Il Racismo

If the first flag didn't catch your attention, hopefully and probably, the second one did its job.

Today, after having watched a lovely short movie "the lunch date", I started to think about racism. The question that I had imposed on myself was "Could anyone truly not be a racist?"

First, a definition of racism is:

"a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among thevarious human races  determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others."

The conclusion that I have come to today is that everyone is a racist in one way or another; especially, if you are from a post-industrial country. I just feel like many people think that political correctness exempts them from being racists. LOL If you are truly not, my apologies... I do believe in exceptions.

Well, to explain the first flag before I share my thoughts... If the Jews and the Western world would be deeply offended by Swastika. Asians would be appalled to see the first flag in the public. The name of the flag is "the Rising Sun" that Japanese carried around during the World War II as a pride of their imperialism. If Swastika reminds Jews the atrocities that Nazis had committed to them, "The Rising Sun" reminds Asians what Japanese had done to them. However, the second case is not well know as the Holocaust event. It is probably because Asians are not as rich as the Jews to impose influence on the rest of the world or Japan has great lobbyists in the U.S.

Unlike Germans, Japanese never have repented from World War II. "Grave of the Fireflies" is the great example of that. Japanese choose to romanticize the war and make their own people to believe that they were the victims. You'll never see Swastika in any sporting events, but if you watch and game with Japan, you will see that flag 100%. What a irony...


I didn't start writing this blog to prove my point that I have made today or to talk about world politics and condemn countries that consider itself as superior, but to apply this to what we do as artists.

One musician said in an interview, "I have my own tastes of music, but I appreciate all styles of music from country music to dance music. If I start to favor one, there is no difference from racism".

I do agree with this musician. If we are just an audience, we might have a right to be "art racists", but as long as we are artists, we should attempt to dig deeper and become a good reader. However, it would be very important to discern what is art and what is fake art. I do believe that there are many wannabe arts in our media. Because just like Satan reveals himself as an angel of light, many garbages borrow the form of art and beauty.

Also, as Leeper (took me a year and a half to call him only by the last name despite of his permission..not an Asian thing I must say) told us in the very beginning of the course through the reading, our purpose is to delight with art. While thinking about racism today, I thought that if I try to impose my idea on someone through art, I am not doing art, but it would be propaganda or an expression of another form of racism. 

I have been wrestling with the concept of "delight" from the first reading. The question that I had until the the reading awhile ago was, "how should a baptized artist's baptized art should be different from non-baptized art or a non-baptized artist?" However, my question has changed, "How can I delight my audience from different race, religion and background as a Christian while preserving the restoring power of the cross?"

Sometimes we try to display our arsenal of thought or ideas and impose them through art like an arms race during the Cold War when the U.S and Soviet Union competed with each other.

Lev Tolstoy said, "the purpose of the art is to disarm". Maybe that is the role of delighting.

Let's disarm ourselves first FOR OURSELVES. Let's express what we feel, rather than what we ought.
Let's be delighted everyday :)

Flowers for you S2