Yes, the Japanese people have conducted themselves admirably in a tremendous crisis. On that we can all agree.
But these tributes were thin envelopes for another, different, domestically-targeted message.
It wasn't a subtle message, because conservatives don't know how to be subtle; it requires too much tonal refinement and sensibility. They have cement hands when it comes to irony and have to delve into their anthology of G. K. Chesterton quotations whenever paradox is required. Their subtexts are seldom very 'sub,' snaking around right under the mottled surface.
And the real message of those tributes was, There's been no looting in Japan because they don't have black people running amuck and ransacking. The Japanese know how to behave; you-know-who doesn't... Much as the righties might profess otherwise, they were transmitting in their usual racial code.
But as I say, subtle they're not, and it was only a matter of time before the implicit was made blaringly explicit and, sure enough, along comes Little Miss Attila, opening the can of worms and dumping it on the plate. One of the approving commenters in the resulting thread is the woman who created the "Obama the rapist" cartoon, and why I bother with these people, I'll never know.
P.S. I am well aware that the site LMA links to labels itself as satire. I clicked the link when I first saw it. But the photograph and the mock text trumpet the subtext that I talk about above and the take-away message is hardly subtle. Everyone involved in this knows exactly what they were doing, and if they want to be cute about it, go ahead, be my guest.
Source: http://www.vanityfair.com/online/wolcott/2011/03/last-week-i-noticed-a.html
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