"The word 'weaboo' is racist."

Malkavian

Really, my biggest problem is its unironic overuse for things as innocuous as liking anime or a video game from Japan.

Crimson

^Agreed. That and they (among other things) give anime fans a bad name.

gentlemanorcus

So what do you call weaboos except weaboos? "White men with an obsession with otaku culture and anime to an annoying degree while at the same time not realizing they know nothing about Japan or it's culture"? Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Malkavian

Otaku works. It's a word that if they're a 'weeaboo' they'll generally also ascribe to themselves.

gentlemanorcus

^ True. Especially since otaku has negative connotations in Japan.

Kinkajou

No, being called weeaboo isn't racist, but it's very discriminatory to us gaijin who take insults from baka trolls who cannot take our worship for Glorious Nihon.

glennmagusharvey

I find "wapanese" sillier than "weeaboo", actually.  "Weeaboo" sounds silly but "wapanese" sounds forced and annoying.

That said, if I want to refer in English to someone who isn't Japanese yet pays a darn lot of attention to Japanese pop culture, I'll go with "otaku".  If I want to be derogatory and imply that said person pays too much attention, then I'll go with "weeaboo".

Kinkajou

That said, if I want to refer in English to someone who isn't Japanese
yet pays a darn lot of attention to Japanese pop culture, I'll go with
"otaku".  If I want to be derogatory and imply that said person pays too
much attention, then I'll go with "weeaboo".

Sounds reasonable.

RedEyedAbyss

Except "otaku" means the latter too.

glennmagusharvey

It's only slightly derogatory in English.

InsanityAddict

As a derogatory term, it falls into the same trap as hipster and emo, being so watered down through overuse that it becomes less and less meaningful. This also makes it more annoying, so it's a fair trade-off.

Legionnaire

mathias

I don't think the word weeaboo is racist, though I can kind of see the reasoning behind thinking so, even if it's really reaching. I do however think it is a stupid word and has been overused as a stawman to the point of losing all meaning. 

I'll be the first to admit that a substantial amount of anime fans are really annoying to me, but even though I find them annoying, they are generally not weaboos. Because I have very rarely met any animefans (aside from online), who honestly believe that anything from Japan is inherently superior to anything from anywhere else. Somewhat more often I've met the stereotypical "using random barely understood japanese phrases" fangirl, but it's still a rare occurence and generally limited to teenagers who usually grow out of it. So while I do think that people whom the label weeaboo works for exists, I think that they are far fewer in mubers, than the internet would have you believe. Yet people seem to use the word as a catch-all phrase for animefans whom they find annoying. I find a lot of teenage animefans annoying, but that is mostly due to their personality and taste in anime, it doesn't make them weaboos.