Mieko: Doesn’t look right. It’s not normal.
Reiko: What’s normal for a radish?
Mieko: White. Should be white.
Reiko: Black’s the new fashion.
Mieko: Vegetables don’t have fashions.
Reiko: Why shouldn’t they? Vegetables are just as entitled to change their appearance as we are.
Mieko: I grew up eating white radishes, I won’t eat a black radish.
Reiko: Could this be racism?
__________
Voiceover
There are twin streaks of experimentalism and traditionalism in Japanese culture. Reiko seems to represent the “experimenter”, perhaps a person who is not afraid to “think outside the box” or question conventional wisdom. Mieko is maybe a traditionalist. Reiko extends the discussion on vegetables to gently tease Mieko about her views on race and ethnicity.
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