Professor Paul Robson’s inappropriate (ableist, transphobic, etc.) comment
To whom it may concern,
My name is Chico Masak. I am a graduate student at the University of Chicago and a social justice activist who happens to speak Japanese and have just read a tweet (a 140-letter public message posted on Twitter) written in Japanese posted by someone called Mayumi Tanimoto, who claims to be married to Mr. Paul Robson, professor and chair in Strategy/entrepreneurship at the School of Management, the University of London.
I have been very offended by Ms. Tanimoto’s racist, sexist, and classist tweets that she posts almost every day, but this time she quotes his her husband, Mr. Paul Robson, who is a faculty member at your institution, commenting on a Japanese TV show. And I believe the quote contains very inappropriate language. I would like to hear about how your institution deals with your faculty members’ and staff’s inappropriate public speech.
Here is my translation of what Ms. Tanimoto says (with my own notes in parentheses):
> My husband asked me if they were showing the lunatic ["kichigai"] year-end
> red-white song show. I told him that AKB48 [a girls band] would sing in a group
> of 220 people, he said he wondered what ota [short for "otaku" or "nerds"] would do if
> their favorite girl wouldn’t be seen on TV. Besides, he asked me if the tranny ["okama"]
> singer and the Yokohama sisters would sing, too. He named them as such *sigh*.
Please find attached photos of her original (Japanese) tweet (one from a Twitter client software and the other from the Twitter website showing the URL of the tweet) and, if necessary, have a Japanese-speaker verify (or modify, if that seems appropriate) my translation.
Here’s a list of why I believe Mr. Robson’s comments in Ms. Tanimoto’s tweet are problematic.
1. The word, “kichigai,” is a very derogatory word used to refer to people with mental disabilities, often with connotations of crazy behaviour. In my opinion, the word is comparable to the English word “retarded” used in a very mean way.
2. The word, “ota” or “otaku,” as opposed to its usage in English, usually implies that someone referred to as such is creepy.
3. The word, “okama,” is a derogatory term used to refer to gay men and MTF (male-to-female) transgender people. It’s a word that many gay men and MTF transgender individuals in Japan hear growing up, uttered by classmates, family, and the media, though you don’t hear the word on TV as often as you did, say, 5 years ago because people in the media industry are starting to acknowledge the derogatory nature of the term.
I have no idea whether the exact wording is Mr. Robson’s or Ms. Tanimoto’s (or whether Ms. Tanimoto is truly married to Mr. Robson, for that matter). If it is Ms. Tanimoto’s and she’s married to Mr. Robson, then I would like you to inform Mr. Robson that his wife is misquoting him in a way that can cause damage to his credibility.
If the wording is Mr. Robson’s, I cannot help questioning his credibility and the appropriateness of his holding the position of professorship and chairmanship at your institution that, ironically, values “equality” (p.5, University of London Strategic plan 2009-2014). The Strategic plan also states that the university’s Colleges and Central Academic Bodies have “their historic and pioneering role in extending university education to all” (p.5) and plan to continue maintaining the role. However, the presence of Mr. Robson as a professor and the chair of Strategy/Entrepreneurship, if the comments quoted by Ms. Tanimoto are truly his, only hinders potential students——not only those who are disabled, gay, or transgender but everyone who is more open-minded than Mr. Robson——from taking interest in applying to your institution, especially School of Management, for appropriate university education.
Please imagine that someone from Japan——or anyone who understands written Japanese——wants to receive the high quality education at the University of London. And they want to study Management. They are mentally disabled, “nerdy,” gay, or transgender. They google “rondon daigaku (University of London)” and find Mr. Robson’s academic profile on Ms. Tanimoto’s website (http://eigotoranoana.blog57.fc2.com/blog-entry-2.html). They want to know more, so they go on and read Ms. Tanimoto’s tweets and finds this particular tweet that implies that Mr. Robson is ableist, anti-nerd, homophobic, and transphobic. Do they still want to study at your institution? I highly doubt that. And I do not think that such scenario is far-fetched. Ms. Tanimoto has 23,459 Twitter followers at the time of this email (see attached photo), which is quite a large number for a non-celebrity Twitter user.
Maybe Ms. Tanimoto is totally fake and not Mr. Robson’s wife. I have no idea. Maybe she is his wife, but she misquoted him. Or maybe the tweet contains exactly what Mr. Robson said. Either case, Mr. Robson’s credibility is severely damaged by this tweet of Ms. Tanimoto’s.
I would really appreciate it if you informed Mr. Robson of the tweet and its inappropriateness. Your reply to this email would also be much appreciated.
Please be informed that I will put the content of this email online tonight. Your response, unless requested otherwise, will be made public as well.
Regards,
Chico Masak
cmasak@me.com
*University of London Strategic plan 2009-2014
http://www.london.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/about/governance/UOL_Strategic_Plan_2009-14_final.pdf
Correction: At one point I referred to Ms. Tanimoto as a he. The email was already sent, but it’s been fixed in the above.