I’m Japanese American and I find it offensive. And Charles, as another racial minority, is infinitely better able to comment on the problem with a white guy pretending to be Japanese than some anonymous weeaboo.

Being conscientious about how YOUR OWN CULTURE is portrayed and the weight that goes with it as opposed to trying it on for size like a pair of shoes.

Context is key. Look at the substance of his writing under that name, for example; or the fact that he created an entire persona around it.

My pseudonym is based off of a Japanese character from a Japanese franchise- am I offensively appropriating their culture by doing so?

He claimed to be Japanese, a minority, kept it a secret, and was published.

Western culture has spent hundreds of years letting white men write the narratives—both fictional and real—focused on cultures that are not their own and in doing so, allowed for inaccuracies, and a romanticized fetishization to become part of the way we as a society see those cultures. This manifests itself in a…

Unlike what happened here, it’s certainly more understandable for a racial minority to use a ‘caucasianized’ alias (presumably as a way to avoid racism in publishing/readership)- similarly, women use more masculine aliases all the time when writing. But I just realized I wouldn’t be quite as bothered by a man writing…

it becomes racist retroactively...

Thanks for caring enough to come in and comment about how little you care. REALLY interesting to hear

No, that’s systemic racism, its own thing.

Fridging originated as a term specifically about the killing of female characters as motivation for male characters, so it’s not clear that Tony Stark dying qualifies. Even if we accept a broadened definition, there needs to be a deep emotional connection between the characters, as in the origin of the phrase, when…

When people use a pseudonym, usually it’s of the same race, they aren’t pretending to be an entire different race and talking about how they grew up in a completely different country. Using a pseudonym is fine — using a racial pseudonym is something completely different.

Stan Lee was not trying to deceive people into thinking he was two distinctly different people. Also:

1) That’s not how you use the word “fridged.” Fridging is when a character is killed or maimed in order to provide motivation (or additional motivation) for another, often male character, and 90% of the time, the person being fridged is female. Tony Stark was not put into a coma to provide motivation for Riri Williams.

He thought he might get a bigger pop if people thought he was Asian. It wasn’t a long term plan. It was a really dumb move that usually gets you fired if not suspended until a full apology is made.

This is... less than ideal.

So if he were Japanese it wouldn’t be racist, but because he’s white it becomes racist retroactively?

Yes, some things done by a white person are racist when they would not be racist if done by a non-white person, because racism is about systemic power.

Obligatory Robot Chicken clip: