Yoshie is Japanese!!
[WS:] I though she lives in Ohio, no? I do not think that parental ancestry matters that much, unless one plays stupid identity politics. I believe that she chose to live in the US, get educated, naturalized here, etc. - just as I did - and that makes one a "northern intellectual," at least in my book. "Self loathing" referred to knee jerk criticism of anything Western or American.
As I said before, this is, on a balance, a rather good place to live, despite shortcomings. This needs to be brought into the picture before any criticism is launched on the pain of losing credibility and sounding demagogic and ridiculous.
Wojtek