An angmoh with his jap wife kids encounter-mixed kids are called
hanfu there!
Recently I, the J-wife, and our three kids moved to Nagoya for
my job. We have 8, 6 and 2 year olds. Up until now, the only stuff
my kids have had to put up with have been those dumb "haaafu ha
kawaii! atashi mo hoshii naa!" comments that certain sections of
the female population seem to feel the urge to utter. However,
recently the 8 year old has been racially bullied and abused at his
school and local soccer club. He has been called "gaijin kusai" and
"hakujin oni" (white devil?) by a couple of kids. This is in front
of the homeroom teacher and other parents. At his soccer club a
couple of players always yell out "gaijin ni ki o tsukero!"
whenever he comes near them to make a tackle. Again, this in front
of the referee and other parents, and nobody does a thing. Some
even smirk, bastards. Perhaps the worst case was when his soccer
club had to change plans for the hotel they were going to stay at
on their tour. Apparently the owner of the place they were
originally going to stay atoperated a kind of informal 'no gaijin'
policy at his hotel/onsen resort, and my son was judged to be too
foreign looking by the team manager. I know the west is no racial
paradise, but at least there you can see some kind of 'civil
society' in place to fight racial discrimination.You can see laws,
societies, groups, campaigns, etc. in operation that challenge
racists and overt discrimination. In this country, all you get is
'shouganai, koko ha nihondakara ne..." I have taken this issue up
with teachers and parents at the PTA, but most people just ignore
you, while others overtly challenge you with the usual
Japan-apologia crap "Well this is an island country, so what can
you expect? If you are that bothered, go and live in a
multi-cultural country."