I wouldn’t call these two PA notes passive-aggressive — just “pretty awful.”
First up, from St. John’s, Newfoundland:
Update: As commenter Reb points out: The “ad” from St. John’s is actually part of a Human Rights Commission campaign that’s trying to bring attention to discrimination like this; it’s not a real ad. Notice, for example, the lack of a phone number.
But this one, from Davisburg, Michigan is 100% real — and, as commenter James notes, not uncommon.
PLEASE DON’T PARK JAPANESE CARS IN FRONT OF MY OFFICE PARK THE DAMN THINGS IN JAPAN. I first posted this in my window in 1992. A lot of people still don’t get it. I remember one lady that got quite indignant after reading this years ago. It would be fitting for her unemployment to have run out and if you drive one, I hope that you are one of the next ones laid off. GRANT
(Thanks to Shawn in Canada and Sarah in Michigan for submitting!)
related: Dear Foreign Workers at the VW plant: we hope you enjoy these jobs…because we paid for them!
167 responses so far ↓
#1
Havingfitz
Hmm…my car was put together in America but I think some the parts were made in Japan. Just to be on the safe side, I will not park here. Think I’ll park inside an apartment in Newfoundland instead: it’s close to amenities, you know.
Jan 4, 2011 at 8:12 am rating: 15
#2
Captain Calypso
Someone needs to park a Hyundai in front of that guy’s office just to mess with him. It’s Korean, not Japanese.
Jan 4, 2011 at 8:15 am rating: 74
#3
GeekAaron
So the guy in Michigan is fine with foreign cars as long as they are not from Japan?
Jan 4, 2011 at 8:18 am rating: 12
#4
Mo®
You okay? Fuck you guy! Okay! I park on your privates!
Jan 4, 2011 at 8:20 am rating: 86
#5
kermit
At the risk of stereotyping, only rich Asian/Saudi Arabian people who have never heard of Newfoundland would be silly enough to pay $600/month for a basement apartment there.
Jan 4, 2011 at 8:48 am rating: 14
#6
Canthz_B
Asians and Middle Easterners don’t like basement apartments anyway.
Now if she were attempting to rent a yurt, this note would be discriminatory!
They should be allowed to rent the apartment, as long as they park their camel down the damned street.
Jan 4, 2011 at 8:53 am rating: 10
#7
LainTexas
The local fair housing authority would have a field day with the apartment rental ad. National origin cannot be used as a criterion for selecting renters.
Discrimination lawsuit here we come.
Regarding the Japanese car idiot, I wonder what type of business he owns. He must be doing amazingly well to choose clients based on the type of car he drives.
He realizes that he can’t actually enforce his request, right??
Jan 4, 2011 at 9:02 am rating: 3
#8
Lil
People in MI are nuts about what type of car you drive. If you think about it, it makes some sense. He probably doesn’t actually work for one of the big 3, but over half his family does. When the car companies started laying off, 3 people in my small family alone got laid off. There are tons of anti-foreign bumper stickers plastered all over the back of trucks and shit around here.
Jan 4, 2011 at 9:21 am rating: 0
#9
Reb
The “ad” from St. John’s is actually part of a Human Rights Commission campaign that’s trying to bring attention to discrimination like this; it’s not a real ad. Notice, for example, the lack of a phone number.
Jan 4, 2011 at 9:25 am rating: 29
#10
matt
First note makes no sense. Why is this guy/woman prepared for foreigners to call or drop by, but not to rent? If I was a jihadist foreigner, it would be quite easy to drop off a bomb while dropping by for coffee with the western infidel.
Jan 4, 2011 at 9:34 am rating: 2
#11
Captain Calypso
It would be hilarious if someone parked their Toyota and the breaks failed after they got out and it careened straight into the douche’s office.
(Too soon?)
Jan 4, 2011 at 9:34 am rating: 1
#12
dree
Reb is correct.
Here you can see the bottom of the “ad”:
http://www.cbc.ca/nl/blogs/seen/2010/11/double-meaning.html
Jan 4, 2011 at 9:43 am rating: 5
#13
Woman on the Verge
Dear Grant,
Your parents worked at GM, Ford, or Chrysler, right?
Jan 4, 2011 at 9:47 am rating: 2
#14
GhostWriter
Little-known Canadian law loophole: If you offer foreigners the opportunity to contact you “by all means” you are exempt from having to consider them as possible tenants.
Jan 4, 2011 at 9:48 am rating: 8
#15
thren0dy
The car one is hilarious, considering many Subarus are made in the U.S., and a lot of American cars are made in Canada so that U.S. car companies don’t have to pay for health care for the workers.
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:18 am rating: 4
#16
untamedshrew
My husband works at a Chevy dealership in metro Detroit. If he fails to remove the “made in China” stickers off the parts he’s installing, he gets in big trouble. My Honda is not allowed on his employer’s property. I TRIED to buy American, but they don’t make what I want. Let’s pressure the corporations to hire, invest and pay taxes in America.
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:21 am rating: 15
#17
Craig Allen
The landlord of the apartment would be in serious violation of US Fair Housing laws.
Seems like Canada’s housing laws would be even more strict about ethnic discrimination. Canada’s a Socialist country, don’t you know.
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:22 am rating: 1
#18
El
The one from Michigan, is actually quite typical. Especially now that all these American car companies have gone under. Ford, GM, etc are based out of the Detroit area and if they see Asian- make cars they take offense because they blame those companies for Ford, etc. failing. We just came back from a wedding there and drove up our Prius and Acura and we got warned that people might break in or even key our car to spite us. I did notice more Asian-make cars on the highways up there though… even WITH Michigan plates. 90% of cars there are American, 2% Asian and German rest.
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:25 am rating: 1
#19
Barb H
Must be too early in the morning. The first time I read the top note I thought it said “Freshly painted pets are welcome” and I thought “Who paints their pets”?
Actually, there’s a groomer nearby who dyes her poodle various colors to match the holidays…
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:27 am rating: 14
#20
Slerte
“Freshly painted pets”!
What kind of sicko weirdo is this?
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:30 am rating: 3
#21
P. Almonius
how freshly-painted to pets have to be in order to be welcome, and how often do you have to repaint them once you’re living there?
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:34 am rating: 8
#22
Daniel
Godzilla must have touched him in his special place when he was a kid …
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:39 am rating: 3
#23
GhostWriter
(Here’s a link) to the top-selling American-made cars. #1? – Camry. #2? – Accord. The Japanese have basically come to the USA and built cars better here than our domestic behemoths. The Ford Fusion doesn’t even make the American-made list (it has only 25% USA parts and is assembled outside of the USA.)
Reference: (NHTSA American-made car percentages)
Check the list to see if you are driving a patriotic American-made Toyota, or a foreign import/ job-stealer like the GM Pontiac G8.
PS: “Pontiac” is the city in Michigan where Pontiacs were originally made.
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:42 am rating: 16
#24
The Elf
I got that kind of crap when I rode a Japanese cruiser. My answer was simple: When an American motorcycle manufacturer makes the best bike for me, I’ll buy it when it is time to replace this one. At the time, there was exactly one American mid-size cruiser, the Harley Sportster 883. One look at the performance stats showed that it didn’t compare, and one test ride told me that it was a paint-shaker (this was prior to the 2006 improvements to the model), and it was more expensive and got worse gas mileage and had a worse reliability record to boot. Why buy something I don’t like?
The concept is true for cars: If you don’t like seeing Americans buy foreign cars, build cars Americans want to buy. That’s the way the free market works. My husband and I have owned American cars (Ford, Dodge, Chevy, Jeep, Eagle) and liked them. We’ve owned a Japanese car (Nissan) and liked it. We’ve even owned a Korean car (Hyundai) and liked it. When it comes time to buy a new car, I will look at all manufacturers and buy the best car I can afford for my needs and wants.
Can we say “Big 3″ anymore? I mean, Chrysler doesn’t really count, does it?
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:43 am rating: 8
#25
annonymiss
The problem that most people don’t understand about the foreign cars is:
I live in Michigan as well and am associated with the “Big Three”. When the US companies sell a car, ultimately, the bulk of the profit stays in the US and is reinvested in US stuff. When the Asian/British/WhatHaveYou companies sell cars here, the bulk of the profits are returned to their respective companies.
So either way you look at it, the money for the foreign car sales, be they assembled here or not, doesn’t stay here.
Couple that with the trickle down problem of laid off auto workers who lose their health benefits and then don’t go to doctors or hospital because they can no longer afford it causing the doctor’s offices and hospitals to lay off *their* workers and…well…it’s all interconnected.
And the idiot health care bill that was just passed won’t change things because who ends up paying that? Us. And if we don’t have money because we can’t work…
Jan 4, 2011 at 10:50 am rating: 6
#26
devine porcupine
I’d be happy if my Middle Eastern or Asian fellow apartment dwellers would quietly busy themselves building explosives, or non-American cars for that matter. BUT NO!!! I have to get the ones whose matriarch spends all day, every day cooking for her complete extended family… and those folks know how to throw off some serious stank in the kitchen. They also know how to junk up a porch with 50 pairs of shoes parked outside the front door. So, I, for one, am voting for the first note to be real. Seriously.
Jan 4, 2011 at 11:10 am rating: 2
#27
Golfer
This attitude toward Japanese cars illustrates the problem with patriotism. I try to buy local when I can, but, as others have said, when it comes to cars, I can’t. Many “foreign” makes are produced by Americans in America, and many “American” cars are produced in other countries by furreners. In all cases, it’s unlikely that many of the cars’ components came from this country. The only real difference is whether the rich guys cashing in are in this country or some other. Since rich people are so good at dodging taxes, the net difference to our national economy is negligible, at best.
Jan 4, 2011 at 11:20 am rating: 15
#28
Jon
I’m disappointed at the car sign… if the guy’s from Michigan, he should have went to the nearest UAW office. They all have huge NO FOREIGN CARS signs.
Jan 4, 2011 at 11:33 am rating: 1
#29
Gerry
Americans profess to be advocates of capitalism, but only up to the point where it, um, how to put this nicely… doesn’t work. If the marketplace were truly as unregulated as the American Right wanted it to be, then corporations would live or die on the merits of their products. It’s Darwinian. Put out a junky, unremarkable, or unappealing product, you deserve to croak. (See the comment where Japanese bikes are evaluated against the early Harley Sportster, above.) If “Let The Market Decide” is truly your rallying cry, Chrysler Corporation shouldn’t have survived the pre-Iacocca 1980s, when their uninspired designs and business practices almost did them in. Same thing, larger scale in the 2008-9 crisis and bailout. If you have a creeping horror of “socialism”, have the courage of your convictions not to resort to it when the kaka hits the fan and the automotive sector takes a hit. Or manufacture a car that is so good, so reliable and so reasonably-priced that consumers can’t see past it!
Jan 4, 2011 at 11:38 am rating: 11
#30
fuzzbutt
“Out of work yet? keep driving that foreign car. ” A common bumper sticker in Michigan. As for the people saying “quit making the gas guzzling cars…. QUIT BUYING THEM! Who do you think buys them? The farmers, the semis that haul your food from state to state, the delivery industry. Use your brain, not everything can be a little 2 seater electric car.
Jan 4, 2011 at 1:22 pm rating: 1
#31
jen
I drive my mostly american made Toyota to Michigan and people flip me the bird as they pass me in their mexican made Chevy on their way to Walmart. Sigh
Jan 4, 2011 at 1:25 pm rating: 11
#32
ManFred
I live in Metro Detroit and my husband and I both drive Hondas. We are not harassed and no one comments on our cars, let alone keys or damages them. Next time I will buy an American car, probably a Ford. But the idea that you can’t drive a foreign car in Detroit or Michigan is ludicrous.
Jan 4, 2011 at 2:01 pm rating: 5
#33
kl
The best protest against foreign autos is to buy an American Made car ( brand name at least !) . My tenants have been mostly Asians, WASP’s that I have had as tenants had higher incidence of problems—conclusion is their ethnicity had little to do with their character—careful selection of tenants however has a lot to do with their suitability !
Jan 4, 2011 at 2:34 pm rating: 1
#34
Citrico
Of course, the bulk of the profits are returned to their respective companies. However, look at where the companies invest. All mainstream Japanese manufacturers have a plant in the US. All mainstream Japanese manufacturers have design studios in the US. All mainstream Japanese manufacturers have engineering departments in the US. All mainstream Japanese manufacturers hire thousands of Americans in a variety of fields.
All of them.
Now, look at your American manufacturers.
The design work for all American compact cars is being done out of country. The Chevrolet Aveo and Cruze in Korea and Europe, the Ford Fiesta and Focus in Europe, the next Chrysler compact in Italy. The Chevrolet Camaro was mostly developed in Australia. Buick’s new sedans were designed in China and Europe.
My point? They’re giant, faceless, multinational corporations with resources spread to the far corners of the earth. Nationality is irrelevant, they are part of every country, they are part of no country. Development work is done wherever is most convenient for the product being developed, same deal with manufacturing, same deal with suppliers. The CEO’s house doesn’t make a whack of difference in overall economic benefit – see Detroit, where GM HQ lives but the city decays.
Jan 4, 2011 at 2:42 pm rating: 17
#35
annonymiss
@Hirayuki Seriously? Where are all those big plants employing any number of locals? I need to know this so the 425,000 foreclosure notices in my Detroit News this past weekend can all be alerted that there are jobs here and they don’t need to lose their house!
As to a decaying Detroit, please! Unless you live here, you haven’t a clue. The idiots who live in Detroit continue to elect the same criminal over and over, the one with his hand in the ’till’ and gives nothing back to the city. That’s not GM’s fault! GM is here to support a city who has nothing. They pay their business taxes, their employees frequent local businesses. They don’t make much of a dent, but GM came home. Quicken moved downtown, any number of other big businesses have moved downtown to support a dying city. Don’t blame the companies on that. Blame the residents.
@ Citrico, man, I’d sure like to see where you got your numbers and info from. I have to wonder what all those engineers they employ in the area in all those busy design studios are really doing! Is this just some elaborate scheme to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes? Do they pay these people to do nothing at all?
Wow! Now that’s the job I need!
I live in southeastern Michigan where my life is directly touched by the ebb and flow of the auto companies, either by the company I work for or the other industries I do business with. Is it perfect? No. But don’t blame our auto companies for the decaying of Detroit. Blame the morons who loved Coleman Young and Kwame-I-Take-The-Money-And-Screw-Detroit and kept voting them into office. Now they’re paying the ultimate price.
Consumer Reports listed my Whirlpool washer as the best out there when I bought it. Gee, Whirlpool ended up settling a multi-million dollar class action suit on it because the machine was a piece of crap.
Yeah…right. Consumer Reports is exactly who I want to tell me what the best anything is to buy.
Jan 4, 2011 at 3:31 pm rating: 1
#36
M
My German car was built in Mexico, which happens to be in North America, therefore technically making my car an American car.
Can I park here now? Pretty please with a cherry on top?
Jan 4, 2011 at 3:38 pm rating: 5
#37
Kou
I take it this last guy remains blissfully unaware that the vast majority of Japanese-branded cars are not only manufactured in America, but massive administrative branches of most major Japanese car companies are located here as well. The industry is actually responsible for a huge amount of jobs for Americans across the country.
He can just go on framing unemployment rates as the US vs. those pesky foreigners trying to took urr jerbs, though, I guess it’s less frustrating than trying to look at any of the real issues we have going on here right now.
Jan 4, 2011 at 6:34 pm rating: 2
#38
youneedaboyfriend
This site is not fun anymore because of the comments. For example, jumping on someone because they spelled “brakes” wrong? Nitpicking about laws that are likely different in each state? That is just AGGRESSIVE.
Jan 5, 2011 at 1:51 am rating: 3
#39
Andy
Does his dumb a$$ not know that a lot of “Japanese” cars are made in the U.S. now? I mean, is this guy like 80 and out of touch with modern times?
Jan 5, 2011 at 10:17 am rating: 0
#40
Really?
I will never buy an American car. If I’m spending tens of thousands of dollars on something, I want it to be well made.
And the cooking smells from your typical Asian, not Asian-American mind you, are enough for anyone to keep them out of an apartment building. Yes, I know the ad was fake. No, I’m not racist. But my roommate is from Taiwan and living with the difference in culture is really not easy.
Jan 5, 2011 at 10:42 am rating: 0
#41
April
It would be so much funnier if the apartment one was for real. Just because you know that many landlords think just that and for one to actually have the balls to up it up there would be pretty hilarious.
Of course I don’t approve of such behavior but I guess I always find blatant stupid racism funny. Just always have. I figure it is better to laugh at them then get all butthurt and offended which is how they want you to react. I have some racist relatives and whenever they say something racist I just laugh at them in a you are such an idiot kinda way and they get pissed.
I wonder why that guy hates Japanese cars so much? He does not have a problem with other foreign cars just Japanese. Maybe he got tired of seeing pimped out Civics with 10 feet high spoilers and swedish ground lights?
Maybe his dad died in WW2 or something.
Jan 5, 2011 at 12:04 pm rating: 0
#42
L
This might sound odd. But where I live, in Vancouver BC. There are rental signs that either either entirely not in english, or specify cantonese only.
Hows that for descrimination. It’s VERY HARD to find a place to live in some areas here if you’re not asian.
Jan 5, 2011 at 12:20 pm rating: 3
#43
kel
LOL soon as i saw “JAPANESE CARS” i knew this note was from Michigan.
Jan 5, 2011 at 12:38 pm rating: 0
#44
ian in hamburg
The apartment rental sign may just be an ad, but it’s all too real. When I was a student a friend of mine who’s Haitian was looking for an apartment and lined up an appointment to view over the phone. But when he showed up, he was told it had been rented out in the meantime. He asked me a couple of days later to pretend to be looking and call the same landlord. Sure enough, the place was still for rent.
Jan 5, 2011 at 11:07 pm rating: 1
#45
Ih8spices
I agree with the first one. The main hallway in my apartment constantly smells like spicy Indian food. It’s disgusting.
Jan 6, 2011 at 8:55 am rating: 0
#46
Shawn
I’m the submitter of the first picture: Apologies are in order, as it wasn’t submitted in bad faith or to trick anyone; it was a picture taken via iPhone that my cousin showed me, and I suggested putting it up on PAN. I guess he either didn’t notice the ad on the bottom or didn’t bother mentioning it to me
(both are likely, surprisingly).
Jan 9, 2011 at 4:32 pm rating: 0
#47
OnlyMe
No Asians, thankyou !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YM9Ereg2Zo
You have to watch the clip before replying …
Jan 14, 2011 at 2:44 pm rating: 1
#48
Kimmeh
Someone should tell the city council. Surely he can’t post parking restrictions of any kind without clearing it with the city.
Jan 23, 2011 at 10:40 am rating: 0
#49
Ally
You know, my college roommate has that same attitude of the guy in the car note. She’s from suburban Detroit and her father retired from GM, so I guess it’s not too uncommon.
However, she conveinently neglects the fact that the Chevy she prides herself on driving cause it’s American is 97% Korean-built, Mexican-assembled Daewoo with a Chevy badge slapped on the front, and the Subaru I drive was at least built in Indiana.
Jan 28, 2011 at 2:43 am rating: 1
#50
Lo
“No foreign cars” signs are pretty common around here in Automation Alley. My parents’ sole car for much of my childhood was a 1988 Jetta. I was called a traitor for riding in a German car as an 8-year-old. In 1995.
Years later, my parents sold that Jetta (still functioning) to my high school boyfriend. Our first order of business was to get it on in the lot of the U.A.W. Hall in front of the “AMERICAN CARS ONLY/ABSOLUTELY NO FOREIGN PARKING” sign. Ah, memories. (How’s THAT for passive-aggressive?)
Feb 14, 2011 at 12:26 pm rating: 0
#51
Kelsey
Well, the second one makes sense. He’s not racist, just pissed.
Feb 27, 2011 at 3:37 am rating: 0
#52
Will
I can understand the sentiments of the second guy, the condition of American automakers becoming what it is. I would personally buy an American auto over any foreign one sheerly because it is made by an American company- *especially* when it comes to my trucks. I’m no racist- so I certainly wouldn’t give a piss whether it was partially made in Korea or Mexico or even bloody Sudan. The fact that it is an American company producing American jobs and American profits is good enough for me. That, and I much prefer American and European auto styling, performance, and safety over Asian-company vehicles.
Mar 2, 2011 at 4:52 pm rating: 0
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