Of course, I say this as a diaspora Asian of sorts.
Noizumi is half-Japanese, and she found herself thinking, “Why am I so excited that my daughter has blue eyes? What’s the big deal about that? And why am I so excited that I have a baby who looks more white?”
This is the kind of statement that would get a white celebrity cancelled for saying it, but apparently it’s just a fun tidbit for Netflix.
In their early creative conversations that would eventually span 15 years, they started spinning a tale about how “back in the Edo period starting in 17th-century Japan, it would’ve been illegal to be white.
Wtf based Edo period.
CW: Rape
According to some of the promotional materials, the main character is a product of rape of a Japanese woman by a white man, which is a terrible and insensitive if they play it straight and a weeb fantasy if they redeem the dad at the end.
Idk if the series is as good as they say, but how the fuck did they think that publishing any of this was a good idea?
It’s a natural reaction to the American social dynamics. Asian Americans instinctively understand that they’ll always be a foreigner in other American’s eyes (and their own eyes as well due to internalized racism). They wish the best for their children, which means fitting in by being white. Getting a white spouse is a deliberate defense mechanism against a hostile society as well.
Racialization of national and personal identity isn’t a problem only in Israel.