flynn

youtube: Illuminati Clones - Was Avril Lavigne Replaced?

me:

first youtube,

A vast majority of Japanese people actually enjoy other people making an effort to spread and enjoy japanese culture, and encourage it. Many make businesses in deliberately taking pictures of people in kimono. A common omiage (gift) for foreigners from japanese people is traditional japanese things such as kimonos, tea seats, shisa dog statues, ect.

And to top it off, basically 80 percent of japanese customs, traditions, and food, came from other countries. Japanese is an integration of different cultures, like america. Japan takes influences from places like korea, china, russia, and europe. If japan stuck to itself, there would be no tempura, japanese tea, tea ceremonies, kabuki, japanese bread, japanese curry, j- pop, anime, cars, or modern fishing techniques. The picture is not “yellow face” they are not making fun of asians. In fact, it looks like they put extra care and research into their work.

Recently a museum in Boston came under a lot of fire for allowing visitors to wear a ‘kimono’ (it was featuring a painting my Monet of a girl – a white girl – in a kimono, and the museum had replicas made that guests of ANY RACE could wear to mimic the painting, Pageant-of-the-Masters style). After protests and heated debate, the museum closed the event.

I was living in Japan at the time, and out of all the *actual* Japanese people I asked, not a single one was offended by the event. Rather, they were excited that people half a world away were showing interest in their culture, and were sad that visitors could no longer enjoy the event.

This party, though somewhat silly in application, is an attempt at experiencing and appreciating another culture. The mom who put this together is not an expert on Japan, but she did her best. She got a lot of things right: there are few things Japan loves more than tea, Pocky, and sakura. 

Where do you draw the line for who is “allowed” to learn about Japan? If the girl were of Japanese descent, would that make it ok (even though her citizenship would be the same as the girl from the photo)? If one of the girl’s parents were from Japan, then would it be ok? 

Are you only allowed to make pizza if you live in Italy? If you’re an Italian immigrant? How do we decide these things??

You can’t say you want to dismantle racism and then in the next breath make rules – based on race – for who people can wear, try, or eat, especially when the intent is obviously to have fun experiencing a culture (as opposed to having fun by making fun of a race or culture, like blackface does). 

(This is me playing fifteen on my ukulele after having played for only about three weeks, forgetting lyrics, definitely not being the best singer, and getting very emotional over this song. Please be kind)

(Also I’m sorry if it takes you 7 years to read this post. It’s very long.)

January 21st, 2016 is a Thursday. Most people are probably at work or at school. It’s a normal day.

Except for one thing… it’s my sixteenth birthday.

beam me up scotty?

Every time I think about it I start crying and when I saw Ed on Saturday I just kept looking around AAMI park getting super emotional.

Like everyone else, my life has hd a lot of ups and downs, but Taylor has been my constant. Ever since I was 13 I have loved her and now I’m 20 and I love her even more.

Taylor I love you so much and the next three days are going to be the best days of life!! 💞💞💞💞💞💞💞