Racism or not?

Jesus I can't believe it's been 3 years since my last post. How time flies.


Anyway that's get right on to the topic right here. You can come here to see the complete story: http://www.celebitchy.com/524081/karlie_kloss_apologizes_for_dressing_up_like_a_japanese_geisha_for_vogue/


Long story short, some supermodel dressed up like a geisha for a Vogue editorial and got slammed for being 'inappropriate'.

I'm attaching a photo here in case you wonder what it looks like:

Apparently all hell broke loose after this issue was released. People called it 'racist', saying how Vogue should have hired a Japanese model instead of asking a white person to do yellowface if they were really aiming for diversity. Japanese Americans leaving comments saying how offended this has made them feel.


But honestly I don't really see why this is such a huge deal? I mean, I can certainly see why this is CONTROVERSIAL and culturally insensitive when it's supposed to be a 'diversity' Vogue issue, but that's really all there is. 

I do not get offended when I watch Fresh Off the Boat and see the lead character being portrayed by a Korean American Randall Park when his character is supposed to be Taiwanese. I think it's racist if a white person pretends to be Japanese in a mocking way, but I don't think it's racist to dress in costumes from a different culture to convey a artistic sense. It's like if you see a white person cast as an Asian character in a movie, you'd know it's going to be shit because it does not make great artistic sense, but to call it 'racist' would be one step too far.

It almost feels like a lot of people don't hesitate to pull the racist card without knowing racist actually means “showing or feeling discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or believing that a particular race is superior to another”, and to me that's kind of a more concerning issue here.