2021 goals + some issues about this blog.

So actually this is posted in 2020 elsewhere, but I am going to try to resurrect this blog this year with a minor goal of 12 posts this year. I don't think "old posts" such as older 'content' (things that happened months ago, a year ago, two years ago) count towards that? But there is a separate goal for listing 'old' things like this. 

I have to be honest... it's by and large white people (by American definition, which is not an international standard, by the way) who I've realised made me too reticent to bother writing online. It's complex but it basically comes down to propping up well-intended notions about culture vs. actually supporting those involved in the culture itself, the divide between how something is treated in this country vs. what it means in the mainland, and divided opinions about preservation vs. just killing off a culture because it 'doesn't deserve to live if people don't want to preserve it themselves' while denying the impact of imperialism and generational life after that. A very complex series of topics that are basically an MA-level discussion not suited to sound bytes or blog posts. 

A leftist version of anti-academia twisted to mean anti-intellectualism instead of "hey, we should challenge academia to include direct cultural sources, and force them to stop relying on what some white guy had to say about a culture 70 years ago"  is also... frankly, disturbing. 

I worked very, very hard for a decade to find books written by Japanese authors, published in English, since I was a teenager (before Youtube existed, when Wikipedia was in infancy.) For groups like historical groups and even kimono groups to throw those out because it's "inappropriate" only allows people who are actually in power to continue doing the things they've been doing for a hundred years on this side of the pond, while ALSO denying the average person access to real Japanese sources talking about themselves. 

The loudest groups are often the most radical groups because they are the ones most prone to condensed rhetoric and sound byte statements- that means people parroting the same crap without nuance over and over again. It leaves ill-meaning people like Japanese nationalists who want the equivalent of "making Japan great again" in charge of the narrative surrounding cultural preservation and well-meaning progressives Stateside and elsewhere dropping entire collections and even entire knowledge bases, abandoning them in order to be more socially-conscious (a mental gymnastics race if I saw one) to prove that They Care. Leaving racist Americans who don't give a damn about who they hurt to present the geesha-girl, "Memoirs" image as the 'correct' one and no one is going to care enough to stop them because... when's the last time you met anyone dressed respectfully to compare them to? Never. 

I've had more than my share of specifically racially-coded aggressions, including sexual aggressions, when in kimono. But I've also been able to meet a lot of amazing people and open up conversations about REAL Japanese culture.

Some of those conversations upset people, especially non-Japanese-descent Americans, who thought that Japanese were really all cat hats, floppy socks, gross guys on trains, and whatever the hell is happening in anime this year. Being told that people are people everywhere in the world and that everyone is actually pretty ordinary, like yeah, you still have a dress code. You still have to pay your bills. You still have a lot of apartment restrictions, or troubles of dating, you aren't just going to randomly hook up at Love Hotels (where on EARTH do some people get this stuff?) It makes people really upset. But sometimes it opens up real appreciation and relief for people to know that you know what? Kimono culture isn't super-hard like in movies, and it isn't totally dead, either. Not every-day fashion by any means, but not terrifyingly difficult and wearing them CAN be accessible if you put in time and practice.

I've met Japanese-descent whose culture was stolen from them because of things like American atrocities towards Japanese during WW2. You want to learn what your grandparents weren't allowed to teach? Yes, it isn't fair that it was "cool" for me to learn. I can't fix that. I can give you so. many. free. (Japanese-based, english-language) resources. to learn whatever you want, though. I can point you to people who love meeting new people, and those people are native Japanese. Go talk to them. I can't download information into people's heads or change the past. Unfortunately, I am not Dr. Who. Or I would rescue people who died terribly who should be here, two of whom should have had birthdays this past week, actually. 

What I can do is try to level the playing field using what and who I know. 

People in these groups can't say that they hate how white-centric they are and then ban anyone who posts research-backed, respectful, non-white cultural information under the header of being progressive. This is exactly the sort of thing that makes "progressive" Americans look bad. What is the real answer? I don't know exactly, but I'm guessing that checking source material and prioritizing information that is based in actual experts or well-known people from that culture would be a start. Anti-intellectualism needs to be on the way out: if someone worked to have PhD behind their name, respect that and don't automatically discredit that person as being 'part of the machine' or 'succumbing to indoctrination' or some insanity like this. 

If you are going to learn about the world, you need to learn about the world. To know your neighbours better, you need to learn the history and culture of other places. Learn them as best as you can using critical thinking so you don't fall easy prey to fascist propaganda (on the rise everywhere) or start accepting discrimination of people as being tolerable. I guarantee those people have something to say about being discriminated against within their own culture. You just might not always hear about it in the mainstream. Listen to people knowledgable on the subject, whatever it is, before opening your mouth with an opinion.

Ignoring other cultures because it might expose you to disagreeable ideas or uncomfortable topics isn't going to help anyone. It won't help you. It won't help you expand your world past your front door. If anything, it will allow you to believe in romanticized, often racist historical rewrites of history because you don't know any better to protest. That's.. not good. 

It's okay to like things. Please also examine why you like them. What appeals to you? What don't you like? Why is that? Are you ignoring any critical things about this subject? Are you ignoring something because you really like this subject (for example, wearing kimono in a Chinese restuarant is not just a bad idea, there is a violent recent history between the countries. It is an aggression, even if you don't intend it.) After you think about why you like the thing, you can examine what else you want or need to know about the thing, or change how you express your love about the thing. You don't just have to abandon what you like. You can change and evolve how you see something and how you treat that. 

So this year I will try to make it a practice to make 20 posts. Just 20. 10 new posts, about new things that happened this year, one per month or so. 10 posts about past things, catching up with old entries elsewhere, old journal stuff, whatever. It's only the second week of January and there's a lot on my plate, so we'll see how it goes.