amer-ainu

[amer-ainu]

http://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/14266148

Nippon Television Network Corp. took the unusual step of using a news program to apologize for another program that on March 12 used a pejorative to refer to the nation’s indigenous Ainu people.

In the program that aired, a comedian used the word “inu,” which means “dog” and was apparently intended as a pun on Ainu, when a documentary about an Ainu woman shown on the Hulu streaming video service was introduced. 

According to Jirota Mokottunas Kitahara, an associate professor at Hokkaido University’s Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies, dog has been used to belittle the Ainu people since olden days.

“After watching the broadcast, I could not concentrate on my work,” said Kitahara, whose mother is Ainu. “While I realize from what came before and after the comment that there was a positive intention to introduce the documentary, I believe it is a serious matter to broadcast a word that has caused trauma to many people over the years.”

He added: “The video was originally meant to focus on the importance of diversity. I hope this issue is taken up to show how utterly insensitive a major media company was toward an important domestic topic.”

In response to questions, an official with Nippon Television Network expressed a deep apology and promised to make efforts to prevent a recurrence, saying:

“We lacked the appropriate understanding that the expression constituted discrimination and there was insufficient checking before the broadcast. As a result, we ended up broadcasting an inappropriate expression that hurt the Ainu people without making the proper judgement.”

(This article was written by Yusuke Miyata and Takumi Ono.)

...

Personally, I find this apology pathetic. These adult-ass Japanese media professionals didn't check with any about whether or not it's okay to use a KNOWN SLUR against an Indigenous Woman, calling her a fucking dog. It was a judgment call, made by writers, the graphics and subtitle department, producers... this has to go thru so many people and all of them said, yes. Call that woman a dog.

You can't save face when you have two of them, and none of these people had the spine to even admit they made a bad judgment call, claiming ignorance on a racial slur every Ainu child in Japan has heard their Wajin classmates call them.

Shame on Nippon Television Network Corp.

Shame on Hulu. Shame on Disney. Shame on Japan.

[amer-ainu]

#Nippon Television Network #Ainu #Japan #racism

[amer-ainu]

http://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/14266148

Nippon Television Network Corp. took the unusual step of using a news program to apologize for another program that on March 12 used a pejorative to refer to the nation’s indigenous Ainu people.

In the program that aired, a comedian used the word “inu,” which means “dog” and was apparently intended as a pun on Ainu, when a documentary about an Ainu woman shown on the Hulu streaming video service was introduced. 

According to Jirota Mokottunas Kitahara, an associate professor at Hokkaido University’s Center for Ainu and Indigenous Studies, dog has been used to belittle the Ainu people since olden days.

“After watching the broadcast, I could not concentrate on my work,” said Kitahara, whose mother is Ainu. “While I realize from what came before and after the comment that there was a positive intention to introduce the documentary, I believe it is a serious matter to broadcast a word that has caused trauma to many people over the years.”

He added: “The video was originally meant to focus on the importance of diversity. I hope this issue is taken up to show how utterly insensitive a major media company was toward an important domestic topic.”

In response to questions, an official with Nippon Television Network expressed a deep apology and promised to make efforts to prevent a recurrence, saying:

“We lacked the appropriate understanding that the expression constituted discrimination and there was insufficient checking before the broadcast. As a result, we ended up broadcasting an inappropriate expression that hurt the Ainu people without making the proper judgement.”

(This article was written by Yusuke Miyata and Takumi Ono.)

...

Personally, I find this apology pathetic. These adult-ass Japanese media professionals didn't check with any about whether or not it's okay to use a KNOWN SLUR against an Indigenous Woman, calling her a fucking dog. It was a judgment call, made by writers, the graphics and subtitle department, producers... this has to go thru so many people and all of them said, yes. Call that woman a dog.

You can't save face when you have two of them, and none of these people had the spine to even admit they made a bad judgment call, claiming ignorance on a racial slur every Ainu child in Japan has heard their Wajin classmates call them.

Shame on Nippon Television Network Corp.

Shame on Hulu. Shame on Disney. Shame on Japan.

#Ainu #Japan #racism #slurs #NTV #Nippon Television Network #Hulu #Disney

[amer-ainu]

If you're on facebook, Counter-Racist Action Collective NORTH has been covering the NTK Kikiri Ainu slur incident very closely. Follow them for more updates

https://www.facebook.com/cracnorth/

#Ainu #CRAC NORTH #Counter Racism Action Collective NORTH

[amer-ainu]

I saw something on Instagram recently about colorism in the Asian community specifically and it struck a chord. It stated that a lot of groups, Asian or not, are unwilling or hesitant to stand with East Asians due to lack of support from the EA community. I don’t know how true that is, although I have seen it sporadically.

But what really got to me was the addition that East Asians are not “white-adjacent” and that we come in all shades, from pale to brown to black. I never thought I could be Korean because of how dark my skin was and how dark my dad’s skin was. We were always mistaken for indigenous or Polynesians because of our skin tones. When I lived in Hong Kong, I frequently got dirty looks from elders because my skin was “too dark” or as one of my professors put it, I was seen as “peasant dark.”

But also that Asia, and East Asia, has indigenous populations that are overlooked. There are indigenous Chinese, indigenous Koreans, and indigenous Ainu of Japan. Our indigenous populations have blended in because the West and modern history has this idea that we are homogenous, when that isn’t the case.

But my Korean ancestors have Austronesian haplogroups. My Korean ancestors came from the southern part of the peninsula and the surrounding islands. My dad found a cousin recently who was born in Busan. Our indigenous and brown/black Asian stories are omitted, not only in the Western histories, but in the East Asian histories as well.

It just made me think of how all my life, I was told “You and your dad don’t look like Koreans.” when we look EXACTLY like Koreans.

[amer-ainu]

"Hulu is an American subscription video on demand service fully controlled and majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal as an equity stakeholder."

Oh, yeah. That scans.

This isn't the first time American entertainment companies have collaborated with the Japanese to display Ainu as animals.

Would it surprise you to learn that the US held over 20 Ainu (and some Shisam children adopted by Ainu families) were displayed in a human zoo during the 1904 St Lois World's Fair?

These babies are being gawked at by Americans, on display for Americans as entertainment.

It could have been worse for our Utari.

"Following the Spanish–American War, the peace treaty granted the United States control over Guam, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico had had a quasi-autonomous government as an "overseas province" of Spain, and the Philippines, having declared independence after the 1896-1899 Philippine Revolution, fought US annexation in the

1899-1902 Philippine–American War. These areas controversially became unincorporated territories of the United States in 1899, and people were brought from these territories to be on "display" at the 1904 fair.

1,102 Filipinos were displayed at the fair, 700 of them Philippine Scouts and Philippine Constabulary, used for controlling conflict among Filipinos and between Filipinos and fair organizers.

Displays included the Apache of the American Southwest and the Igorot of the Philippines, both of which peoples were noted as "primitive".

Within the Philippine reservation, was a school which was actively teaching Igorot students.

The Philippine reservation at the exposition cost $1.1 million to create and operate.

 Similarly, members of the Southeast Alaskan Tlingit tribe accompanied fourteen totem poles, two Native houses, and a canoe displayed at the Alaska Exhibit.

Mary Benson, a noted Pomo basket weaver whose work is curated at the Smithsonian Institution and National Museum of the American Indian, attended to demonstrate her basket making skills which are described as astounding.

Athletic events such as a basketball tournament were held to demonstrate the success of the Indian Boarding Schools and other assimilation programs.

These efforts were confirmed with the Fort Shaw Indian School girls basketball team who were declared "World Champions" after beating every team who faced them in these denominational games.

Organizers choreographed ethnographic displays, having customs which marked special occasions restaged day after day. Some of the people to be exhibited died en route or at the fair; bodies were immediately removed, and funeral rites had to be conducted without the bodies, in front of an oblivious public audience of fair attendees."

Disney, Hulu, Comcast, NBCUniversal, and all the rest of the fucking American alphebet of capitalists are continuing an unbroken chain of their eugenicist beliefs in "inferior races," collecting the blood money from our dehumanization and exhibition.

They do it because they know they can't win in a fair fight.

#Ainu #Japan #racism #Disney #Hulu #Comcast #NBC #Universal #NBCUniversal #human zoo #exploitation

[amer-ainu]

This show appears to be produced by Hulu. Maybe you should let them know what you think of this, too.

Instagram

Twitter

Wow, people are willing to hang their whole face out and say this kinda shit. Thanks to Ainu Pride Productions for the reporting.

Let NTV_Sukkiri what you think of that, if you got the time

https://www.ntv.co.jp/sukkiri/

Instagram

Twitter

#Hulu #racism #Ainu #Japan #slurs #NTV Sukkuri

[amer-ainu]

Wow, people are willing to hang their whole face out and say this kinda shit. Thanks to Ainu Pride Productions for the reporting.

Let NTV_Sukkiri what you think of that, if you got the time

https://www.ntv.co.jp/sukkiri/

Instagram

Twitter

#Ainu #Japan #racism #slurs #NTV Sukkuri

[amer-ainu]

Wow, people are willing to hang their whole face out and say this kinda shit. Thanks to Ainu Pride Productions for the reporting.

Let NTV_Sukkiri what you think of that, if you got the time

https://www.ntv.co.jp/sukkiri/

Instagram

Twitter

#Ainu #Japan #racism #slurs #NTV Sukkuri #Ainu Pride Productions

[amer-ainu]

I'd like to jump into the conversation just to add that Indigenous Asians are also a large part of the "Asian-American" experience, and many of us from Indigenous Asian backgrounds do have community relationships with tribe and nations across Turtle Island and Aupuni Mōʻī o Hawaiʻi. I couldn't tell you how big a ratio of the AA experience that makes up because it isn't spoken about much, even within other AA communities, but these communities do exist and are an important part of that varied experience.

is it just me or are there those movies/tv shows that paint asians as like. White Lite™️ who are closed-minded and stuff against the Poor Suffering Actual Poc. like i’m not denying that poc can be racist against other poc but why is it asians who are seen as Upholding the Status Quo and who need to be more open and realize the struggles of being a person of color, as if We’re not people of color?? maybe im overreacting but,, idk it rubs me the wrong way when they act like asians dont face our own discrimination

Tbh it ain’t just movies or tv shows, it’s non-Asians and liberal Asians (mostly East Asians tbh) that keep saying all this white-adjacent or “like white” bullshit. Go to any Southeast Asian community (especially in Cali) and ask them what “white-adjacent” means and they won’t know wtf you’re talking about lol

Like I said a few times before, it was probably only about 5-6 years ago that I started hearing about all this “Asians are like white” bullshit because I grew up my whole life knowing that I was just Asian and that was it. There was nothing else attached to it until I started exploring social justice spaces and I was confused because everybody kept labeling Asian people or talking about all this white-lite/like-white shit and experiences, something I had never known about.

I will say that while I’m grateful for learning different people’s experiences, what I’ve truly realized is that it’s all the Harvard-educated suburban liberal Asians that have been speaking for the rest of the Asian communities that live in the US. Since they know nothing about the lives of urban poor Asian folks, they completely gloss over our experiences and act as if theirs is the only one that exists.

On the flip side, non-Asians as a whole know next to nothing about Asian people whereas Asian people know more about everyone else. We’re like 50+ ethnicities deep in the US but the only thing these non-Asians think they know about us is that we’re part of China or something. Honestly, it’s non-Asians that need to be more open into learning about Asian people and our struggles than we about them since they’re the ones that don’t know shit about us. (The only non-Asian group that Asian people probably don’t know much about are Native/Indigenous/Pasifika folks but it’s pretty safe to say that similarly like Asian groups, Native/Indigenous/Pasifika groups are not known about nor paid attention to by most people.)

Anyway though, it’s just like Steven Yeun said, “Sometimes I wonder if the Asian-American experience is what it’s like when you’re thinking about everyone else, but nobody else is thinking about you.” Even though we all have different Asian experiences, I couldn’t agree more with Steven because that’s like the universal truth for all of us pretty much.

Angry Asian Guy

[amer-ainu]

[amer-ainu]

http://chng.it/mv8k4rhdPR

STATEMENT

Alliance For the Achievement of Ainu (=Human Beings) Rights

We express our solidarity with the Monbetsu Ainu Association for their courageous acts of September 1, 2019.

In the morning of September 1, 2019, two men from the Monbetsu Ainu Association harvested spawning salmon from the local Mobetsu River for use in a Kamuycep-nomi traditional Ainu ceremony to welcome the first fish of the year. Beforehand, when the Association had notified the government of their planned actions, the Division Chief of the local Promotion Bureau demanded that they refrain, insisting that the Association instead first “File an application and get permission from the Governor of Hokkaido Prefecture”. However, the members of the Association disobeyed this order on the grounds of their Indigenous right to freely harvest Kamuycep, salmon. The Hokkaido government subsequently reported these men to the police as poachers, and criminal charges have now been pressed against them.

We are always on the side of the Monbetsu Ainu Association for their courageous acts.

We the Ainu peoples used to be dependent on the resources of nature for our lives. Our ancestors always maintained communion with the Kamuy, the spirits of nature, when making use of woods, plants, deer, salmon and all other things necessary for our lives. Everyday, they lived with gratitude for the blessings of nature. We proudly inherit this tradition from them.

However, one day, huge waves of colonizers from Japan across the sea suddenly began to arrive, to occupy our lands and take our resources, without permission. The Japanese government disregarded us Indigenous people. They took away our land, lives and culture. Even as we were trying to live our lives as usual, the Japanese government stopped and punished those who disobeyed the new regulations. They ignored our Indigenous wisdom and customs. Overwhelmed by the devastating pressure of numbers, many Ainu had no choice but to bow to the Japanese assimilation policy and abandon our traditional lifeways.

In 1984, the Hokkaido Ainu Association asserted the condition of Ainu rights by submitting the document, “Demands for a New Ainu Law” to the Japanese Government. The Japanese Diet has since promulgated two Acts on the Ainu, one on culture, the Ainu Cultural Promotion Act, in 1997, and a second on policies, the Ainu Policy Promotion Act, in 2019. But neither of these Statutes makes any reference to Ainu rights.

Against such a background, we are greatly moved by the actions of the Monbetsu Ainu Association who manifested their Indigenous rights by boldly harvesting kamuycep in plain sight without the permission of the Japanese. We Ainu people are obliged to receive permission only from the Kamuy of water, salmon and great nature.

We hereby call upon the majority who came here to occupy our land without permission and force your regulations upon us: shouldn’t you at least allow us to freely take the resources of the sea, rivers and forests that we need for our lives?

We hereby sanction and declare our support for the demands of the Monbetsu Ainu Association for Indigenous rights, and assert our rights as Indigenous Ainu people.

March 15, 2020

Ko-ichi KAIZAWA, Shizue UKAJI, Shiro KAYANO, Mamoru TAZAWA and OKI

#Ainu #Yaun Moshiri #Hokkaido #Japan #Monbetsu Ainu Association #imperialism #colonialism #imperial colonialism #religious persecution #racism #genocide

[amer-ainu]

[amer-ainu]

Some interesting info, especially for map and world building references

https://www.hinoma.com/maps/

#Yaun Moshiri #Ainu Moshiri #Hokkaido #flora

[amer-ainu]

#raiju #yamabuki

[amer-ainu]

[amer-ainu]

Oakland Firefighters: Last night while #thetown slept, #OFD responded to a fire at the Vietnamese American Community Center. The fire started in an encampment and extended into and destroyed the community center. This is a huge loss to the community. This center prepares nearly 10k meals a week.

The cause is still under investigation, fire officials said. No injuries were reported in the fire and it's not clear whether any residents of the homeless camp were displaced, said Oakland fire spokesman Michael Hunt.

"This is obviously a huge loss for the community," Hunt said. "Thousands of residents rely on meals distributed by the center." Oakland City Council President Nikki Bas said the center's loss was "devastating" for the city's Eastlake and Vietnamese community.

Nikki Fortunato Bas: We were planning to come together at Clinton Park Sunday for Lunar New Year and will still come together for support, solidarity and safety for all our communities and in unity. Thank you @OaklandFFs.

https://gofund.me/06c5f638