World Cup, Twitter and Racial Slurs

You might have watched the US Women's team play Japan in the Women's World Cup Final on Sunday like I did. It was a well-played match with the Japanese team winning after coming from behind twice to win in penalty kicks. I watched with family and although we were disappointed (we were pulling for the US team even though we are Japanese American) we got over the tough loss and were happy for the Japanese team.

from the Palos Verdes News volume XIV

Later that night I checked into twitter to find "Jap" trending. What? I clicked on top tweets and found many posts by people as horrified as I was. But when clicking on all tweets I read tweet after tweet using the derogatory term Japs. This was upsetting but not as upsetting as the tweets asking how the term Jap was offensive. So, here is a lesson for the kids (since many of the tweets were authored by youngsters) or others who don't know.

Jap was used as a pejorative during World War II. It was used interchangablely for the people of Japan who America was at war with, as well as Japanese-Americans (many of whom were removed from the west coast and interned or served in the armed forces). According to both the Oxford and Merriam-Webster dictionaries, it is considered a racial slur. It is not the equivalent of Brit or Aussie. Unless you intend to come off as a racist, do not use this slur.

This link is to a discussion of the twitter phenomenon and here is a link to the Densho: The Japanese American Internment where you can learn more about the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II.