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White Guy In Kabukicho - Homeless?

User#8628 said:
Caucasian is a really weird term though. It's a location and the people who live there don't even look like the people the word describes. I don't know how it came to the use it has now
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It originated from the racist "science" of a guy named Friedrich Blumenbach who had a bunch of skulls and decided the skull from Georgia (The country) was the most beautiful and therefore that's where pure humans originated, in the Caucasus. He also posited four other (inferior) races - yellow, red, brown, and black. As for why people still use this today - I have no idea.. It's about as legit is saying "mongoloid" or "negro"
 
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vondoom said:
saying that someone cant handle finances, or thinking that anyone can just get a job in japan, about someone who apparently cant, is blaming him... because it is suggested that he could have done better, while forgetting that he maybe just didnt have a chance and forgetting that there are people who dont have it that easy in a foreign country... i dont think his favourite restaurant is called "garbage dump"...

also, why is it surprising to see homeless foreigners? were all humans, there is no difference between japanese and non japanese, as long as blood flows through or veins (or the eye is black)...
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Well, being homeless is a pretty strong indicator that someone can't handle their finances very well. I'm not saying that there aren't likely some extenuating circumstances and that pretty much anyone living on the street deserves some compassion. But you can be compassionate and still recognize the fact that this dude probably wouldn't make the best financial advisor.
 
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Or is it possible that the guy just snapped and has some kind of mental illness? He may not have the rational judgement to seek help in his circumstances, or even properly receive it if offered?
 
saturday said:
calling japanese people white makes no sense. at their whitest they are pale-yellow asians. so go ahead and call japanese people white...
anyways, this guy has an interesting story.
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then the western people at their whitest are pale-pink europeans, calling them white makes no sense either.
 
Solong said:
Asians are not White. I'm international minded and endorse interracial and international couples, but there is a distinction between the groups.
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I agree if you agree that no one is white. "wasp" americans, irish, english, scandinavian... people aren't white either.
 
User#8628 said:
Caucasian is a really weird term though. It's a location and the people who live there don't even look like the people the word describes. I don't know how it came to the use it has now.
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indeed that's a commonly used word so it lost it's original meaning.
 
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User#8628 said:
"White people" is also a commonly used term that excludes Asians. How is that different?
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the difference is that depending on place where it's commonly used it has a different meaning. it's still a vague word compared to the term caucasian who can be ethnical based. a lot of people consider themselves as white and are considered as white but are not considered as caucasians. so white is more general.
I'm just discovering now that "white" excludes asian in the western people's mind. to me "white" would include iranian, lebanese, japanese, corean and other people than the westerns. I could understand why the chinese would be called "yellow" even if I don't like the term but to me the japanese are whiter than the anglo saxons who are pinker than the chinese people are yellow :D
 
Floridian said:
Or is it possible that the guy just snapped and has some kind of mental illness? He may not have the rational judgement to seek help in his circumstances, or even properly receive it if offered?
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Still, he would have encountered police at some point and they would assume something was wrong. They aren't that dense. ;)
 
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ASSUMING something is wrong and actually DOING something about it are miles apart. While the police in Kabukicho may not be dense, they're known to be rather callous toward the misfortunate assuming they have reaped what they've sown and choose not to get involved.
 
Next person to see him could ask him...not likely we can figure it out by guessing!

-Ww
 
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There's always the possibility that he's an older freegan crust punk.... several punk venues in that area.
 
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If it's a white guy, and he's been living rough for a while, best guess is that he has PR and has fallen on hard times or chosen to live that way. I believe there's an ex-Japan Times writer who has PR, is now virtually unemployable, is on the dole in Japan, and spends much of his time loafing about with homeless guys in Ueno park.
 
Sinapse said:
It originated from the racist "science" of a guy named Friedrich Blumenbach who had a bunch of skulls and decided the skull from Georgia (The country) was the most beautiful and therefore that's where pure humans originated, in the Caucasus. He also posited four other (inferior) races - yellow, red, brown, and black. As for why people still use this today - I have no idea.. It's about as legit is saying "mongoloid" or "negro"
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That is inaccurate afaik. It originates from a German philosopher called Christoph Meiners, but was widespread through the work of Blumenbach. While most of Blumenbachs theories (afaik you mix up this inferiority staff with Meiners again) have been confuted, he was one of the founders of anthropology as a science and Caucasian remained as a stable anthropological term. In German it's more a less a term only used in scientific language, but in English it remains in use. Afaik the scientific meaning is for pale skinned human originating from Europe. Afaik it doesn't have any superiority / inferiority implications despite the fact the the guy who came up first with that term was convinced that Caucasian were purer than other races (and that Germans were the purest among them). But that's not what it stands for nowadays.
Actually when I use it in English I prefer it over "white". I think the later is much more often regarded as offensive by other ethnic.
 
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Yesterday, I was walking by kabukicho just for fun, around 5 or 6 pm I guess. I saw a while guy with long hair tied in a bun. He has a very prominent white feature such as high nose and white skin. He was sitting in a sidewalk selling miniature bike and making it as well. I wonder if this is the same guy you guys were talking about. I kinda felt bad because I saw how he was making the minituare bike, it was very detailed and tiny, and takes a loooong time and he was just selling it for 200円. Maybe he just needed that to eat. Good thing it is summer right now he won't freeze to death, but come winter, I wonder where he would go. :(
 
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Honestly, though, is it ever bad to use someone's race as a description?
Often times it carries no bad connotation (I'm not referring to racial slurs, which I have used) but people seem to take offence anyway.

In this case, there was obviously no malice intended by anyone, but someone got salty anyway.
 
If he ever shows up here, JR west exit, where most of us old timers hang, I'll get you guys some intel.
 
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