Trying out the prompt button!

What assumptions are you trying not to make too quickly?

Of recent, I've been reckoning with my own exoticism towards Japan as a white-privileged USAian. Many of my identities are inextricably linked to Japanese media and the relevant cultural aspects that influenced those identities; as a result, I'm currently somewhat-tackling to what extent a certain identity I have (broadly a guardian dog, which I've previously identified as a komainu or shisa) is actually those Japanese or Ryukyuan concepts or not, and how to address the fact that certain Japanese cultural aspects feel tied to my magical girl-ness.

The assumptions that I'm trying not to make are a). that these identities are necessarily Japanese or Ryukyuan in nature, and b). that as an outsider, I can understand these concepts to the point of being able to include them respectfully and without reproducing colonialism. 

On a more general note, I've also been more critical of the assumption that shifts are a foolproof indicator of alterhumanity.