>>510829212 (OP)To understand the 90s-00s you have to understand the decades prior. Before it, it was becoming wildly popular not to be racist. The boomer generation would've said things like "I'm not prejudiced" because the TV taught them that racism was not just wrong but also low class. That was a subversion of the norm, the norm prior to that was to be pretty fucking racist. When you get into the 90s and beyond, there's a strong desire to subvert the subversion that had become the "accepted wisdom" of their parents.
But note very carefully how that was done. Yes, there is a lot dunking on Japan, but why? Japan has a very strong in group preference. Your company should always get whatever it needs from another Japanese company. It's only when you genuinely can't get something that you might consider working with a foreigner. Then there's also the fact they were still ethically homogeneous and not budging on that. Also the Japanese left suffered a setback and splintering when one of their leaders was assassinated.
Let's also look at the other part of the joke: "arab terrorists". That's one thing you still get a pass for in the Jewish press for today. You can push the boundaries and say some racist stuff about Israel's enemies. Call them backward, terrorist, or whatever, and they will not go after you like if you did with one of the imported golem like a nigger or a pajeet. I think even in the 90s while you could get away with more than today, there was still pushback if you were saying racist stuff in a way that was trying to defend whites. That pushback was to imply you were low class, stupid, etc. It may not have been as aggressive as today (via "cancelling" and intense shaming). I think it's just less forgiving and more intense now.
The short of it is always pay attention when exceptions are made. Even with this recent thing like October 7th, if you were calling Arabs barbaric or behaving like animals anything like this you got a pass. No such pass for niggers.
