- Current
Nikkei View
- About
- Roots
- Nikkei
Links
- IMDiversity Job Bank
- More
about Gil:
Gil's Home Page
Resume
Fave Web Site
1957 TimeLine
"Toy Book" Excerpt
Writing Samples
The Gillery
SUPPORT THE NIKKEI VIEW!
Amazon.com now offers a way for you to sponsor the Nikkei View column! Just click below for more information!
Search Amazon.com using keywords such as "Japan," "Japanese American," "Tokyo," and others for books or videos. I'm now an Amazon.com Affiliate. I urge everyone to support their local independent businesses first, but if you search Amazon.com from here, I earn a percentage of your purchases. It's one way you can help underwrite the Nikkei View. Thanks!
ARCHIVES
LATEST
COLUMN *
2002 COLUMNS
2001 COLUMNS *
2000 COLUMNS
1999 COLUMNS * 1998 COLUMNS
9 April, 2002
WAR
OF THE WORDS
That old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," was a lie. Anyone who's been the brunt of racism knows that words can hurt.
| Type "Jap" into the box that says "What are you looking for?" and you'll see the first of 2175 items for sale. |
I received an e-mail last week from a reader who asked what could be done about the use of the word "Jap" on eBay, the online auction company. He said that a simple keyword search on eBay for the word "Jap" called up thousands of listings. He's right. Type "Jap" into the box that says "What are you looking for?" and you'll see the first of 44 pages featuring 2175 items for sale, all including "Jap" in its listing or description.
The word is most often used as an abbreviation, and usually - though not always - written with a period ("Jap.") that makes it clear it's an abbreviation. One example is "RED JAP. MAPLES- (10) FOR 49.95!!! FREE SHIP!"
But it's also used as an abbreviation without the period, as in this listing for a video game for sale: "DREAMCAST S.FIGHTER 3RD STRIKE JAP SEALED."
These abbreviations are unfortunate, though somewhat understandable. But it still bugs me to see it - am I overreacting, being too sensitive? It may seem like a little thing to non-Japanese. But the fact is, it makes my stomach twitch when I see even the abbreviation. And I'm not the only one that feels this way. I wish eBay would make it a company policy to have sellers use the less inflammatory "JPN" as an officially accepted abbreviation. (In fact, 628 sellers on eBay already do use "JPN" as their abbreviation for Japan.)
But eBay apparently doesn't think the issue is important enough to make it a policy. When I sent in a request for the company to use JPN instead of JAP, I got a polite note back from a customer service agent based in Europe whose response was, "Your suggestion has been forwarded on to our product development team for review. We receive a number of suggestions and I apologise in advance if we are not able to take up your suggestion."
Why is this a big deal for me? Because among the listings that innocently use the word as an abbreviation, there are also sellers that use the word "Jap" as a racial epithet - and who mean it when they say it.
I e-mailed several sellers who used "JAP" in their listings to see if I could get them at least as individuals to use "JPN" instead. One, who was selling an import music CD from Japan, was apologetic. "I'm extremely sorry if I may have offended you in any way and assure you that it was not my intention," he wrote. "When I started selling the Japanese imports I found that on a lot of my ads I could not fit the whole title in so I searched on Jap / JPN / JPNZ / JPNS and found that only Jap was picked up on search results." He's keeping the word as a business necessity, but at least he understands my issue with the word.
On the other hand, another e-Bay seller who was auctioning off Japanese World War II memorabilia was less pleasant. In my note to this person, I noted that my father was a US Army veteran, to which he replied, "GIL, I CONSIDER YOUR FATHER AN AMERICAN NOT A JAPANESE AMERICAN. I HAD NINE UNCLES IN WWII, THEY FOUGHT THE JAPS AND KRAUTS. THE ITEMS I HAVE LISTED ON E-BAY CAME FROM DEAD JAPS NOT JAPANESE AMERICANS. NO DISRESPECT TO YOU OR YOUR FAMILY, BUT THESE ARE TRULY JAP SOUVENIERS."
I'm afraid he's a lost cause. I can't even muster up the rage to defend myself in the face of such hatred. I can't change him, but at least I let him know how I feel.
But it's his presence on eBay that makes it all the more important for the company to ban the use of the word "Jap" throughout, forcing all its sellers to use the more acceptable "Jpn" abbreviation. Sadly, eBay has been unresponsive to all of this.
The Japanese American Citizens League has already contacted the company, but apparently has not gotten anywhere. The reader who originally wrote me contacted the national JACL and received a reply from executive director John Tateishi saying, in part, "we haven't had much luck. They of course don't take responsibility, stating that sellers 'buy' the space and can advertise their product anyway they see appropriate."
If there's a concerted public campaign, perhaps eBay will change its mind over time. For instance, I've written about the word "oriental" before, and how it can be used for rugs, but not for people. The preferred word for the people that come from the part of the world called Asia is "Asian." The state of Washington has now made it official: "Oriental" is no longer and acceptable word to describe Asians. Governor Gary Locke recently signed into law a bill that prohibits the use of the word "Oriental" on all state and local government statutes, codes, rules, regulations, and other official documents, starting July 1, 2002.
Some people might consider these distinctions minor and the kind of nit-picking that has become common in our increasingly politically correct society. But I think these distinctions are still relevant because we're not as open to diversity as the politically-correct set would like to think.
Here's an appalling example that's stirring up a buzz of protest: The April Fool's joke issue of "The Catalyst," the student newspaper of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, ran articles in the spirit of social satire that unfortunately weren't funny or smart.
One article "quoted" a student bemoaning the lack of "Hot Asian babes" on campus, who was considering a mail order bride to get some "sucky-fucky."
Another article was a tasteless spoof of cable TV's Nickelodeon channel, announcing a "Niggalodeon" channel that would air cartoons for African American children. You get the idea - this was some stupid stuff.
What's frightening is that Colorado College, an expensive, top-level school attended by privileged students, has a reputation as one of the state's best private colleges, and a history of high academic achievement. What a disappointment to find that CC, which is also known as a bastion of liberalism within the conservative strata of Colorado Springs politics and culture, can be the source for such juvenile, idiotic garbage.
Racism is always there, not too deep below the surface of even the most civil of veneers. That's why eBay should be more concerned about the use of the word "Jap."