{"id":18065,"date":"2009-12-18T10:20:10","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T15:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=18065"},"modified":"2014-01-20T01:56:16","modified_gmt":"2014-01-20T06:56:16","slug":"defending-mr-wasabi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2009\/12\/18\/defending-mr-wasabi\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending Mr. Wasabi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirsti McG. sent us her correspondence with the manufacturer of these:<\/p>\n

\"Dose-schraeg_300x352\"<\/p>\n

\"dosePeanuts\"<\/p>\n

Kirsti, who saw these on the grocery store shelves in Scotland, wrote to complain that the company mascot, Mr. Wasabi, “pack[s] together practically every stereotype about East Asians possible, from wooden toe sandals to buck teeth to samurai swords to kung fu…” (check out the website<\/a> to see him animated).<\/p>\n

Kirsti got a letter back castigating her for daring to be offended by the character.\u00a0 They told her that hers was the only complaint they\u2019d ever received (implying that she was crazy or over-sensitive) and that she was trying to make them into an \u201cenemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also used the \u201csome of my friends are Asian\u201d response, explaining:<\/p>\n

\u2026we have been cooperating with the Asian manufacturing company for 4 years, we have a registered company in Thailand and Japan in a different line of business, and everybody is delighted with Mr. Wasabi and the branding. It goes so far that the manufacturer has asked us permission to use the branding in their own markets in Cambodia and, hold your breath, Japan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then they accused her of ignorance and racist paternalism:<\/p>\n

Maybe you should deepen your knowledge of Asia and the Asian psyche, beyond your rather activist style “I-am-going-to-protect-the-poor-asians-from-these-ruthless-snack-tycoons.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is a great example of the backlash that frequently occurs when power is threatened.\u00a0 The company representative didn\u2019t say \u201cGee, I\u2019d hate to be racist, let me think about this\u201d or even \u201cI\u2019m sorry you\u2019re offended, but this is just what the logo is.\u201d\u00a0 He said, \u201cYou<\/em> are the crazy person here. There is nothing wrong with our logo and how dare you even suggest that it is racist!\u00a0 We are innocent and perfect with our Asian friends and you are totally out-of-line<\/em>.\u00a0 If anyone is racist, it is you.\u201d\u00a0 This is a common response when someone\u2019s privilege is exposed: Everything goes along just fine until you ask for power relations to be reconfigured, and then you see the resistance.\u00a0 For another example, see our post showing vandalized anti-rape posters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kirsti wrote back explaining calmly that their ties to Asian companies does not necessarily mean that their branding isn\u2019t racist and that to suggest that there was a single \u201cAsian psyche\u201d (that is 100% behind their product) is, itself, kinda racist.<\/p>\n

She said that the next letter was less accusatory and that he promised to bring the issue up with the board.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, even in the face of backlash, collective<\/a> action<\/a> can<\/a> work<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can contact the peeps at Mr. Wasabi here<\/a>.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirsti McG. sent us her correspondence with the manufacturer of these: Kirsti, who saw these on the grocery store shelves in Scotland, wrote to complain that the company mascot, Mr. Wasabi, “pack[s] together practically every stereotype about East Asians possible, from wooden toe sandals to buck teeth to samurai swords to kung fu…” (check out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2124,1811,285,1759],"class_list":["post-18065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-foodagriculture","tag-nation-britainthe-u-k","tag-raceethnicity","tag-raceethnicity-asianspacific-islanders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18065"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61070,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18065\/revisions\/61070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}