- Posted: July 28, 2009, 2:39 pm
- Categories: Campus Life, Japan Life, TOPICS, Tokyo Life
- Tags: african american, black, black women, campus, culture, dancing, female, hip hop, history, japan, japan campus, japanese, japanese food, jigger, nihon, nihongo, racism, stereotypes, student, study, study abroad, temple university, tokyo, tuj, yakisoba
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I’ve been procrastinating on this post because this is probably the most difficult/uncomfortable thing that’s happened to me in Japan–well, race-related. Now that I think about it, it might very well be the most uncomfortable, race-related situation that has happened to me in my life. And instead of drawing it out, I want to get right into what happened.
It was the middle of May.
My old roommate Kira introduced my to my favorite place on earth, the bar I mentioned in my previous post. After I went there twice with Kira, the bar owner and his wife invited us and a few others to their house for an okonomiyaki party. As we stepped into their house, I noticed that the house looked a lot like their bar–full of American paraphernalia. All sorts of gadgets and toys lined their walls and shelves. Cans of Campbell’s soup, a box of Stove Top stuffing mix, figurines of the Budweiser toads, 1950’s Coco Cola bottles, a stuffed animal of Alf (the 1980’s television show), Tom and Jerry mugs, etc. If you name something American, I’m sure they have a replica of it in their house. And if not, it’s in their bar.
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- Posted: July 28, 2009, 2:39 pm
- Categories: Campus Life, Japan Life, TOPICS, Tokyo Life
- Tags: african american, black, black women, campus, culture, dancing, female, history, japan, japan campus, japanese, japanese food, jigger, learning japanese, nihon, nihongo, okonomiyaki, racism, student, study, study abroad, temple university, tokyo, tuj, yakisoba
- 1 Comment »
[This is Part 2. Click here for Part 1.]
Yes, I was uncomfortable beyond words.
I had a slew of different thoughts that kept hitting me at 1,000,000 MPH. The most important thoughts/questions were:
Why did he show ME that toy??
Doesn’t he understand where that toy comes from?
Doesn’t he understand the history behind toys like that?
Does he not know how many Black people have died to fight racist things like that?
More importantly, I wouldn’t even be here in Japan studying Communications and Japanese if it weren’t for my parents and grandparents who fought for their rights and the rights of their children.
But I couldn’t say any of that. Not only did I not know how to say that in Japanese, but I was completely speechless. What do you say to a toy like that in such a friendly environment?
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