Friday, March 7, 2008

Friday Dead Racist Blogging: The More Things Change Edition Part Deux

Marge Simpson: You honor us.
Japanese game show host Wink: Don't patronize me!

--The Simpsons, "Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo"

I was re-reading part of Inequality of the Human Races today, and I noticed anew this part:
I need hardly add that the word honour, together with all the civilizing influences connoted by it, is unknown to both the yellow and the black man.

Of course, nowadays we believe pretty much the opposite--that Asians are obsessed with honor, sometimes to the exclusion of any other consideration of their culture. Consider, for instance, the movie Mulan: with the song "Honor to Us All"; the words "Mulan, you dishonor me" spoken as though that were the most terrible admonishment utterable; all in all, the word 'honor' and its derivatives appear 29 times in the script.

Basically, this is just a short follow-up to this post. But don't worry, I'll have a real Friday Dead Racist Blogging post later.

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