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I dunno if it belongs here, but as the moderator of a guild of students learning about Japanese culture, I feel this must be said.

Japan is a country with a lot of pride, and holds itself very highly. They're either at the top, or they're nothing at all. If you're wondering why the majority of them look white, ask the person(Osamu Tezuka, if you're wondering) who began the anime movement(or rather, the anime that blew the gates open for it, Astro Boy), who based his original designs on WALT DISNEY'S work. They pretty much took all he did, and added their own twist to it. And so far, people have been eating it up. Hell, if it's your race being put in the limelight, wouldn't you want your race to be the best represented, anyways?

When white people make something, EVERY OTHER RACE BUT THEIR OWN is treated like a disposable character because, to the writer, and producers of the piece, they most likely are. Same thing for any other writer looking to make their race look good. It would take a truly wise, stubborn and unbiased writer, and production for all races to not fall into their stereotypes, as if it were a glove. Japan is racist towards others. So is China. So is America. So is every other race in the world. It's natural for them to defend their own, and to break that mindset, means to see people in a totally different light. Until then, you'll have the Caucasian writers casting Asians in their kung fu practicing stereotypes, and Japanese writers creating black, big lipped nitwits, and ignorant white people.

Racism can only change, when the people who practice it change.

I would tend to agree with you, except for the part about America being racist toward others. America is a lot more racist within itself than it is to other nations, simply because America doesn't have a single "race" to speak of. I would say there is a sense in Americans that they are *culturally* superior to to others. Which may be why America has a bad habit of trying to export and "convert" others to its cultural ideal, whereas Japan or China don't do anything of the sort; it's impossible to "export" a race like you can an idea.

The entire Japan thing sort of went overboard the minute anime became popular. I'm the sort of person who likes the underground, and once it becomes mainstream, gets freaked out and backs away. If I was Japanese...oh goodness.
But the thing is, being worshiped like they are, you can't help but wonder how some of the easily influenced think highly of their culture.

And really, we do have racism too. I tell people that I'm Asian, and when I was younger, 99.9% of the time, the response would be the "Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees" rhyme. The .1% would be like "Can you speak Korean?!"
God, that makes me sick. Whenever they do that nowadays, I just sort of look at them down my nose and walk away.

That's why we're here. To open the heart, and expand the mind.

I get asked if I can speak Polish all the time and I get the Polock jokes told to me everyday, that sucks too, everyone has to deal with stuff like that, I have to, we all do or have at some point.

I think a big factor to racism is location. I don't think I've come across many issues with it here in Sydney [probably because the suburb that I live has a mainly Asian population, as opposed to the normal majority Caucasian], but I've heard all sorts of stories about it from people that'd gone to the country-side.

Hate is a very strong word LB. It is, afterall, one of the roots of racism. I would rather say that racism is frustrating, because there's so much of it. Peace and harmony is a much better feeling. Having pride and accepting people for who they are rather than judging them by their race/ethnicity/background/etc. is the way to go.