happy lunar new year, friendly reminder that jimmy kimmel and ellen degeneres inviting marie kondo on to their show to “tidy up” their writer’s rooms only to dismiss her advice, belittle her methods, make fun of her use of a translator, and act like ungrateful children in the face of her genuine attempts to help is literally the most basic form of Othering from white people. It’s another form of commodification by white people of non-white cultures that is being willingly shared, and it doesn’t get any less racist when it comes from “progressives”, be they a liberal white woman or a “Woke” news pundit
like she’s already being attacked and villainised into this aggressive book-burning harpy by white people on twitter who thinks having a full bookshelf can substitute having a personality, and now mainstream network talk shows are coming after her as well.
I don’t care if you think “this is just how Degeneres/Kimmel does comedy”, I don’t care if they did it for laughs. The overall tone of their segment is to show their reaction; to show how ridiculous and childish they find the KonMari method. We get it, white liberals don’t have time for wishy-washy Japanese mindfulness woo-woo and their enlightened views make them too rational to take seriously any other cultures that are based in spirituality and animism
Kimmel made a long, over-winded joke that deliberately put both Marie and her translator into an embarrassing situation, deliberately highlighting and mocking Marie’s lack of English, and then mocked the Shinto cultural background that Marie’s methods come from. Ellen’s writer acted as if Marie was going to overturn his office, then shoves Kim Kardashian’s ass into Marie’s face, then admit that he’s going “put everything back anyway” after Maries leaves. Both of them act as if her “greeting ritual” was some form of Weird Hokey Japanese Gimmick.
White “progressive liberal voices” are turning non-white cultures either into a commodity or into a joke without any self-reflection or foresight into the damage they’re potentially doing. They take no care in the hurt that they as white comedians are sowing; in turning Marie’s traditional Japanese cultural values and contexts into a joke, they’re making the act of othering and disrespecting non-white cultures more normative and easier to do. Their activism and political commentary is nothing but performative white bullshit.
When we share don’t share our cultures, white people turn it into a hip commodity, then cry PC-gone-mad when we take offense. When we willingly share our cultures, it gets turned into a punchline. It doesn’t matter if the dismissal and commodification come from someone wearing a MAGA cap or a white liberal icon; the lack of respect still stems from the same root of privilege.
and then look at how Hassan Minhaj treats Marie Kondo when she comes to her house and helps him orginise his office and daughters play room.
