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Black Tokyo Updates
Arigato to the BT’ers that emailed me while I was injured. The surgery was successful and I am slowly recovering and looking forward to physical therapy. Bring on the pain!
BT’ers can now follow Black Tokyo via Twitter. BT’ers can also join the Black Tokyo social network site (Google Friend Connect) with one click using your Google, Yahoo, AIM or OpenID account. Click the Join this site button found on the BT Friend Connect widget located at the top of the center column.
For those on Facebook, be sure to join the Black Tokyo Facebook Chapter.
Mata ne!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )A New Pride in America?
I read the Eugene Robinson (pictured above) piece, “Obama Campaign Instills New Pride” and felt the need to comment here at Black Tokyo. Mr. Robinson writes for the Washington Post. His column is distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th NW, Washington, DC 20071. You can reach him at eugenerobinson@washpost.com. Please feel free to leave your comments!
Obama campaign instills new pride
Whoever wins this election, I understand what Barack Obama meant when he said his faith in the American people had been “vindicated” by his campaign’s success. I understand what Michelle Obama meant, months ago, when she said she was “proud of my country” for the first time in her adult life. Why should they be immune to the astonishment and vertigo that so many other African-Americans are experiencing? Why shouldn’t they have to pinch themselves to make sure they aren’t dreaming, the way that I do?
I know there’s a possibility that the polls are wrong. I know there’s a possibility that white Americans, when push comes to shove, won’t be able to bring themselves to elect a black man as president of the United States. But the spread in the polls is so great that the Bradley effect wouldn’t be enough to make Obama lose; it would take a kind of “Dr. Strangelove effect” in which voters’ hands developed a will of their own.
Zurui’s comment: Not only white Americans but other Americans that tend to vote Republican and not for a “normal” candidate.
I’m being facetious but not unserious. In my gut, I know there’s a chance that the first African-American to make a serious run for the presidency will lose. But that is precisely what’s new and, in a sense, unsettling: I’m talking about possibility, not inevitability.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Clam Magazine interviews Black Tokyo’s Zurui
Founded by film producer Andy Okoroafor,CLAM is a unisex magazine whose goal is to promote creativity, concepts and ideas in fashion, architecture, music, design, the arts, free-time, travels and African design…. these different themes are approached in two main areas: Lifestyle and Trends.
Each subject is part of an original and conceptual artistic direction. The concepts are presented through the expression of the artists and creators coming from very different horizons.
The place accorded to the image is central: she wants to be unusual, so as to create constant surprise for the viewer.
Experimentation is one of the characteristics of CLAM which explains its layout: always changing, never fixed. Clam wants to encourage creative reflexion.The presentation is based on ideas and not the seasons.
This concept confers to the magazine a collector’s status.
In the interview, Zurui discusses his background, life in Japan as a US Marine, expat worker, actor; and of course, the Black Tokyo website. You can purchase CLAM online or in: Paris, France; Italy, Sweden, Hong Kong, Japan, the U.K. and in the USA.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )USA Upsets France in 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay
I rarely get excited about swimming but I love competition! Well, Team USA’s 4×100 Freestyle captain, 32-year-old Jason Lezak (he’s oldest man on the U.S. swimming team), showed great competitive spirit and pulled off one of the great comebacks in Olympic history. He saved the day in the men’s 4-x-100 freestyle relay as the U.S. team beat the French (a.k.a. “We will smash the Americans”) swim team in a neck-and-neck race. His teammate Michael Phelps has a shot at breaking the all-time record for gold medals in a single Olympic Game.
The victory also marked the first time an African American (Cullen Jones) swimmer has claimed gold in the 4×100 freestyle at the Olympics. Jones is the SECOND African American swimmer to win an Olympic medal. An ambassador for African-American swimmers, Jones wanted to shatter stereotypes one lap at a time, eager to spread his message that, yeah, black kids can swim too.
Gold medal winners pictured above: Cullen Jones, Jason Lezak, Michael Phelps and Garrett Weber-Gale. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle / August 10, 2008)
Note: Anthony Lee Ervin (born May 26, 1981 in Burbank, California). In 2000, he became the first swimmer of African American descent to make the US Olympic team. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, in Sydney he won the gold medal in the Men’s 50m Freestyle, finishing with the same winning time as Gary Hall Jr.Also at the Sydney Games, he won Silver in the 4x100m Freestyle.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Black Scholars Who Make a Specialty of Asian Studies
I received the following question from a new BT reader this afternoon. He asked: “Why do you find Japan so fascinating?” My quick reply to the question: “I find Japanese history and culture fascinating, the Japanese interesting (from a sociological point-of-view) and life in Japan, as a case study of a nation trying to gain respect in the international a.k.a. multicultural world order. The new BT’er also asked: “Why don’t you focus on Africa instead of Japan?” Well, here comes the long answer!
Unlike past “norms” when life in Japan was mainly reported from the point-of-view of the victim or victor of wars with Japan, my current norm for examining Japan has more to do with how the Japanese and Blacks have interacted over the centuries. For example, some of my research looks at how the Japanese viewed and formed opinions of Blacks over the ages. We were seen:
- as warriors like Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758 – 811), a Black man who is considered the first Shogun of Japan during the early Heian Period (check Chinese and Japanese historical records)
- as servants for the Dutch (1543)
- as samurai, like Yasuke (1582), who was personally trained by Daimyo Oda Nobunaga and later played a crucial role in Nobunaga’s last battle Honnou-ji no hen
- as minstrels thanks to Perry’s sailors in blackface
- as Little Black Sambo
- as marginalized negro soldiers during the post-World War II occupation living in segregated barracks (i.e, Tachikawa AB)
- as whatever those that import “their” prejudices teach, preach, or tell
- as our own worst enemy as times
Other parts of my research deals with the works of Black and Japanese scholars who focus on African & African-American – Japan relations.
“Contrary to popular misconception, there are large numbers of Black scholars whose academic research has nothing whatsoever to do with skin color or race relations” (Fikes, Jr., 2002).
To help the BT’er better understand why I chose to focus on Japan, I recommended the following publications from my constantly growing library:
- African Presence in Early Asia (Rashidi and Sertima)
- African American Views of the Japanese: Solidarity or Sedition? (Bracey)
- The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895-1945 (Gallicchio)
- The Black Samurai: A Novel of Feudal Japan (Bracey)
- Black Samurai: Work, Travel, Culture, Religion, Struggle, and Perspective of a Black American Man (Brown)
- America Encounters Japan: From Perry to Mac Arthur (Neumann)
- Securing Japan: Tokyo’s Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia (Samuels)
- U.S. Japan Strategic Reciprocity (Olsen)
Enka singer Jero debuts in “Fire” CM
The Enka world’s rising star and first black singer, Jero (26), will make his debut in Kirin Beverage’s canned coffee CM “cafe zero Kirin Fire” on 21 May 08.
Jero’s February 20th single Miyuki U (marine snow) will drop on June 25 as the last song cover of the artist’s first album release. It seems that the Enka world is continuing down the path to add someone fresh and different to Japan’s original soul.
I am glad to see the young brotha step into the world of enka. I only wish that my man would sport suits, Haori Hakama (kimono), or even a Jimbei when on the stage. Having done TV myself for a few years in Japan, I guess that the “hip hop” image is part of the act. Hmm! I wonder what his Japanese grandmother thinks about that? At any rate, I wish him the best of luck and much success. Jero! Jero! Jero! Gambareeee!
Click the link to watch the video (peep the into beats!):
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 2 so far )What it means to be a Black American
Well now that Black History MONTH is finally over and I no longer see a zillion fast food commercials and the same old commercialization of Blacks deemed safe to represent the Black race, my man Smokey Robinson breaks down the meaning of being a BLACK American. Enjoy!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )
Black Tokyo Japan 
Commentary: What Barack Obama means to me
Posted on 11月 6, 2008. Filed under: Black Resources, Commentary, Government, Politics & Security | タグ: abroad, America, american, barack, biracial, black, Blacks, change, children, clinton, culture, election, envy, family, foreign, government, hate, intelligence, interpretation, interpreter, japan, Japanese, jobs, korean, language, learn, media, military, multiculturalism, nationalism, negro, obama, politics, poverty, president, race, racism, relations, rights, stereotypes, translation, Translator, usa, vote, war, women, world |
When President-elect Barack Obama and his family take up residence in the White House it means that he will move into every household in America. He will not be just some Black dude that moved in down the street in a predominately White neighborhood and his family will not become the new Cosby Show. The Obamas move on big time to prime time on the biggest channel watched by millions in the world.
I am a child of the 60’s and a US Marine Corps veteran that served and fought for America much like my father, uncles and cousins did during the Korean War and conflict in Vietnam. The biggest difference in the conflicts during my military service and theirs is that they fought wars abroad only to return home to fight various forms of in your face racism in America.
I am a product of the Detroit public school system and moved from the ghetto to the top flo’ (and at times back down) because others broke various glass ceilings. There was a school house in Little Rock, Arkansas that had its glass ceiling broken by some black children which ultimately allowed people like me, opportunity. There was a young lawyer that had only lost one case out of 30 who went on to become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in American history. His tenacity ended segregation in public schools. There was a little ol’ woman that rode a bus and refused to give up her seat (and she was not the only one, just the most famous) that translated into people like her being legally allowed to do more than keep their seat. When I headed to a school full of people that I predominately saw on television, in magazines, downtown or at the “white” shopping center, it was like being in a different country. A glass ceiling broke in my house and let in the fresh air of hope when I accomplished things that a couple of generations in my family had not. They paved the way, I just followed the path. Like a young Barack, I had a mother that shoved when I need a push and a family that supported me when I needed.
As a 16-year-old college freshman exposed to something new, I made the most of it. Barack Obama attended the some of the best schools in America and is headed as uptown as one can go in America. I am sure that he will take advantage of being exposed to something new and that he and the in-coming First Lady, Michelle Obama, will expose something new to many in America and around the world. (さらに…)