Defending Mr Wasabi
By Guest Contributor lisa, originally published at Sociological Images
Kirsti McG. sent us her correspondence with the manufacturer of these:
Kirsti, who saw these on the grocery store shelves in Scotland, wrote to complain that the company mascot, Mr. Wasabi, “pack[s] together practically every stereotype about East Asians possible, from wooden toe sandals to buck teeth to samurai swords to kung fu…” (check out the website to see him animated).
Kirsti got a letter back castigating her for daring to be offended by the character. They told her that hers was the only complaint they’d ever received (implying that she was crazy or over-sensitive) and that she was trying to make them into an “enemy.”
They also used the “some of my friends are Asian” response, explaining:
we have been cooperating with the Asian manufacturing company for 4 years, we have a registered company in Thailand and Japan in a different line of business, and everybody is delighted with Mr. Wasabi and the branding. It goes so far that the manufacturer has asked us permission to use the branding in their own markets in Cambodia and, hold your breath, Japan.
Then they accused her of ignorance and racist paternalism:
Maybe you should deepen your knowledge of Asia and the Asian psyche, beyond your rather activist style “I-am-going-to-protect-the-poor-asians-from-these-ruthless-snack-tycoons.”
This is a great example of the backlash that frequently occurs when power is threatened. The company representative didn’t say “Gee, I’d hate to be racist, let me think about this” or even “I’m sorry you’re offended, but this is just what the logo is.” He said, “You are the crazy person here. There is nothing wrong with our logo and how dare you even suggest that it is racist! We are innocent and perfect with our Asian friends and you are totally out-of-line. If anyone is racist, it is you.” This is a common response when someone’s privilege is exposed: Everything goes along just fine until you ask for power relations to be reconfigured, and then you see the resistance. For another example, see our post showing vandalized anti-rape posters.
Kirsti wrote back explaining calmly that their ties to Asian companies does not necessarily mean that their branding isn’t racist and that to suggest that there was a single “Asian psyche” (that is 100% behind their product) is, itself, kinda racist.
She said that the next letter was less accusatory and that he promised to bring the issue up with the board.
Sometimes, even in the face of backlash, collective action can work.
You can contact the peeps at Mr. Wasabi here.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Natalie wrote:
Good for Kirsti for keeping her head and shooting back a coherent response.
I had a slightly similar situation arise yesterday and didn’t do nearly as well.
Posted 04 Jan 2010 at 9:53 am ¶
Deaf Indian Muslim Anarchist wrote:
how can anyone not be offended by these images? This is yellowface and racist.
Posted 04 Jan 2010 at 11:00 am ¶
eh wrote:
I can’t get over how very unprofessional that companies response was. Sometimes I truly think that racism is a sign of other mental illness.
Posted 04 Jan 2010 at 1:58 pm ¶
Tony Figueroa wrote:
This company sounds like the racial equivalent of someone who borrows money from you and then tries to guilt trip you when you ask to be repaid. This story is a sad but excellent portrayal of the insidiousness of “undercover racism”. The racist is “shocked!” that he or she could be accused of such feelings when they have “friends and/or a girlfriend who is…” People like this then try to pin the issue on you and I( like Kirsti) by accusing us of “over sensitivity” and then they have the nerve to tell her to “deepen her knowledge of Asia”. That’s just adding insult to insult.
Posted 04 Jan 2010 at 2:36 pm ¶
Tracey wrote:
Clearly Kirsti is in the wrong here. When will you people realize that the only people who are racist in a colorblind world are those people who point out (non-existent) racism. By drawing attention to the supposed stereotypes Kirsti only showed that they were the ones stereotyping because when the company picked them out they were not stereotyping only picking completely random aspects of Asian culture related to wasabi to honor.
As a matter of fact, I went in Mr.Wasabi HQ once and saw an East Asian being allowed to use the restroom there. Clearly they are not racist.
Posted 04 Jan 2010 at 3:18 pm ¶
grace wrote:
I sent a quick letter to them using the link and had quite a conundrum filling out the form. First, they had no option for an unmarried woman in the “prefix” drop down menu. Only Mr, Mrs and Company. Secondly, apparently my two letter Asian last name is not really a name because the website refused to send the letter until I “completed the field”. I just added a bunch of vowels until the website accepted it.
What a (mostly) lazily and (by relation) offensively designed website.
Posted 04 Jan 2010 at 8:59 pm ¶
Twistie wrote:
My late mother-in-law was a Nagasaki survivor. She would kick the ass of the person who designed these logos. In fact, I wouldn’t put it past her to rise up from her ashes like a phoenix just for the pleasure of doing so.
Posted 04 Jan 2010 at 11:27 pm ¶
mk wrote:
Go Kirsti for writing in and then coherently defending her position when the company tried to dismiss her points…but I think mixed in with their snark, obnoxiousness, and racism the company alluded to an uncomfortable reality:
“I-am-going-to-protect-the-poor-asians-from-these-ruthless-snack-tycoons.”
That kind of attitude exists, albeit often unconsciously. Allies/people working in solidarity/privileged outsiders/whatever you want to call it have been known to rush in, decide what everyone else needs, and start fighting “for them”–without listening, without acknowledging the agency and ability to resist that people DO NOT LOSE simply because they are oppressed, without consideration on the part of the allies that maybe they/we don’t know best about what should be done.
Now, in this context it’s pretty clear that the company marketing Mr. Wasabi is in the wrong. But while I absolutely don’t think Kirsti displayed the attitude that she got accused of in the company’s response, it’s something that happens and it’s somewhere I think we have to check ourselves when we’re involved in any struggle as allies or in solidarity..
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 1:41 am ¶
RCHOUDH wrote:
Wow this is a first…a company that doesn’t believe in serving its customers’ needs the best way it can. At least the company brought out its true colors by being racist and hyper reactive to anyone suggesting it was promoting racism.
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 1:50 am ¶
Amanda wrote:
When I lived in Britain, I noticed this kind of attitude of ‘oh well, we’re British. We’re in not racist like you Americans’. But I couldn’t help but noticing some troubling patterns. For instance when I was at university it was common to dress up in costume and go drinking with your friends. Often times many people would go as Mr.T in full black face in broad daylight. If I confronted them about their choice of outfit I was made to feel stupid for even bringing the topic of race and the hurtful, painful history behind blackface up. Even talking about race, especially to British people, who pride themselves on not taking anything in earnest, was frowned upon. I am all too familiar with this ignorant attitude unfortunately.
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 8:36 am ¶
Paul Afello Bierhaus wrote:
Since your post about Ching Chong Beautiful I have been following your blog, I even did a little backtracking so to say. I am a young videogame designer/visual artist from Holland and this post about Mr Wasabi made me wonder about something.
Mr. Wasabi is a combination of asian clichés put together and it reminds me of the way much of the world depicts dutch people, you know; tulips, windmills, wooden shoes, smoking weed and slave dealers. I always laugh about these stupidities and honestly believe most asian people will laugh the same way as I do when looking at Mr. Wasabi. Can we truely classify this as racist? I mean, depicting French people brings the funny hat, the baquette under the arm, the wine and the big noses. Germans have their beer, their “lederhosen” and very blond hair (although most Germans have dark hair). I do believe we can come up with this stuff for every land/nation/culture in the world. I even feel tempted to make a joke about Americans with their guns but I think you get my point.
As a designer I absolutely make sure not to fall in the trap of these clichés. I do believe you can, in this case, make a heartlighted/comical logo without using these “asian trademarks”. But can someone please explain why this is racist and would hurt someones feelings. All it hurts is my view upon this company and it’s designer.
Great blog and a welcome addition in my RSS reader! Keep up the great work! You get me thinking and I sure love that!
Posted 05 Jan 2010 at 10:50 am ¶
little mixed girl wrote:
for #11, Paul.
As simply as possible, it hurts people because the relationship is not equal.
Many Asian countries have been colonized by European ones, and during those times, the colonizers used racist imagery to justify why those people were beneath Europeans.
Even after the colonial period ended, the images still continued.
Basically, the Western countries were free to create their own image of Asian ones, but Asian countries were not able to do the same to the West on equal footing.
While stereotypical images of French or German people are not good either, I would say that because of the power dynamics and history between the West and Asia is very uneven, we can’t judge all of those images on the same level.
There are more people who can explain better than me, and I’m sure that there are some articles on this site that can maybe explain things better too
Posted 06 Jan 2010 at 1:11 am ¶
dersk wrote:
@Paul: Well…I own a pair of klompen, there’s a coffee shop around the corner and my favorite brewery in the neighborhood is based in an old windmill. Too bad tulpen are out of season…
“This is a great example of the backlash that frequently occurs when power is threatened.” It’s impossible to say without seeing the original email, but to a lot of people being told “You’re being racist” is exactly equivalent to “You’re being an asshole.” While perhaps true, that’s guaranteed to make people act defensively and not listen, and attack back.
It sounds like they managed to get past that initial reaction and actually communicate, but I think it’s worth keeping in mind when trying to get someone to realize what they’re doing is offensive to some people.
@littlemixedgirl: So, if power dynamics drive what’s offensive and what’s not, that means racist caracitures of Germans would have been ok in the 30s and 40s but not now, we could all have made fun of the French in the early 1800’s, and so on? To me, the power dynamic argument sounds suspiciously like the ‘but he started it’ argument. At least when you narrow the focus of the argument to a single continent.
Posted 06 Jan 2010 at 6:56 am ¶
Phil wrote:
Paul.
Many Americans are of Dutch descent. As a result most Americans know not to take the depiction too seriously.
How many Asians do you suppose live in Scotland? Apparently all Asians and Asian culture are the same to Mr. Wasabi.
Would if bother you as a Dutchman if an Asian company had a product, say Dutch ice cream, with a little blond person with wooden shoes and a kilt? After all, all Europeans are the same.
You should also investigate more on the history of Asian images. The bucktooth slanty Asian has been used as shorthand for over a hundred years to show how subhuman Asians are.
Where is the equivalent Dutch stereotype? Is the blonde girl in pigtails and wooden shoes the same as the bucktooth little man with funny eyes? What message is being sent to the public?
I would say a more apt comparison would be World War 2 computer games. I have to say almost all games show Germans as Nazis (albeit they are human and not beans with funny eyes).
Posted 06 Jan 2010 at 11:11 pm ¶
Afroagogo wrote:
What is wrong with people? Especially seemingly intelligent ones that can’t see the offensiveness in a dumb@$$ logo like this one. Why would you even want to go there and link this crap with your company image for all of time?
Mind-boggling.
Posted 07 Jan 2010 at 12:42 am ¶
Paul Afello Bierhaus wrote:
Thanks for your answers everyone!
@Dersk: Yes, and I know all of these cliché elements of Dutch culture can be found all around us in Holland. But I am fairly sure that you will find opera’s in Japan with traditional haircuts and bandana’s, there are still samurai swordmakers (heck, they sell replica’s for tourism) and the same is probably true for their wooden sandals. I have been thinking about your comment but I don’t really get what you are trying to say.
@Little Mixed Girl and Phil: The first thing I have been doing after reading this post was doing some research in this subject! Having seen a lot of old illustrations/cartoons I think the biggest problem with this Mr. Wasabi is indeed the bucktooth and in lesser extent the small eyes, because all other elements, but I can most certainly be wrong, are traditional Japanese items (samurai sword, wooden sandals, hair style).
This bucktooth is most certainly a racist element straight out of old (colonial) drawings and I feel stupid for not knowing this. The biggest problem is the way these elements are so hard baked into western culture. First thing that comes to mind are comicbooks (TinTin or Lucky Luke for example). As a kid I always saw them as characterizations just as much as a cartoonist would probably emphasize my jumpy nose and feminine mouth. No one ever explained this as wrong. At history class they teach you about colonization (cause we Dutch were very good at that as you all might know
but never show those hateful old drawings. It’s a shame that so many people are unaware and I am glad this discussion learned me something! Regarding those WW2 games, ever since playing “Call of Duty” a few years back I absolutely hate these games: the American patriotism is unbearably misplaced and the depiction of German soldiers as soulless killing machines (often with a nose like a pig, it’s true!) makes me furious. I am still waiting for a game that shows war as horrible as it is instead of this masculine, emotionless nonsense it is right now.
And doing research made me stumble upon this great article, just wanted to share!
http://www.manaa.org/asian_stereotypes.html
Posted 07 Jan 2010 at 6:08 am ¶