Educational Video about Discrimination in Japan — Yuika
Video Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yn9r1h0xxQI&list=PLwsJGNeYVByKtTJic39LRd7KTfyhMRCQ4&index=5
“I am not sure what I can do though I’m interested in the issue.” As one of the class assignments in Literature and Society, I conducted the interview of Black Lives Matter and blackness for three of my Japanese friends, whom I picked based on their educational and cultural backgrounds. Two out of three answered in the way above. I believe recently this situation or even worse situation where the Japanese are not interested in the issue itself occurs. According to several online news articles, there is the ignorance of Japanese towards discrimination on its own (BBC News, 2020; Kawai, 2020). Therefore, I decided to create a platform for the Japanese to know about discrimination, especially the one against Black people including Black Lives Matter. While thinking about the style of the platform, I found a mini video on Instagram, which was created and posted by Lizzy, who is a Black-Japanese lady living in New York City (Lizzy [@cocoalizzy], n.d.). I was inspired by her video and found myself to be more interested in the issue and then, I tried to find several activities that I can do. Instagram is a good tool to stimulate youth to gain interest in Black Lives Matter and Black discrimination. Thus, I decided to create a video of basic knowledge of Black Lives Matter and discrimination situation against Black living in Japan as the information that more Japanese need to know.
The video consists of mainly three contents, which include the basic knowledge of Black Lives Matter, the actual discrimination situation against Black in Japan, and the solutions to reduce the discrimination. Here are small introductions of each content.
There is a lot of knowledge that the Japanese should know about Black Lives Matter, such as the process of why discrimination against Black has happened. The history of discrimination against Black flows like this; first, Civil War in the US happens from 1861 to 1865. In that term, White utilized Black people for their business. After the Reconstruction, some states which still want to remain Black for their business pass Black Codes, which mentions the segregation between skin colors, especially between White and Black. Although the Reconstruction Act of 1867 weaken Black Codes itself, as time pass, a new law named Jim Crow Laws which is developed from Black Codes are adopted in some areas. Therefore, segregation has remained for a long time (National Geographic, n.d.)
Focusing on Jim Crow laws, which had led people to be segregated from races, it gave African Americans terrific experiences such as segregation at a public level, rape, and brutal killing by White. These situations not only hurt Black people physically but also led them to have serious mental syndromes (Thompson-Miller, 2014, pp.16–17). Resulting from history, especially Jim Crow mentions that African Americans feel the supremacy of whiteness on an everyday level (Thompson-Miller, 2014, pp.197–200). This stereotype of supremacy coming from American history could lead to Black Lives Matter to happen.
Living in Japan for Black people is not always good for them. On a superficial level, because of the political and cultural differences, Japan is better rather than living in the US (Rachel & Jun, 2015). However, considering the discrimination situation, since some Japanese judge others by their appearance and stereotype, the place is not good very much for them. There is a case that Japanese afraid of Black people since they are big and seem to be scary. On the other hand, Black living in Japan face discriminatory words from Japanese mentioning skin color and they feel a barrier that Japanese do not accept the Black (BuzzFeed Japan, 2020; The Black Experience Japan, 2019). As hearing from each side, the discriminations are born from the gap between the originator and the recipient. As for the case in this video, a Japanese guy honestly feels the difference in their appearance between Black and Japanese. The difference itself is true, but the word coming from this thought such as “That Black guy…” (mentioned in this video as well) might hurt the Black people (BussFeed Japan, 2020).
Then, what can be a solution? I introduce three ways in the video; paying attention and knowing the situation, trying not to expand the discrimination, and being a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. As for the first two ways, as I mentioned above, there is a certain amount of Japanese who do not think racial discrimination exists in Japan. The indifferent, ignorant, and discriminatory words coming from their own image do not make any progress, or even though they create a deeper gap between Black and Japanese. Trying to understand what is going on is one of the best solutions. The third one is an option for those who become interested in direct support for Black Lives Matter movement. As introduced in the video, being a supporter in financial terms by donation or by playing certain YouTube videos are the ways to support.
The aim of creating this video is to inspire Japanese people to have proper knowledge of the racial issue of Black people which is related to Japanese as well and understand it. Afterword, the discrimination against Black people in Japan will decrease. Eventually, we can have a better and kind society both for Black and Japanese people.
Reference
Thompson-Miller, R et al. (2014). Jim Crow’s Legacy: The Lasting Impact of Segregation (Perspectives on a Multiracial America). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
BBC News. (2015). What’s it like to be black in Japan? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-34550264
BBC News. (2020). Nihonjin no Zinsyu Mondai Black Lives Matter de Ukibori ni [Black Lives Matter Discovers the Racial Issue in Japan]. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/japanese/features-and-analysis-53942352
Kawai, K. (2020). Kokujin Sabetsu Mondai kara Kaerimiru Nihonjin no ‘Futū’ Jigoku [The Discrimination against Black People Reflects on the Ignorance of Japanese]. Nikkei Business. Retrieved from https://business.nikkei.com/atcl/seminar/19/00118/00079/
