Kung Fool

[thomas]

Gil Asakawa's latest colum deals with latent racism towards Asians in the U.S.

Racism Comes In Costume For Trick Or Treat

=> http://nikkeiview.japanreference.com/article.php?ID=66

Here's a related article about the "Kung Fool" mask:

Costume Maker Sorry for 'Kung Fool'

=> http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...tion-headlines

[moyashi]

It looks like the company went a bit over board.

But still is this much better?

"In protest of the costume, the Asian-American news Web site Yellowworld.org started an online petition drive. "Asian-Americans don't want to be Halloween masks," said Elbert Oh, founder of the site."

HMMM? I don't want to be no Casper the friendly ghost either. Hey, I'm White and I'm friendly so I resent you not being concerned about ME! What? yellowworld? You don't want your kind being used as masks but it's ok for my kind be used as masks? Screw You, NO more cowboys! No more Clowns! No more princesses! NO more any allusion to a white face.

Only cotumes like these will be allowed!!!! http://www.disguise.com/html/pl_deta...at_number=5673

Hey Gil complain about this will ya ;) http://www.disguise.com/html/product_detail.cfm?ID=105 That sure looks more like Ming the Merciless than a Geisha to me.

Back to reality. They should've made the mask look a little more like Bruce Lee in the movie where he plays a buck'ed tooth telephone repair man ;)

[thomas]

The terror of PC, hehe...

Well, I can understand their rage about the Kung Fool mask. That kind of ridicule had already been used during the war when "Japs" were compared to vermin, jungle-creatures or apes (yep, still reading Dowers). Caricatures from that period used exactly the same physiognomy as the mask above: the buck-toothed brute.

Another scenario: imagine a European company producing a mask with so-called "Jewish" features as used in Nazi propaganda: hell would break loose.

It's sad that such cliches still prevail.

[moyashi]

PC hell, that's a good way to put it.