#tagging those for beloved mutual clover who has not seen the chapter yet

[gojo-kisser-9000]

Yeah that’s why I appreciate Gege making Gojo a little racist and apologizing immediately for it. He has always been very critical of Japanese society and I like that he’s trying to teach his audience how to not be racist using a popular character.

Straight up manga and anime is usually very racist. Especially against black people. I get jumpscared a lot. The only other popular manga series that has acknowledged the plight of black people against racism is Baki the Grappler. So I really have to give props to Gege for this.

And boy howdy do I know how racist Japan is. I went to Hawaii for a vacation once and of all the nationalities present, I was exclusively racially harassed by the Japanese tourists. I was like exotic wildlife to them. Never experienced anything like it. Straight up I prefer slurs over it. 💀

Gege is an INCREDIBLE writer when it comes down to it, sure there are some iffy things, but that just comes to the territory of writing, especially with the tropes that are popular for the audiences you mainly write for.

Do I agree with a some of the things Gege has done with JJK? Absolutely not, but here’s the other thing, the full story isn’t finished, so I’m not going to judge it as harshly as I would with one that’s finished. But the topic of racism, for the audience it was intended for, was written beautifully. And I appreciate it so, SO much that Gege is using their writing to advocate for change within societal norms, even if it isn’t blatantly spelled out.

However I see a lot of people, specifically people who are not black saying that Gojo wasn’t racist in that panel. Which brings me to my problem with a lot of the JJK fans I’m seeing:

They don’t actually read Jujutsu Kaisen. They don’t take in the words being said, everything about a character is ignored until it’s convenient for them to bring up. What most of these people I’m seeing do is read it without reading.

And what I mean by that is that they don’t take the time to process anything being said, they don’t take the time to critically think about what Gege is doing.

Ex.: the people complaining about Sukuna running a gauntlet in the modern era. Yes, it is repetitive, but that’s the beauty of it in the same breath. You see so many people fighting him, for their own reasons. But one reason stays between them all, to save Megumi.

Which leads me to this, back when 251 dropped people complained about Megumi having a reaction to his body being used to kill the people he cared most about. He’s human, and a CHILD. Of course he would say it’s enough, he wouldn’t want to be save after that because in his mind, he doesn’t have anyone to return to.

And people insulting Gege’s current art style, specifically whenever i see someone say “Yuji Eatadori”. Sorry that he doesn’t look like a twig anymore?? He’s literally built as an average person and people CANNOT handle it. It just. Makes me so upset.

Back to the topic of racism however, (apologies for the side quest), people have it so normalized in certain places that they don’t even think they’re capable of it. And when called out, they won’t apologize because in their head, “well I didn’t say this, this, and this, so I can’t be racist.”

I do have my own thoughts on tourism to Hawai’i, but that is solely because I am of Hawaiian descent and never got to be on the islands except for when I was an actual infant. Won’t get into that here because. I think it would upset people if they ever saw this post.