In honor of the ongoing Democratic Party primary elections, popular Japanese blog Daily Portal Z ran a story about visiting Obama Station in Fukui Prefecture. The real Barack Obama wasn’t available to go there with them, so they did the next best thing: they painted a Japanese guy black and had him wear a big rubber nose!
Here’s a sample of the kind of pictures found in the post:
Claytonian, who brought the post to my attention, had the following to say in the commentary he posted on his blog:
I’m a little conflicted; I like Daily Portal Z and I think this thing gets funny at times. Especially when Hillary shows up in the article. Then there is the politically-correct, and dare I say oppressed at times, foreigner side to me that always feels its a bad idea to paint yourself up like a black man, or a white woman for that matter. Then yet again, this could be political satire so sophisticated it goes over my head.
In the past, I have expressed my view that comedy acts which rely on parody of the physical features of other races are not my cup of tea. I don’t expect the average Japanese person to understand the hurtful history of blackface comedy, but I still wish that people could understand how someone of another race might feel hurt when they see a Japanese comedian using racial differences for laughs.
The Japanese Blackface Obama:
