Be careful with wearing a mask out in public if you’re Asian. It might be a better idea not to wear one. The fear people may have could cause them to say or do something much worse than what we went through.
Photo by Bruno Reyna on Unsplash
They only come out at night. Clad in leather with long hair and makeup. Their music haunts your soul, and voices pierce your heart.
They’re rockers. And no one ever seems to fear them.
If I know one thing, we all need more to fear.
Rock musicians are clearly vampires. They are using their music to mesmerize you and concerts to lure you as their prey.
I advise approaching them with extreme caution.
With a documented history of vampire violence against innocents—hundreds, maybe even thousands of years of it—why aren’t we frightened?
Did you know that in 1863, in the village of Dekekuoi, Bulgaria, people were regularly attacked by a mob of young, possibly leather-wearing, sparkling vampires? They screamed outside of the villager’s homes and threw excrement at any pictures of religious figures.
Until an old witch (Baba Yaga?) decided she’d had enough and went to a local cemetery. She found the vampires’ graves and deduced that they must be escaping through holes in their tombstones. The witch sealed the holes, and vampires never gave the village of Dekekuoi trouble ever again.
This was a long time ago. Vampires have adapted. Learned how to blend in. Somewhat.
How often do you see a rock singer during the day? Their leather pants shining in the sun.
Rarely. Possibly never.
If you do, it might be just before a gig the group begrudgingly accepted in daylight hours to make some extra change.
They can’t hunt during the day. The gig had to be just for the money or they most certainly would have stayed in hiding.
If you go to a rock concert at night. Enjoy the performance, but don’t go backstage afterward.
Save a life. Watch the show and go home.
I mean, if vampires can walk among us and be left alone, how come it’s dangerous for everyone else who looks different? The majority of people in this world are not out to harm us. Vampires are, for sure!
Are vampires even real? Probably not.
So, what are we afraid of?
J finally comes out with his true feelings instead of walking all around them. It wasn't fair of him to get upset with Beverly for dating another man, especially when he's not ready to get serious with her. The fact that he was a white man made J feel even more upset and insecure. She went out with someone so different than J. He was pretty afraid that Beverly wouldn't be interested in a black guy. I know that sounds silly but these kinds of concerns run through your head when you're interested in someone and not sure if they're really into you. Thanks for all of your comments on the previous comic. I'm hoping that as fans of FC&S, you're reading my comics for more than just funny observations on Japan. This comic is and always has been about perception. How we see and perceive others from different races, cultures and of course, countries. Every now and then, I have to challenge YOUR perceptions and beliefs. It can get a little edgy at times but I don't know too many webcartoonists that are doing that. Thanks for sticking with me and I hope you enjoy where these characters are going!
I hope you're starting to see how Fried Chicken and Sushi challenges perceptions of how we see people of different races. Of course, we're getting used to seeing Karl screw up socially while living in Japan. Through characters like Miki and Hachiro, we see that even being asian in Japan is not all it's cracked up to be. Now, we're getting a chance to experience some of J's challenges of being a talented African-American in a predominately white video game company. It's so easy to pre-judge individuals due to their "look" that we can underestimate their knowledge and ability without even realizing it. I think it's going to be fun to watch J and Ryan compete for attention while designing the Ninja Super Saga video game. Let's hope Ryan will give a bit more respect to J. Many of us out there, no matter what race or ethnicity have been judged unfairly by people that didn't really know or understand us. Hopefully, we can lighten up enough to have a little laugh at it in comic strip form. Enjoy!
Fried Chicken and Sushi is a Blog and humorous comic strip about living in Japan and Japanese pop-culture.
© copyright 2010 - Khalid Birdsong All Rights Reserved.
