Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Do the right thing!

In Indiana, some girls were forced to be out of the sorority because of their cultural backrounds or apperances. In Japan, a book that may increase discrimination against foreigners has been published. It's easy to say "Do the right thing!" It's difficult to see people do the right thing.
Paula Zahn
インディアナ州のソロリティー(女子学生社交グループ)からマイノリティーやスタイルのよくない女性たちが会員取り消しを求められたというニューズは昨日の『ヘラルド朝日』を読んで知っていたが,そんな大きなニューズになるとは考えていなかったが,今朝のCNNで美人アンカーウマンによる番組『ポーラ・ザーン・ナウ』のトップで取り上げられていた.
Sorority evictions anger many at Indiana college
The overweight and
minorities are out

GREENCASTLE, Indiana: When a psychology professor at DePauw University surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of "daddy's little princesses" and another as "offbeat hippies." The sisters of that sorority, Delta Zeta, were seen as "socially awkward."

Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta's national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to increasing recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members.

The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women who the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.

"Virtually everyone who didn't fit a certain sorority member archetype was told to leave," said Kate Holloway, a senior who withdrew from the chapter during its reorganization.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/25/news/sorority.php
日本人の場合,まずこのニューズの意味することがなかなかわからないかもしれない.アメリカの大学では,学生社交クラブというのがある.男性,女性に分かれていて,それぞれ「フラタニティ(Fraternity)」「ソロリティ(Sorority)」という.たいてい,彼らは寮生活を共にして,お互いに「兄弟」「姉妹」の契(ちぎ)りを交わすらしい.
Elle uses her social network to be successful in this movie.

この社交クラブの縦横のつながりの緊密さは就職活動などでものすごい威力を発揮する.ちなみに,ブッシュ大統領と前回の民主党大統領候補だったジョン・ケリー氏はイエイル大学にある『スカル・アンド・ボーンズ』の出身である.Legally Blonde(邦題『プリティ・ブロンド』)という映画を観てもわかるが,女性版社交クラブにいるような女性は,男にとって「クオリティーが高い女」で,誤解を恐れずにはっきり云ってしまえば,アメリカ版「大和撫子(やまとなでしこ)」のような女性であることが多い.ちなみに,こういう女性をAll-American girlと英語ではいう.今回の事件は,有色人種や太っていたソロリティーのメンバーが追い出されたわけである.
追い出された女の子には同情するし,日本にはそんなのはなくてよかったと思うが,日本では男と女も合コン中に「あいつはちょっとクオリティーが低いからダメ」というような品定めをしていることには変わりない.ただ,大学内に建物があるれっきとした組織でそれをしてしまうとまずいということだ.また,特定の人種などを除外するのは,別の問題も出てくる.
Odd Girl Out describes bullies and victims of bullying well.
仲間から除外されるというのは,アメリカでもつらいんだろう.2005年に出たテレビ映画Odd girl outは,一見,ティーン用のコメディーみたいなつくりをしているが,実際はかなり深刻ないじめ問題を扱っている.日本にあるかどうかはわからないが,DVD版があればぜひ観てほしい.
Ken "Duke" Kitashiba speaks English.
最後に,昨日,『ジャパンタイムズ』紙で見つけた気になるブックレヴュー(書評)を貼り付ける.これにはちょっとがっかりした.日本人も外国人差別をあからさまに行なっているのかと思った.しかも,よく『平成教育学院』に出ている北森健(きたしば・けん)が原稿を寄せているようだ.彼はこの番組ではなぜかよく英語をしゃべっていた.
ただ,昨日も書いたように,情報はできるだけ表に出すという原則に従うことにする.ぼく自身は,こんな本が出ていることはあまりうれしくはない.

FAMILY MART CANS SALES
Mag on foreigner crimes not racist: editor
By
MASAMI ITO
Staff writer

"Now!! Bad foreigners are devouring Japan," screams the warning, surrounded by gruesome caricatures of foreigners who look like savages, with blood red eyes and evil faces.

This is the cover of Kyogaku no Gaijin Hanzai Ura Fairu (Shocking Foreigner Crime: the Underground File), a special-edition magazine published by Tokyo-based Eichi that has triggered public outrage and caused Family Mart to call it discriminatory and pull it off the shelves.

The 125-page single edition is about crimes committed by non-Japanese.

The pages are filled with crime stories and photographs of alleged crimes
being committed, drug deals, stabbings, gang fights and arrests -- all of them involving people from a wide range of countries. Some of the nationalities named are Iranian, Chinese, South Korean, Brazilian and Nigerian.

A spokesman for Family Mart, the main distributor, said that two days after the magazine was released at the end of January, it began receiving e-mail complaints.

...Shigeki Saka, editor of the magazine, claimed Eichi did not intend to
discriminate against foreigners but wanted to provide an opportunity for
"discussion" about the issue.

"This book was not originally published for foreign readers," Saka said. "It was to raise the issue (of crimes committed by foreigners) in Japanese society. . . . But I believe the foreigners have the fear that they will be viewed in the same way" as criminals.

Carlo La Porta, whole holds British and Italian citizenship and has lived in Tokyo for 16 years, said he thought the magazine painted foreigners as
criminals.

The magazine "brings a problem into focus without adding perspective to it, and as such implies that foreigners at large commit a lot of crimes," La Porta said.

Although the headline of a feature interview with a former Metropolitan
Police Department investigator, on the magazine cover, says, "In 2007, anyone could be the target of foreigner crime!!" the number of crimes committed by non-Japanese has actually fallen recently.

...Eichi's Saka said he published the book despite the recent decline in crimes, a point the magazine briefly mentions.

"The content (of the magazine) really is not intended to get rid of foreigners nor is it extreme in tone. It is based only on facts," Saka claimed.

"I wanted to talk about the economic situation and environment in Japan that has caused foreigners to commit crimes. But it does contain a little bit of extreme expressions, for commercial purposes."

The magazine contains several articles about the bad conditions many foreigners work under, linking that to criminal activity.

One feature article says poor working conditions in Japan "have caused (foreigners) to build resentment toward Japanese society and, one after another, more people are getting involved in crimes because of the hardships in their lives."

On what are called "entertainment" pages, there are photographs of foreigners and Japanese women embracing on Tokyo streets. One photo of a black man and a Japanese woman has the caption, "Hey nigger!! Don't touch that Japanese woman's ass!!"

Saka said that while he knew the term "nigger" is racist, he reckoned it would have a different nuance written in Japanese. "We used it as street slang, writing it in katakana. But if we had known that we would get such a huge reaction from foreigners, we might have refrained from using it," he figured.

The Japan Times: Friday, Feb. 23, 2007

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/print/nn20070223f1.html

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