The discourse around Japan and the French protests exposes an ugly truth: so much of Japanese online commentary is deeply anti-Black and anti-Brown towards us, echoing white nationalist talking points about 'immigrants ruining Western culture.' What’s hilarious is watching white people rush to defend them, while these same East Asian nationalists bend over backward to seek white validation only to step foot in Europe or the US and get hit with the exact same xenophobia and anti-Asian racism. They’re adopting the talking points of people who don't even differentiate them from the rest of Asia.

To all the angry Japanese op fans in my mentions: As an Iraqi refugee who experienced the consequences of war as a child, I see myself in characters like Robin, Law, and Kuma for reasons that go beyond them being fictional characters. You guys seem to think you’re intellectually superior to international fans because you were raised to separate fiction from reality. But stories have always been a way for people to reflect on the world around them. They allow us to understand experiences beyond our own, recognize injustices, and find meaning in things we’ve lived through ourselves. That’s exactly what Oda does with One Piece. He takes real issues that exist in our world, exaggerates them through a fictional setting, and uses his characters and their experiences to show us how our world operates. The fact that it’s fiction doesn’t erase the messages behind it. Robin’s persecution, Law’s childhood trauma, and Kuma’s suffering resonate with me because I come from a background where war, displacement, and the loss of safety aren’t just abstract concepts. I don’t need these characters to be real to recognize the realities reflected in their stories. You can enjoy One Piece purely as entertainment if that’s what you want. But acting like international fans are stupid for connecting with its themes or applying those messages to the real world completely misses the point of storytelling. We don’t have to share the same experiences or upbringing to find meaning in a story, and you don’t get to decide what that meaning is for someone else.