Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gollywog]

Just saw a piece on CNN about a cell phone company in Japan that ran an ad of someone apparently running for office in front of a cheering crowd with the head of a monkey.

Black expats in Japan were not amused.

The company denied any intention to portray Barak Obama as a monkey, and said monkeys are highly regarded in Japan. They pulled the ad.

What do you think?

All I can say is if it were Korea, the connection would have been intentional and understood by the viewer, even by a child.

I had a student who, upon seeing a picture of a black man on my computer monitor, which happened to have CNN.com up, pointed, laughing, and said: "Monkey! Monkey!" like it was some sort of hilarious joke.

Maybe the Japanese children are not taught to be racists, but apparently many Koreans are.

[blaseblasphemener]

Try teaching Side by Side, book 1 (the blue book). Little shits I was teaching couldn't stop laughing at the black's portrayed in the book. I told them that when people in other countries laugh at Korean's dark skin, big lips, and big heads, it isn't funny, so they shouldn't do it either. It shut them up.

[dtown]

[milspecs]

anyone remember the minstrel hello kitty figure Sanrio put out a couple yrs ago

[cangel]

He does kind of look like a monkey.

[bovinerebel]

If I saw a politician portrayed as a monkey , there is no way my mind would ever make the link between that and Barrack Obama. I'd think they were just having a go at politicians who are all freaking dancing monkeys aren't they ?

[pkang0202]

[yawarakaijin]

I don't believe I have EVER seen a little tiny Japanese Macaque being used to represent Africans.

Forgive the crass sounding nature of the following comment (nothing is intended) but aren't chimps or gorillas usually the primates used to depict africans?

Japanese just love monkeys, thats all. Nothing else to it.

[seoulsucker]

[Suwon23]

OK, I just watched it on Youtube
http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=si-lSLv9b4E
I wouldn't assume it was Obama, either, except the cheering fans were waving signs that say "change." That seems awfully "Obama"-esque to me. But it wasn't clear to me whether the monkey was a charicature of black people or just a cute, funny thing thrown in for entertainment value (oh, those quirky Japanese).
Both of the monkeys in the video are macaques, native to Asia.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Quack Addict]

Obama? I think it was Hillary.

[djsmnc]

That ad had me laughing my tail off!

[Gollywog]

After looking at the entire ad online and reading the comments here, I agree the Japanese company did not intend to insult black people.

You want digs, here's another one.

Korea, and specifically Coreana, could learn something from how the Japanse company handled this: They promptly apologized and took the ad off the air. That is standard operating procedure for companies in the West; if something goes wrong, admit any wrongdoing quickly and move on. The issue blows over and the public, if anything, forms a relatively good image of you.

I don't think the ad was so much insulting to black people as it was insulting to Americans to have a presidential candidate clearly intended to represent Obama portrayed this way.

Again, it was unintentional. But a little cultural sensitivity is important. Asian countries need to realize their actions are visible to Western countries now.

[yawarakaijin]