Tim’s Ramblings

I know I’ve spoken to a few of you about this so you don’t have to say anything but I wanted to ask this to more people. It may seem trivial to some but to me, this is something that honestly took me totally by surprise and it’s bothering me for some reason at a very basic level…

So, my main question is, and please let me know honestly, how many of you know that the term “Jap” is a very offensive racist term for Japanese?

I’m betting that alot of people didn’t know this.

I’m betting many of you think that Jap is just short for Japanese (it is) just like Serb or Czech.

The difference is the historical usage of the term. Mostly from WWII but it goes back further, the term “Jap” was used in a very derogatory fashion. To us Japanese living in the US, it is a word that is really truly offensive to us.

However, recently, probably the past 2 years or so, I’ve started to realize that poeple don’t know this at all. They use it like it’s no big deal. I was reminded of this on Friday when I found out that a demo of our software was going out with the term “Jap” tacked on to the end of the name of a database to denote one with Japanese enabled. Thank GOD I saw this before we shipped out a bunch to our partners. But the person that did it truly had no idea and I don’t think he really understood my panic.

Other people have actually argued with me when I tell them that the term Jap is offensive to me. For godsake…if a Japanese person is telling you it’s offensive, don’t argue with him. Try arguing about the n-word to an African American and see how far that gets you. ..and yes…to us it’s at that level.

I’ve also realized when playing, of all things, Final Fantasy XI online that people didn’t know. On the bulletin board I see messages about Jap parties and Jap players and Jap servers. At first I was just stunned. But then it quickly became apparent that they didn’t know.

Hell, I was even at a wedding many years ago in Conneaut (out in the middle of nowhere OH) where the priest actually used the therm “Jap pilot” when telling a story about love during WWII between a US pilot and his girl friend… Eeeeeeeesh…..

I suppose on one end, it’s a good sign. The racism of the past seems to be slowly going away. The fact that people don’t know that Jap is offensive can be a sign that the racist use of the term is almost out of the American vocabulary. But at the same time, there are plenty of people around that have not forgotten the negative connotations associated with that word and there is an entire country who do not look kindly to that word either.

Not knowing is fine. In this case, ignorance may be forgiven. Some poeple, when I confront them about this, will get very defensive and actually get angry at me and ask me how they should have known this. As I stated above, the fact that they have lived 20, 30 years without knowing may be a good sign. But at the same time, I hope that they will remember my comment and not use it in a business situation or, god forbid, use it in Japan…

My sister did point out that most people from Japan who have not lived in the US much or have experienced racism here much may not really understand the full impact of that word. That that may be true. However, I also think it’s a tad too early to make that term ok to use in any situation.

Oh, and the proper abbreviation would be “JPN” or “JP” or for Japanese Yen (the currency), “JPY”. Actually, until the early 90’s even the Olympics used “JAP” for Japan on the score cards and after much protest, it was finally changed to “JPN”.

So I’m just curious. How may of you knew this? Or did this take you by surprise?