Vᴀɴɴᴏᴇ́ Sᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

(no need to read but i'd appreciate if people read my side of the story.)

fuller link here

(ps: the severity wasn't downplayed. it's genuinely not as bad as other things going on in east asia. eg muslims being ethnically cleansed in china. feel free to block me. i know i'm a terrible person for caring about the bigger issues. it's probably because i HAVE bigger problems. once we fix the deadly issues, we can move onto this performative BS <3)

fuller link here

It's still icky but not as much as it could be

(important to note that I asked my dad [who IS literally brown as can be] if he found it offensive... spoiler alert: he didn't.)

If a western country made this:

I would be fuming. But I'm not fuming because they didn't. Western countries contain ethnic variety because of historical colonialism, migration and slavery/human trafficking. Japan doesn't have ethnic variety and that is okay.

is this even brownface? he doesn't look brown anyway (also a bad thing but we'll get to that later*)

vanitas' actor is japanese. vanitas is a white french boy. noé's a brown person (unsure of his origin but i hc him as north african). might not be the same level of offensive to some of you but this always happens. a lot of stage plays contain white people being played by japanese actors.

if both characters are being played by japanese people (all of them probs are), what's the big deal?

*we need to consider colorism is highly present around the world, especially in east asia. probably why noé isn't actually brown. it's something that needs to be worked on but at least vnc contains a brown character and is quite popular.

Japanese people who don't live in the west and aren't 100% familiar with western culture and racism here don't know how offensive blackface, brownface or cultural appropriation is because it's not offensive to them. Hell, they probably don't even have words for them. We certainly don't have words for it in my country which is also in Asia and coincidentally has a whole black ethnic group. As well as brown, tan, white... skin tones. Because it's a problem in the west. It's a problem when it's tied to colonialism and slavery. Not everyone knows about it. All of the people complaining about this are being slightly self-centred. Not everyone is a westerner.

regardless, its still extremely offensive and disturbing that someone who self identifies as brown would think this is okay, but then again you likely arent in danger for existing in your own home like i am in mine.

its based on experiences and luckily for you, you got the privilege of being safe, getting a job, and holding an opinion like this online. other people of color would completely disagree with you such as i did because we experience things that make this offensive.

you wanted to try and be aggressive with me online i can return that aggression.

how dare you make assumptions about my life? how dare you think i go through less? in case you've forgotten the uk is a terribly racist country. boris johnson is literally the prime minister. the man who called muslim women who wear hijab and burkas "mail boxes". the country that's trying to drive out immigrants. the country that doesn't supply people their medicine if they're poc even if they've paid for it. my job is transcription. i don't work for a company, my employers don't know my race. i've worked in central asia as an english language teacher and language history educator. getting a job for me wasn't easy. i've never had a uk job from a white employer despite being educated in several languages.

you know nothing about my life. stop assuming things. if anything, imagine being so privileged that THIS is what you're arguing with me about. japanese people being colourist with their casting? yeah it's icky, yeah it's colourist and borderline racist, yeah it's not right but people are dying out here in the west just for being poc and this is the bigger problem? you're calling me privileged? give me a break;;;

edit: i seriously doubt you're a poc but i'm not gonna outright say you're a liar since i don't know you (i'm not one to assume unlike,,, some people) but by speaking to another poc like this, invalidating their opinion and experiences, you're just making us look bad. i am brown. i have a right to an opinion on this. you're brown? have an opinion on this too but it isn't more valuable than mine. if i had money, i'd donate to you but as i said, because of racism, my wages are going to lawyers and solicitors to get my mother's medication from the racist and corrupt nhs system <3

It's still icky but not as much as it could be

(important to note that I asked my dad [who IS literally brown as can be] if he found it offensive... spoiler alert: he didn't.)

If a western country made this:

I would be fuming. But I'm not fuming because they didn't. Western countries contain ethnic variety because of historical colonialism, migration and slavery/human trafficking. Japan doesn't have ethnic variety and that is okay.

is this even brownface? he doesn't look brown anyway (also a bad thing but we'll get to that later*)

vanitas' actor is japanese. vanitas is a white french boy. noé's a brown person (unsure of his origin but i hc him as north african). might not be the same level of offensive to some of you but this always happens. a lot of stage plays contain white people being played by japanese actors.

if both characters are being played by japanese people (all of them probs are), what's the big deal?

*we need to consider colorism is highly present around the world, especially in east asia. probably why noé isn't actually brown. it's something that needs to be worked on but at least vnc contains a brown character and is quite popular.

Japanese people who don't live in the west and aren't 100% familiar with western culture and racism here don't know how offensive blackface, brownface or cultural appropriation is because it's not offensive to them. Hell, they probably don't even have words for them. We certainly don't have words for it in my country which is also in Asia and coincidentally has a whole black ethnic group. As well as brown, tan, white... skin tones. Because it's a problem in the west. It's a problem when it's tied to colonialism and slavery. Not everyone knows about it. All of the people complaining about this are being slightly self-centred. Not everyone is a westerner.