Last month's column (Aug. 5) was on the word "gaijin." I made the case that it is a racist word, one that reinforces an "us-and-them" rubric toward foreigners and their children in Japan. It generated a lot of debate. Good. Thanks for your time.
Now let's devote 700 more words to some issues raised.
Regarding the arguments about intent, i.e. "people use the word gaijin, but don't mean it in a derogatory way." The root issue here is who decides whether the word is bad? Is it the speaker using the word, or the person being addressed by it?