Aatheory posts a NYT video interview with New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita, who was transracially abducted adopted by a Japanese-American dad and white mom. Hence, the name. And apparent fondness for mochi ice cream.
Funny, You Don’t Look Like a Mr. Fujita…
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Damn… no Hines Ward this year so we people of Northeast Asian heritage have to settle for a white guy adopted by a Nisei…
Ah, Mr. Fujita. Reminds me of the scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise’s character got an eye transplant and he passes by a marketing scanner at Gap and once his eyes are scanned a voice from a computer says, “Hello Mr. Yakamoto.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITjsb22-EwQ
Fujita — also the only California Golden Bear in the Super Bowl. Go Bears!
I was telling this girl the other night that I’m not a big sports fan. I said, “OK, let me see if I understand this correctly…you’re watching men being paid millions of dollars to throw a ball around…and how exactly does this improve your life?” She agreed with me. I’d rather fix my attention on the stock market.
@3 – I feel the same way, only I explain it as “You’re watching millionaires play a children’s game.” I enjoy playing sports, but never could get into watching them, even live. I have a friend whose dad watches marathons on tv.
Jeepers that’s a real Wapanese
Earning millions doesn’t seem that off base when you consider how much physical damage these guys inflict on themselves – most of their major joints will gone by age 50, not to mention the brain injuries sustained from high speed helmet to helmet collision. The average life expectancy for these guys is 22 years below average (55 vs. 77), and only 51 for linemen. There was a segment on NPR last month – some famous former NFL players had a lot of regrets about playing professional football in the 80s and 90s. Earl Campbell can barely speak or walk now.
My proposal would be to replace the pads and helmets with a suit of inflated airbags. There’s no justification for these guys to destroy themselves like this.
Actually, my negative feeling towards professional is based partly on some personal experience. I played baseball four four years at a small liberal arts college and one game of college football. In my senior year, the football team had lost a third of its players to injury towards the end of the season and the coach spread the word that they needed some bodies to fill in on kick returns – basic stuff like that. So, I volunteered and after a week of practice suited up for my first game, the last game of the year. We were getting blown out – no surprise there. So, the coach puts me in at defensive line. Let me tell you – the helmet to helmet collisions on the line are not at all what they look like on tv. When my helmet hit the guy across from me it felt like putting my bed inside big ringing bell – like you’d see on a Tom&Jerry cartoon. It was extremely violent, and a whole lot more tiring than I imagined too – for play after play. I had one highlight – the guy across from me was a rookie and blew his assignment on one play – so I actually sacked the QB with a lame tackle in which grabbed him by the knees and he fell over. But, after that experience – I was grateful that I hadn’t played football full time in college. Also, it’s way faster than it appears on TV, and your peripheral vision is restricted by the helmet – so people just whizz by out of nowhere. Fun for a day, but a very violent sport.
Well, I think my own lack of enthusiasm about pro sports stems from the fact that I attended a high school that was filled with academically overachieving nerds composed of 50% Jews and 30% Asians, the two groups that are overwhelmingly underrepresented in sports. The most popular sports in HS was Ultimate Frisbee, Chess, and maybe Fencing. Furthermore, my father was not a sports fan of any kind either.
But if I have children I think I would like for them to be physically active and play in a team sport if they want to.
BTW, if Fujita is from California then you need to pronounce the “j” like the “j” in “fajita” or “mojito”.
Another story. I have a Japanese American coworker who married a lady who had a 12 year old son. The son actually had the choice of keeping his German derived surname or the Japanese surname and he choice the Japanese surname. They were wondering if he should change back to his original surname when it came time for him to apply to college, you know, the potential reverse discrimination of people of East Asian heritage during the admissions process, but they didn’t. The kid still got into Cal. Just like Mr. Fujita, the kid loves Pocky, Capilico and Pocari Sweat.
Years ago, I had a professor at the Univ. of Vienna who had grown up in Japan with a Japanese stepfather and adopted his last name. He had some stories to tell.
@#8:
NK: Yeah, same with my dad, and probably my high school and yours were identical in that respect. Anyhoo, my dad said the first time he ever played a serious ballgame was at age 13, when he and his little ragamuffin friends figured out how to go “fishing” among the rubble and detritus of the Korean War
I said, “Fishing?”
(As he simulates pulling a grenade pin with his teeth and lobbing it into a lake…)
“Yeah, fishing he said. We were hungry — and bored.”
Which goes to show you where sports rate on Mazlow’s hierarchy of needs.
That’s interesting – three cases of Japanese – Americans marrying caucasians and raising caucasian kids. I haven’t heard of many similar cases of Korean-Americans. Maybe Korean Americans are just newer arrivals. Or, maybe Korean-Americans have more traditional attitudes regarding marriage. Any thoughts?
Dokdoforever,
I believe it’s a combination of both.
On the subject of the detris of the Korean War. My dad told me that some people used dude motar shells to pound seseme seeds and grind beans. Some people were killed doing this. Also, others use to take spent artillery casings and melt them down to make pots, pans and bowls. That’s why you saw so many cheap tin containers in pojanamamchas in the 50s and 60s.
Please forgive any spelling or grammar errors and I typed this up on a smart phone just outside a cafe.
#12
There’s also a socio-political dimension to why I do not support US pro sports.
When I was in engineering school, there were always lots of assistance programs geared toward attracting under-represented minorities and women into the engineering fields. I was not socio-politically astute at the time but it was clear that “under-represented or under-privileged minorities” meant low-income urban blacks and hispanics. Asian-American did not fall under “under-represented minority” even if you grew up in a working class background in the Bronx, which would make one underprivileged. Assistance took the forms of scholarships, tuition assistance, remedial tutoring, internships, fellowships…you name it.
However, one would never find any kind of program designed to attract Asian-Americans to places where they are underrepresented, such as pro sports. Frankly, given that Asian-Americans are rare in pro sports, I simply do not understand why any Asian-American should be such big fans of football, basketball, or whatever. I feel like they are kind of clueless idiots. I mean, do you know many Blacks who are fans of ice hockey? Think about it.
I am not suggesting that Asian-Americans should advocate for affirmative action in pro sports because not only is that silly but it is beneath dignity to be asking for unwarranted hand-outs that is not based purely on merit. But the hypocrisy and double standards that are rife in this ridiculous nation are astounding.
^ above, I mean to include college sports as well as pro sports
There are plenty of people from a variety of backgrounds who love to play basketball, baseball, etc, and who enjoy watching those sports on TV even though they will never get a chance to play professionally, and their ethnic group is underrepresented among the ranks of pro athletes. Asian Americans like to play basketball as much as any other ethnic group, regardless of how many play in the NBA.
I would guess that most African American youth, on the other hand, don’t get too much exposure to hockey.
NK: Asian Americans don’t go around raping, killing and dealing drugs to white kids, that’s why there’s no affrmative action for them, in this world threatening violence often is way more effective than quiet, hard work…sad but true
Most of the raping, killing and dealing of drugs is targeted at people of the same ethnicity.
Asian Americans are probably over-represented among the most lucrative professions, in law, engineering, medicine, etc. Where are Asian Americans under-represented? working at McDonalds or picking strawberries? As for the professional sports, from the perspective of the average athlete, or ‘worker,’ it’s got to be one of the most competitive, least financially rewarding industries in the US. What’s the probability of making it to the NBA, NFL, or MLB? It’s got to be fare less than 1%. Most professional athletes scrape by on subsistence wages.
“…When I was in engineering school, there were always lots of assistance programs geared toward attracting under-represented minorities and women into the engineering fields. I was not socio-politically astute at the time…”
Revelations!
NetKim,
What about professional basketball? Given the proliferation of black athletes in that sport, should white people stop looking at it?
@21: Guess you hadn’t seen this in the news:
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2010/01/19/nba_563760.shtml
NetKim,
I’m curious about your comments. It never occurred to me that people might only watch pro sports to support their own ethnicity. I won’t go so far as to say I’m a color-blind person, but I rarely take ethnicity into consideration when I route for particular athletes.
I’m also curious as to whether this reasoning applies to other areas, as well. What’s your take on white people who listen to hip hop, or to Latinos who listen to classical?
Guess that should say “root for”. No pun intended.
Jeff Yang wrote recently about why he and many other Asians do this.
Actually he does look retarded Japanese.
Did you find that link on Stormfront, Dogbert?
There are plenty of Asian Americans who like to play basketball – most of the guys on the court back in grad school were Asian American. It’s natural for them to enjoy watching the game too – regardless of what ethnicity the professional players happen to be.
No, I don’t read Stormfront. I saw it on Racialicious.
It’s also on Google News:
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=0&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=whites+only+basketball+league&oq=whites+only+b
also was on either the Daily Show or Colbert Report last week I believe.
NetKim,
I’m curious about your comments. It never occurred to me that people might only watch pro sports to support their own ethnicity. I won’t go so far as to say I’m a color-blind person, but I rarely take ethnicity into consideration when I route for particular athletes.
I’m also curious as to whether this reasoning applies to other areas, as well. What’s your take on white people who listen to hip hop, or to Latinos who listen to classical?
Granfalloon makes a fair statement. I shall try to address it as adequately as possible.
My own stance on the matter is that I am not inclined to be a big sports fan of any kind to begin with. The fact that Asian-Americans are practically non-existent in sports makes it that much more irrelevant.
The underlying tone to Granfalloon’s comment is that it is narrowminded to root for atheletes based on ethnicity and that being a sports fan should be a colorblind affair. And in fact many sports fans do not care about ethnicity. But, at the same time, many people also do care under certain circumstances. Furthermore, ethnicity alone is not a compelling reason. For example, if Anthony Kim sucked at golf then it would be silly for me to root for Anthony Kim simply because he’s a KA.
To pretend that ethnicity doesn’t or shouldn’t matter is to deny the fact that the history of American sports is deeply intertwined with identity politics. If so, then can anyone tell me why there is a highway in NYC named after Jackie Robinson? Was it simply because he was good at baseball? There’s also Sandy Koufax, Mohammad Ali, Tiger Woods, etc. The list goes on. Even in modern times it matters. When Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were having their HR rivalry, Sosa was a big deal to Dominicans and they made that known quite obvious.
Aside from that, the double standards of Political Correctness are revealed in sharp relief within the context of sports, especially team sports. Somehow it is OK to be biased towards a certain team based on other kinds of affiliation such as what region one is from but not race or ethnicity. Would Granfalloon tell a rabid Boston Red Sox fan “I rarely take geographical origin into consideration when I root for particular teams and that is why I root for the Bronx Bombers because they will kick your ass, Mass-hole!”. Maybe he might because a sport team is just another kind of a granfalloon. I would suggest that Granfallon apply this PC devils advocacy to any hardcore sports fan and see what results he obtains.
It doesn’t stop there. It is a well known fact that most men are not a big fan of women’s sports. So is this sexism or what? But no one would suggest “why should gender matter in who you root for?” because it is a senseless question and a waste of everybody’s time.
This exercise in colorblind disingenuity as it applies to sports further highlights the fact that viewing the world through lenses tinted with Political Correctness leads to a distorted perception of reality.
NK,
As a lover of sports — something I consider to be one of the greatest creations by humankind — here is my rejoinder to your original question: “you’re watching men being paid millions of dollars to throw a ball around…and how exactly does this improve your life?”
It improves my life because sports is a re-enactment of human condition that is at once simplified and glorified. For example, take my favorite sport, basketball. Surely a sport that has been much maligned for millionaire athletes and identity politics. Is it silly to be excited over this?
Kobe’s buzzer beater in 2006 playoffs.
If you only looked at the ball going into the hoop, you might think so. But consider what work must go in for that ball to find its way into the hoop as the time expires — twice in that game versus Phoenix. Kobe’s
666 workout is legendary. It takes insane amount of desire and discipline to put oneself through that type of regimen. When that ball sinks in, you are not just admiring the arc of the shot — although that arc is quite beautiful in and of itself. You are also admiring the amount of hard work, determination and focus that enabled that arc to be created under extreme duress. You are also admiring the stroke of luck that may have wiped out all the hard work you did.
You might object and say, why not appreciate the real thing? Why focus on the simplified re-enactment of life when there is real life? But that objection misses the mark. The existence of photography does not eviscerate the beauty of Cezanne, whose art often reduces landscapes into recognizable shapes. If you are more of a fan of Ansell Adams, that is hardly a fault. But you can’t say that because of Ansell Adams, Cezanne no longer has meaning.
Kobe is the closest thing to a Korean (mindset) star we have in the NBA.
His focus and work ethic are legendary.
Oh… forgot toughness… Kobe is as tough as nails and he would have to have his legs cut off before he would miss a big game.
There is a “do or die” Kim Duk Koo quality to Kobe’s mindset.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duk_Koo_Kim
#32
TK, Kobe Bryant is also a consequence of genetic lottery and historical accident in addition to any physical discipline that he imposes on himself. Take any group of people that have been deliberately selected for physical endurance for approximately 400 years (as known as slavery) and viola, you have the American Black dominance of pro sports that we see today. Sorry to inject a dose of historical realism into your pristine Platonic vision.
So, focus and work ethic can be safely claimed as Korean traits? And to the extent anyone from another race displays them, is it that they learned them from Koreans? Or, at the very least, are merely emulating Koreans?
You can’t make this stuff up.
Stay on topic, man. So what if Kobe is a consequence of genetic lottery? Are you saying that somehow diminishes the value of sports?
That’s a whole new can of worms there…
Come up with the most ridiculous misinterpretation and make fun of people for what they never said! Just another day at MH.
PineForest,
You are taking things WAY out of context. I never said focus and work ethic were solely Korean traits.
However, I would say that Kobe’s style of how his intense focus and contentration manifests itself outwardly, almost to the point of being misunderstood, is a bit Korean-like.
#38
When Chris Rock says it everyone laughs and says ‘true dat’. When I say it, it’s controversial. The Illogic of the Doctrine of Political Correctness never fails to amuse and bewilder.
#37
What I am saying is most forms of US pro sports as pure spectator entertainment is largely irrelevant to the Korean-American experience.
There’s lots of ppl with physical gifts in sports, but that doesn’t always guarantee success. It’s just like any thing in life. Remember the high school valedictorian that flamed out in college?
NK,
But Korean American experience is a part of the human experience. And you can find much (although certainly not all) of human experience replicated in sports, including U.S. professional sports. As such, pro sports is hardly irrelevant to Korean American experience — it often serves as an interesting mirror.
Name any Korean American experience, and I will find you an American pro sports equivalent. Just try me.
Silly me for wondering.
NetKim,
It’s only two bucks if you buy it used…
http://www.amazon.com/Necessary-Roughness-Marie-G-Lee/dp/0064471691/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t
No disrespect intended for linking to a book for 12 and up… but hey… it was a good book.
NetKim,
Have you read up on Satchel Paige’s biography? African American pitcher during segregation. Very interesting story for anyone from a minority background who have felt oppressed by a system but somehow persevered through it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchel_Paige
I am a stranger in a strange land.
I imagine Paul of Tarsus, upon witnessing the Circus for the first time on his journey to Rome, the terrific noise, blood, delirious spectacle, and violence that drove the multitudes wild and mad within the coliseum, despite his Roman citizenship, saying to himself: “good God, what does any of this have to do with me?” America is Rome. The American sports stadium is the the modern equivalent of the coliseum. Even football body armor is based upon the armor worn by Roman soldiers.
I’ll have to sympathize with Paul.
Ummm… call me when we actually start to sacrifice muslims (or others) to the lions.
Besides, when I think of sports, that’s not what I think about. The image that comes to my mind is Jesse Owens humiliating Hitler and his “master race” in the Berlin Olympics. Sohn Kee-Chung crying when the Japanese flag rose for his gold medal ceremony in the same Olympics. Willis Reed overcoming a torn thigh muscle to win the Knicks’ first NBA championship… etc.
Well I’ve been trying to help you understand, but you only continue to repeat, “I don’t understand.”
Good point….the anal rape and paying off the victim to keep her mouth shut fit in perfectly!
IHBB,
Actually, I think the Koreans got that from the Americans. That entire situation was litigation hell. Victim “payoff” is not something Koreans are use to doing. It’s actually a relatively modern phenomenon. And anal sex? Nothing particularly Korean ’bout that!
Honestly i see NK point here, actually if you travel to modern-day Rome and go to the Olympic stadium you civilised highly-educated Korean American men would receive some kind of shock seeing how professional sport today still easily team up with bestial crowd behaviour and the most brutish variety of neo-fascism. All this in a Eurozone nation, well in the piigs fringe of it
Gangpeh,
I actually thought that you would be a Kobe fan, considering his Italian connections.
I hear that the crowds in Europe are a lot more rowdy. Ex-US players who played in Europe said that the crowd use to throw food and batteries at you if you screwed up…
Kobe is cool and he’s always nice to the Italian fans and he’s a very cold-blooded guy i agree and IHBB bringing up the lurid story was a bit below the belt, even if the joke was funny i have to admit. The guy was acquitted of everything so as they say innocent until proven guilty.
Basketball crowds are generally civilised in Europe, nothing like soccer, the exception being Greece, if you played a Panathinaikos Athens- Paok Thessaloniki game you can go to Afghanistan with a smile on your face.
You forget the sarcasm tags, right? The Korean legal system is practically built on paying off victims in lieu of criminal charges.
It benefits lazy cops, judges, and prosecutors, keeps the “official” crime rate low, avoids clogging the legal system and prisons with costly trials and prisoners, and at the same time reinforces a cheap payoff mentality onto the general public while having zero deterrent effect. If you’re looking for one of the primary reasons for the lack of respect for the law in Korean society…look no further.
You, like Kobe, are mistaking anal sex with anal rape.
He was never acquitted of anything. The charges were dropped due to the victim refusing to testify. In a shocking coincidence, she then filed a civil suit against Kobe and settled out of court for an undisclosed amount (estimated to be 5 mil +).
i don’t see anal rape being a particularly Korean thing either, from what i’ve heard actually the rape rate in Korean prisons is much lower than in most Western nations
As for the civil lawsuit, it doesn’t prove anything. Let’s suppose she filmed the encounter or she learned of other lurid details of Kobe sex life, if she divulged it, likely it would have spelled financial disaster for him a-la-Tiger
I wouldn’t be surprised if he got blackmailed
“actually if you travel to modern-day Rome and go to the Olympic stadium you civilised highly-educated Korean men would receive some kind of shock seeing how quickly your wallet will disappear.”
Fixed.
cmm if that’s what happened to you consider yourself extremely lucky
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28502352/
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE54Q2OT20090527
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/european_football/article741260.ece
it ain’t pyeongchang-dong overthere
Seoul any time of the day and night, despite the goofy no deterrent cheap pay off legal system
Yes, it’s stories like those that help me appreciate the more civilized corners of the Earth… like Korea. What was it you said recently, that NE Asia is the last holdout for civilized society? Those this is arguable on other accounts, it certainly has good merit wrt this kind of crime.
Have never been pickpocketed myself, but several of my Korean colleagues have been robbed in Italy. I assumed that it was a combination of them being used to living in an environment where they don’t give thought to pick-pockets, and that pickpockets target them for the same reason.
My time is Roma was quite nice, but what’s with all the cats?
Netizen Kim:
I’m still not swayed, but I’d like to take a moment to tell you that I think your arguments are thoughtful, well expressed, and thankfully bereft of the bitterness that has marked our previous exchanges (of which I am just of guilty of, if not more so, as you). Thank you for elucidating your position so well and so politely.
#62
Thank you. It helps that I’ve quit smoking and taking 150 mg of budeprion a day.
Becareful not to revive the formerly popular MH term of “… take your meds.”
Good advice, WangKon, although I’d almost welcome its return if it meant we could unload ‘epic fail’ in the process.
Nah… “Epic Fail” is legit.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=epic%20fail
http://kevinrobinson.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/epic_fail.jpg
Well, it’s legitimate in the sense that it’s an expression in common use, but then again, so is ‘take your meds’. Look up ‘meds’ at urbandictionary, and you’ll see that it’s often coupled with ‘take your…’. But, even so, both are cliches. Even if we ignore that ‘fail’ is a verb which is being forced into service as a noun (the noun form being ‘failure’; ‘fail’ as a noun is, at best, jargon), why must seemingly every ‘fail’ be ‘epic’? Logically, the term suggests that other types of ‘fail’ exist, but you’ll never find them on blogs – it’s always ‘epic fail’. And that, in itself, is an epic fail.
gbnhj,
Languages evolve.
Yeah, they do – for example, in the way that a verb in English can become a noun (and vice-versa). Yet, given the changing nature of language, there’s nothing wrong with the expression ‘take your meds’ either. It’s not even a misuse of language – only a possible overuse of one.
Simply because languages evolve doesn’t mean that we have to embrace every step of linguistic evolution as being a great example of the process. We can choose to like or dislike expressions irrespective of their common usage. After all, ‘that’s what you and I have done with ‘take your meds’ (although it doesn’t bother me as much as ‘epic fail’). I dislike ‘epic fail’ because it doesn’t accept any other modifer but ‘epic’, so it ends up operating as a pop song does – hot on the charts in the beginning, but destined to annoy listeners after a while. To use a bit of jargon, it’s in heavy rotation these days, but it ain’t a classic.
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