mew nose

whalebiology: bakachon: American teacher in Japan under fire...

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:01:29 -0500

bakachon:

American teacher in Japan under fire for lessons on Japan’s history of discrimination:

Miki Dezaki, who first arrived in Japan on a teacher exchange program in 2007, wanted to learn about the nation that his parents had once called home. He taught English, explored the country and affectionately chronicled his cross-cultural adventures on social media, most recently on YouTube, where he gained a small following for videos like “Hitchhiking Okinawa” and the truly cringe-worthy “What Americans think of Japan.” One of them, on the experience of being gay in Japan, attracted 75,000 views and dozens of thoughtful comments.

Dezaki didn’t think the reaction to his latest video was going to be any different, but he was wrong. “If I should have anticipated something, I should have anticipated the netouyu,” he told me, referring to the informal army of young, hyper-nationalist Japanese Web users who tend to descend on any article — or person — they perceive as critical of Japan.

But before the netouyu put Dezaki in their crosshairs, sending him death threats and hounding his employers, previous employers and even the local politicians who oversee his employers, there was just a teacher and his students.

Dezaki began his final lesson with a 1970 TV documentary, Eye of the Storm, often taught in American schools for its bracingly honest exploration of how good-hearted people — in this case, young children participating in an experiment — can turn to racism. After the video ended, he asked his students to raise their hands if they thought racism existed in Japan. Almost none did. They all thought of it as a uniquely American problem.

Gently, Dezaki showed his students that, yes, there is also racism in Japan. He carefully avoided the most extreme and controversial cases — for example, Japan’s wartime enslavement of Korean and other Asian women for sex, which the country today doesn’t fully acknowledge — pointing instead to such slang terms as “bakachon camera.” The phrase, which translates as “idiot Korean camera,” is meant to refer to disposable cameras so easy to use that even an idiot or a Korean could do it.

He really got his students’ attention when he talked about discrimination between Japanese groups. People from Okinawa, where Dezaki happened to be teaching, are sometimes looked down upon by other Japanese, he pointed out, and in the past have been treated as second-class citizens. Isn’t that discrimination?

“The reaction was so positive,” he recalled. For many of them, the class was a sort of an a-ha moment. “These kids have heard the stories of their parents being discriminated against by the mainland Japanese. They know this stuff. But the funny thing is that they weren’t making the connection that that was discrimination.” From there, it was easier for the students to accept that other popular Japanese attitudes about race or class might be discriminatory.

The vice principal of the school said he wished more Japanese students could hear the lesson. Dezaki didn’t get a single complaint. No one accused him of being an enemy of Japan.

That changed a week ago…

read more at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/02/22/american-teacher-in-japan-under-fire-for-lessons-on-japans-history-of-discrimination/

this guy’s videos are really eye opening, really worth your time

polishinghalos: PLEASE WATCH THIS IT’S TOO IMPORTANT TO NOT...

Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:42:42 -0500

polishinghalos:

PLEASE WATCH THIS IT’S TOO IMPORTANT TO NOT WATCH

ohsorryoh: my god this is fantastic

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 15:27:31 -0500

ohsorryoh:

my god this is fantastic

Photo

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 15:20:16 -0500

heronqueenblues: sirwhindleton: Just in case someone wanted...

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 23:26:25 -0500

heronqueenblues:

sirwhindleton:

Just in case someone wanted DMX singing rudolph the red nose reindeer as an audio post on their blog

fucking amazing

andrvw: Taylor Swift // Love Story (Syrup Cuz I’m Single D33J...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:39:47 -0500

andrvw:

Taylor Swift // Love Story (Syrup Cuz I’m Single D33J Remix)

Video

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 19:29:00 -0500

Photo

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 18:36:05 -0500

Photo

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 14:51:28 -0500

vondell-swain: notxam: Tiny Tim & Lil Jon feat. Biggie...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 11:52:12 -0500

vondell-swain:

notxam:

Tiny Tim & Lil Jon feat. Biggie Smalls - Livin’ in the Sunlight, Gettin’ Low in the Moonlight

MAXTON

itunes looks so handsome

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:09:00 -0500

itunes looks so handsome

Cinéma vérité is a term referring to a style of documentary...

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:08:16 -0500

Cinéma vérité is a term referring to a style of documentary filmmaking invented by Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov´s theory about Kino-Pravda and by Robert Flaherty’s films. It combines improvisation with the use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subjects hidden behind crude reality.

man, someone has got to force me to eat some veggies i haven’t eaten anything healthy since...

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 23:22:36 -0500

man, someone has got to force me to eat some veggies

i haven’t eaten anything healthy since last week

i can feel my cholesterol bubbling up inside of me

"It was a very troubled production. Wesley [Snipes] was just fucking crazy in a hilarious way. He..."

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 23:19:47 -0500

“

It was a very troubled production. Wesley [Snipes] was just fucking crazy in a hilarious way. He wouldn’t come out of his trailer, and he would smoke weed all day. Which is fine with me, because I had all these DVDs that I wanted to catch up on. We were in Vancouver, and it was always raining. I kept the door to my trailer open to smell the evening rain while I was watching a movie. Then I remember one day on the set—they let everyone pick their own clothes—there was one black actor who was also kind of a club kid. And he wore this shirt with the word “Garbage” on it in big stylish letters. It was his shirt. And Wesley came down to the set, which he only did for close-ups. Everything else was done by his stand-in. I only did one scene with him. But he comes on and goes, “There’s only one other black guy in the movie, and you make him wear a shirt that says ‘Garbage?’ You racist motherfucker!”

And he tried to strangle the director, David Goyer. So later that night, Ron Perlman was in the city. Everyone who makes movies in Vancouver stays in the same hotel. It’s like an episode of The Love Boat. Every time the elevator stops, you’ve got a different celebrity getting on. Like, [announcer voice] “Hey, now we’ve got Danny Glover!” So we went out that night to some strip club, and we were all drinking. And there were a bunch of bikers there, so David says to them, “I’ll pay for all your drinks if you show up to set tomorrow and pretend to be my security.” Wesley freaked out and went back to his trailer. [Laughs.] And the next day, Wesley sat down with David and was like, “I think you need to quit. You’re detrimental to this movie.” And David was like, “Why don’t you quit? We’ve got all your close-ups, and we could shoot the rest with your stand-in.” And that freaked Wesley out so much that, for the rest of the production, he would only communicate with the director through Post-it notes. And he would sign each Post-it note “From Blade.”

[…] When I met him I was like, “Hi!” And he was like, “I’m Blade.” And also, Natasha Lyonne was on that set, and she was going through some kind of mental breakdown. Wesley is all boundaries, and she has no boundaries. She played a blind computer expert. So the first scene they had together, she put her hand right on his face, and he just recoiled. It was awesome.

”

- Patton Oswalt on making the notoriously-troubled Blade: Trinity with Wesley Snipes, in a new interview at AV Club. (via worldfamousprofessor)

zeissmanifold: happy thanksgiving from threshold entertainment

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:17:17 -0500

zeissmanifold:

happy thanksgiving from threshold entertainment

Photo

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 14:01:46 -0500

vondell-swain: notxam: emilyisit: ravenzoe: notxam: Sufjan...

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:24:11 -0500

vondell-swain:

notxam:

emilyisit:

ravenzoe:

notxam:

Sufjan Stevens feat. Soulja Boy and Justin Timberlake - Impossible Swag / Don’t Be Distracted, My Love

I MUST DOWNLOAD THIS. WHERE CAN I DOWNLOAD THIS?!

HELLO AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR ENERGY

here’s a download link

maxton

Suicidal thoughts - Biggie When I die fuck it I wanna go to...

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:31:06 -0500

Suicidal thoughts - Biggie

When I die fuck it I wanna go to hell. ‘Cause I’m a piece of shit, it ain’t hard to fucking tell.

nightlifemingus: when we were 18 we saw our favorite bandand...

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:41:00 -0500

nightlifemingus:

when we were 18 we saw our favorite band
and on our way there a man with only half a head
i knew he had just died because his blood still reflected the light
and that night, that night,
i never felt more alive than i did that night

double dagger - vivre sans temps mort

humansofnewyork: Hey guys. For the next ten days, I’m going to...

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 11:47:51 -0500

humansofnewyork:

Hey guys. For the next ten days, I’m going to be dedicating HONY to raising money for Hurricane Sandy. We’re going to try to do this in a HONY-like way. All of the blog’s content will be dedicated to telling the stories of people affected by the storm. Sandy left behind a lot of sad stories, but also some happy ones. We’re going to try to tell them all. The good people at Tumblr have stepped in to cosponsor the fundraiser, and they are going to be promoting these stories through their channels. We will simultaneously be holding an Indiegogo campaign. I’m excited to announce that 100% of proceeds will be going to relief efforts: Indiegogo is waiving fees. Paypal is waiving fees. Tumblr is providing goodies. And I’m covering the cost of the photographs. We found a damn good charity too. The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation is a family-owned charity in Staten Island, located right in the heart of one of the worst hit areas. They’ve been doing amazing work the last couple weeks, and have been endorsed by many government officials.

I want to emphasize that this is a fundraiser, and not a print sale. With that being said, I can assure you that it will be the last time prints will be made available for at least a year. Perhaps much longer than that. Let’s have some fun next week… and kick some Sandy ass!

The campaign page:
http://igg.me/p/270131?a=221102