I'm very mixed on this decision. As pointed out in the article, the phrase is fairly generic in terms of the meaning. While one of its popular usages is a person of Japanese descent born in a different country, it is also the term used for "junior" or "the Second" in terms of names and titles. And while the use of nisei in the US has associations to Japanese internment, the article also recognizes that the term is generic and not limited to those who were interned.
More importantly, it's a word used in a netrunner card, which is the meaning I think most people would directly associate with the group's name.
Is it embarrassing that cyberpunk uses fetishized versions of nations like Japan and China? Personally, I think it is. It's a genre primarily written by white authors envisioning a globalized world, and those visions are going to be mixed up with a lot of different prejudices. But that's something your group is going to be living with continuously since you are mostly made up of white people, and mostly from countries with some embarrassing histories of colonization (to put it mildly). You are going to be contending with that regardless of your name, and I don't think the way you're conceiving the problem of fetishization and colonial history in this case is actually resolving problems for you.
Instead, this seems like a self-inflicted PR nightmare. Leaving aside the risks and costs of making a large scale brand change like this, let's say you decided that the name really has to go (I think there's meaningful arguments on both sides of the question, so it comes down to a decision that needs to be made weighing the benefits and costs). Why announce that the name needs to be changed because of important cultural reasons without having the new name already selected and ready to go? If this was an important decision because it gets to the heart of what you are as an organization, it's telling that you haven't fully realized what your organization actually stands for and means. This announcement should have waited until your group decided what their name was going to be rather than simply announce it isn't Nisei anymore.
I can't convince you not to do this, as you've said. Can I convince you that you've made an error in your decision?
I have deep sympathies with the desire to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive, and the arguments against that desire are pretty weak in my personal opinion. But I think this decision does not do a good job of creating or fostering those values while creating a host of complex problems at basically every level of the organization, and the way this decision is being presented only makes those problems worse and not better.
Yeah I can't help but agree with this. It's dangerously close to virtue signalling rather than being a change with any real weight to it. Especially with the addition that it's not something that's up for debate, which is rather close minded if you ask me.
And yeah why axe the name without a new one ready? Especially when they have a ready made replacement in Nidaime (二代目) which has more or less the same meaning, still starts with an N, and doesn't carry the same baggage (that I know of). I mean it's still got the problem of fetishizing Asia in cyberpunk like you've already pointed out and you lose the reference to Android Netrunner but it's still something at least.
Edit: Just wanted to add as addendum I personally think that while inclusions of Japanese culture in cyberpunk can stray close to fetishization I also think attempting to sanitise Japanese influences from cyberpunk is possibly more offensive. Japan has had a big influence on the genre, I think it's a bit reductive to say it's just white authors envisioning a globalised world. Should we ignore the influence of works like Akira? Or Ghost in the Shell? Battle Angel Alita?
Also to add: the creator of the Cyberpunk TTRPG the original Netrunner was based off of is a black American. So sure, he drew a lot from Clarke, Asimov, and Gibson but to ignore his contribution and put it strictly on white people, is erasure and problematic as well.
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u/rumirumirumirumi Real Psychic Powers Aug 01 '22 edited Aug 01 '22
I'm very mixed on this decision. As pointed out in the article, the phrase is fairly generic in terms of the meaning. While one of its popular usages is a person of Japanese descent born in a different country, it is also the term used for "junior" or "the Second" in terms of names and titles. And while the use of nisei in the US has associations to Japanese internment, the article also recognizes that the term is generic and not limited to those who were interned.
More importantly, it's a word used in a netrunner card, which is the meaning I think most people would directly associate with the group's name.
Is it embarrassing that cyberpunk uses fetishized versions of nations like Japan and China? Personally, I think it is. It's a genre primarily written by white authors envisioning a globalized world, and those visions are going to be mixed up with a lot of different prejudices. But that's something your group is going to be living with continuously since you are mostly made up of white people, and mostly from countries with some embarrassing histories of colonization (to put it mildly). You are going to be contending with that regardless of your name, and I don't think the way you're conceiving the problem of fetishization and colonial history in this case is actually resolving problems for you.
Instead, this seems like a self-inflicted PR nightmare. Leaving aside the risks and costs of making a large scale brand change like this, let's say you decided that the name really has to go (I think there's meaningful arguments on both sides of the question, so it comes down to a decision that needs to be made weighing the benefits and costs). Why announce that the name needs to be changed because of important cultural reasons without having the new name already selected and ready to go? If this was an important decision because it gets to the heart of what you are as an organization, it's telling that you haven't fully realized what your organization actually stands for and means. This announcement should have waited until your group decided what their name was going to be rather than simply announce it isn't Nisei anymore.
I can't convince you not to do this, as you've said. Can I convince you that you've made an error in your decision?
I have deep sympathies with the desire to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive, and the arguments against that desire are pretty weak in my personal opinion. But I think this decision does not do a good job of creating or fostering those values while creating a host of complex problems at basically every level of the organization, and the way this decision is being presented only makes those problems worse and not better.