Blasian
Do Japanese Women Make Better Wives?
That was the question posed by Jet Magazine in 1953. Many know that the most tenacious form of legal segregation in the United States (US), the banning of interracial marriage, was not fully lifted until the last anti-miscegenation laws were struck down in 1967 by the Supreme Court ruling in Loving v. Virginia. At that time, inter-racial marriage meant marriages between blacks and whites.
Changes in racial attitudes in the US over the last 30 years clearly played a major role in the mushrooming of inter-racial marriages, which were illegal in most states at the end of the 19th century. As recently as 1945, the legislature of California which, next to Hawaii, has become the country’s multi-racial state passed a law that banned marriage between whites and Negroes, mulattos, Mongolians (which included Chinese and Japanese), and Malays.
US Servicemen and Japanese Women
After World War II, however, the law began to change as U.S. servicemen married Japanese women, and as the civil rights movement began challenging anti-miscegenation laws in the courts. In 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all such laws were unconstitutional, although it took Alabama until 2000 to repeal its ban. (さらに…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Black Tokyo’s Hiroko Mima Tribute
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Omedeto to Hiroko Mima, Miss Japan 2008 for making it into the 2008 Miss Universe Final 15. She did a great job representing her country. She should serve as an inspiration to women here to be confident, get a degree, and to work to make their dreams become reality.
Click here to read the Hiroko Mima interview. Enjoy the video tribute!
Oh yeah, a big shout out to Miss USA, Crystle Stewart of Texas and to Miss Denmark for rockin’ the ‘fro!
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Refused a Job for being Half/Biracial/Double, not Japanese?!
I received this from Debito regarding a [World Famous Company] in the Tohoku region of Japan that refused to employ a young Japanese man probably because he’s half/biracial/double a.k.a. in this situation, not Japanese. The [World Famous Company] even retracted their original job offer!
Apparently after the interview, the young man was separated from two other job applicants who also passed their employment and health tests. The two “full” Japanese were given jobs at the main location and the “half” was given a job seven kilometers further away from the place he was promised employment. That place does not even have a dining hall.
Now I do not know if there were only two positions at the main location or if test scores had anything to do with the decision but the young man sensed that he was a victim of racial discrimination. He kept his mouth shut for fear of not getting the “other” job. Mind you that this is not the job that he was interviewed for. The interviewer told the young man that the decision to place him in another location had nothing to do with him being half Japanese. Hmm! That does not seem like a normal thing to tell a person that you just interviewed.
A couple of things stick out: The interviewer knew from the young man’s rirekisyo that he was born in the area, went to youchien, elementary school, junior high and high school in the town the [World Famous Company] is located. The young man was raised as a Tohoku person as can thus speak the local dialect. More importantly he has a Japanese Koseki.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )What Obama Drama? Stop Monkeying Around!
Well it seems like the foreign press picked up on my Obama is a Monkey in Japan? story. Addressing the E-Mobile CM is important to me because America, considered the richest and most powerful nation in the free world, is on the path of putting a Black male in the White House. Some folks are eager to point out that Obama is not really “Black” but biracial or multicultural. Some tried to give him the Tiger Woods moniker of self-identity. Some have felt that the one-drop rule can go by the wayside, while others equate the “other” side as being the “reason” for Obama’s successes. One minute Obama is Black, another he is not Black enough.
Now, if you throw a monkey into the mix, whether it was due to racist intent or just plain stupidity on the part of a manufacturer, advertiser, or E-Mobile, then it sort of keeps the kokujin (Black person) marginalized at the highest level. The funny (not really) part is that I have received emails telling me that Obama will have a tougher time dealing with the Republican party in his quest for the White House and that the E-Mobile CM is not a cause for me to get my Afro out of shape. I protested when a Japanese singing group wore blackface (to show their soul) and I got in the mix when the “new” release of Little Black Sambo hit Japan. Color me crazy I guess!
I have talked and blogged myself crazy on issues regarding Blacks in Japan. Blacks share many notable experiences and achievements in Japan but there is still work to be done in improving our image in Japanese society. The Black experience and the use of the Black Other in Japan as a tool, scapegoat, or invisible entity in Japanese media, political circles, businesses, and in other circles is something that must be examined and corrected.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 3 so far )Grits-n-Sushi
The Black Tokyo Moderator, Zen, recently turned me on to a blog called Grits-n-Sushi. The Uchinanchu (Okinawan) blogger and UC Berkeley graduate student Mitzi Uehara Carter, Mit-chan, as her friends call her, is of Okinawan (Japanese) African-American ancestry.
Mit-chan has some very interesting views (and questions) on race and identity. For example, her observation of a New York Times article questioned why the writer did not go deeper to bring out the complexities of race and racialization in general such as “why is that you need to identify yourself as a racialized subject” and in our current political landscape, “in what ways do racial allegiances mirror or disrupt the notions of citizenship?”
The avid sailor and Kung-fu master, Zen discovered that the up-and-coming sailor, writer and activist Mitzi-chan and her Psychiatrist husband will to sail to Okinawa (her mother’s birthplace) located in the beautiful Ryuku island chain of Japan. While in Okinawa, Mitzi-san will reconnect and complete her thesis. While she’s soaking up the sun, I hope that she soaks up a few Orion beers and some Sokisoba for me. Having lived in Okinawa for four-years, I can vouch for the great people, beaches, and SOKISOBA!
Mit-chan served as a panel member during a forum held in San Francisco’s Japan Town. The forum explored Okinawan Identity, History, and Culture and how it relates to the Okinawan Diaspora. Her presentation on being “in between” explored the contradictions that exist between identity, history, and culture and how they reflect the ideas, thoughts and experiences of Okinawan-Americans, mixed-race Okinawans and Amerasians. Featured was performance artist and writer Denise Uyehara who showcased “The Senkotsu (Mis)Translation Project.”
The BT family would like to send our congratulations to Mit-chan for having her essay published in the book, Multiculturalism in the New Japan. Be sure to check out Mitzi-san’s blog, Grits-n-Sushi.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Jero Makes the Washington Post
Konnichi wa! Well, it seems like Jero fever has hit the US press. A nice piece on what the boy wonder is doing in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )T.K.O. for B.O., Jero Hero in Kirin Fire Cafe Zero
Anyone that is black and lives in Japan must be breathing a sigh of relief now that Jero (sans hip-hop regalia) is advertising something on TV in an adult, serious manner. I felt a certain sense of pride. He is now the new face of Kirin Beverage’s canned coffee product Kirin Fire Cafe Zero. The ad began rotation on May 21.
Does this mark the beginning of the end of negative stereotyping and poor opinions of blacks in Japan? I for one certainly hope so…
Here’s his blog:
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/jeroenka/e/227bdcb90303f199c3f6c6e35b5611cf
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UR Pride: The Spirits of Black Japanese in Georgia
Synopsis:
This is a documentary that deals with the experiences of individuals of both Japanese and African American descent living in Georgia. They live in African American communities. However, because of their dual ethnic backgrounds, their ethnic identity is a major issue. They want to identify themselves as African American, but their African American friends sometimes do not consider them as African Americans. They overcome their issues and start to take pride in who they are.
Check out the short and tell us what you think!
Director: Yohei SuzukiRun. Time: 21 min.Country U.S.A.
Language: English
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )![Lake Dillon and a Tree [In Explore]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53731226172_4004cbfea4_s.jpg "Lake Dillon and a Tree [In Explore]")
Black Tokyo Japan 
Black Scholars Who Make a Specialty of Asian Studies
Posted on 9月 14, 2008. Filed under: Blasian, Commentary, Culture & Society, LEARNING & STUDY (Gakumon) | タグ: Africa, African American, black, books, japan, Japanese, multiculturalism, obama, race, relations, research, video |
Black Scholars Who Make a Specialty of Asian Studies
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