising them, the West will not extinguish this hearsay. Another accusation is that China is not doing this out of magnanimity, but because it’s profitable.
Never have I ever heard such a pathetic and stupid rebuttal.
Has any nation ever done anything without getting an iota of benefit? A big fat zero is the answer, and certainly the West never has……the difference between the West and China approaching another country for trade? China gives the partner a choice……and it doesn’t require the other to adopt its insane beliefs. Yes China is crazy, but not crazy, xenophobic and cruel!
Here’s something that even if seen with eyes and heard by the ears, will still be ignored by the West. China and Tanzania Medical project.
I have always said, China is not competitive per se, she naturally strives to be the best version of herself and it’s other people who line up to compete with her. I have had this discussion with numerous people, in that Asians generally are not competitive, we do well because doing well is an innate characteristic.
For all the quibble in the current trade war of putting Huawei as the bargaining chip, it was never a necessity. Ren Zhengfei was prepared to sell to the US in 2004 for 10 billion USD in order to avoid a future clash with America in the technology game. The American company that was supposed to buy them, backed out in the last moment.
Watch from around 21 mins of the interview. Huawei interview.
I could continue to list items to rebut every slander currently hurled onto China, and just like with the Vietnamese and the Japanese back in their heyday, only a few will have the grace in their hearts to actually check out the veracity of the flimsy accusations of the West. Why? Because they fundamentally want to believe China is a monster now, in the same way they wanted the Vietnamese and Japanese to play the part of their nemesis back then.
White guilt is a figment of the imagination, a phantasmagorical cry of urgency to imbue a group, naturally dominant, to pick up the bayonet and dust off the peaked cap and surge ahead at the ‘enemy’ who has not even put on his underpants, let alone his uniform for war.
All that has happened is that he spoke back, he is not even preparing for a fight! Even speaking back is deemed too much!
In all honesty, the West really needs to chill out, mind its own business and let others live their own life.
Ps. Dear Self Hating Asians, this one is especially for you. I know some of you are in denial so much, that it hurts when another Asian calls out your favourite race as the villain, look, you have a choice. You either come clean and admit to yourself, that despite your sycophantic praise ,you will never get true respect until you become an equal, or, you can continue the double life.
That being, playing the White kid in the yellow clown suit in front of your White friends, and coming back home and screaming with delight when its chow han night. Lead the double life but don’t flag and report those of us who have already woken up!
Here is a typical Asian denialist! Watch how he defends the racism exacted onto him. What a loser! Zac Hing