Influential blogger Baye McNeil (a.k.a. Loco) of Loco In Yokohama notoriety recently released his powerful, controversial and much anticipated debut book Hi! My Name is Loco and I am a Racist. The self-published book was auspiciously released on January 15 2012, the birthday of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr.

The theme of the book – racism – as suggested by the book’s title, was triggered by a compilation of Loco’s own racial observations and encounters in Japan since his expatriation to the island nation around 8 years ago. He also draws inspiration from a lifetime of experiences starting from his childhood on the streets of Brooklyn, New York.

The 392-page book was spawned by a thought-provoking and critically-acclaimed series of posts that appeared on Loco’s blog – Loco In Yokohama – last year. The series was provocatively entitled “Hi! My Name is Loco and I am a Racist”, the book’s namesake, where he candidly and openly explored the issue of racism sharing with his readers a dearth of unpleasant interactions with everyday people of Japan and contemplated whether these interactions were as a result of racism, xenophobia or another fear-based feeling that his presence inspired. His postulations ignited a raging debate on his blog which prodded Loco to continue the quest in search of an answer.

The immense popularity of the blog series gave birth to the book, which is available as an e-book on Kindle with a digital list price of US$9.99. The paperback version is still being perfected and due for imminent release. Tune in on the buzz about this dream-fulfilling endeavour by an iconic j-blogger and all-round good guy by checking out the following positive vibes:

• Hikosaemon’s brutally honest review
• Bad Communication’s Episode 78: A Loco Chinese New Year
• Amanda Taylor: This is What a Racist Sounds Like
• Tonya Moore’s Baye McNeil Interview
• Our Man In Abiko: 10 Q&As WITH @LOCOHAMA
• J808: Birth of a Legend…
• Foreign Salaryman: It’s completely Loco!
• jlandkev’s YouTube channel: Hi! My Name is Loco and I Am a Racist: the book
• Jay Dee in Japan: Can bloggers be authors?
• The official “Hi! My Name is Loco” site
• Loco In Yokohama – where it all began

Japanese speakers who learn English as a second language later than childhood often have difficulty in hearing and producing /l/ and /r/ accurately. The advertisement below for the book On The Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System is an example of the difficulty that native Japanese speakers have in perceiving the acoustic differences between English /r/ and /l/.

Hank Paulson, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, was at the absolute epicentre of the recent economic storm, and his account of how he dealt with the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression was quite appropriately translated into Engrish: “On The Blink”: an idiom for malfunctioning, out of order or broken. As opposed to “brink”: verge, the limit beyond which something happens or changes, the edge of a steep place.

The book title ‘On The Brink’ suggests that we were on the verge of disaster hanging on the edge of collapse whereas ‘On The Blink’ softens it somewhat to mean a slight malfunction that can be fixed like one of those vintage televisions where you just gave it a hit on it’s side to get it working again.