Originally I planned to post this on Wednesday the 27th but we had some cockpit problems – so here it is now.
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I spent a lot of time in Japan during the 90s. During my time in Japan I came to think of Japanese as being a more racist society than America. Occasionally I spotted signs that read “Nihongo only”. (Nihongo = Japanese.) I worked with a friend (Japanese) who once told me: “You should find yourself a girl friend here in Japan – one of your kind, of course.” He was older, mostly retired and I am sure that he did not understand the racism in his advice. He just took it for granted that races should remain separate. Sort of like most states in America did before the sixties. There are also several minorities – maybe ethnic group would be a better description – that face discrimination. One is the Ainu who may have immigrated to Japan before the present Japanese people. There are also many people of Korean ancestry. Most of the Koreans, Zainichi in Japanese, are descended from workers brought to Japan during the colonial period – roughly 1905 to the end of WWII. A recent article, ‘Breaking the silence on burakumin’, in The Japan Times was about the descendants of workers in “unclean” professions.
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I had another friend married to a Japanese woman. He first came to Japan as a Marine Guard at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. I met Steve after noticing a note in English taped to a bar door. I went in and found this gaijin, Steve, serving drinks behind the bar. Steve sometimes faced discrimination in Japanese society and told me stories on how he handled it. Steve took great delight in ignoring any “Nihongo only” signs. He also took pleasure in giving cab drivers a tip. In Japan most taxi drivers feel insulted if you offer a tip. I thought about my friend as I read of the struggle of a parent with children of mixed parentage in an article, Half, bi or double? One family’s trouble, in The Japan Times. But mostly I thought about discrimination, our new president, the lingering odor of racism in our country and my own difficulty in struggling with stereotypes.
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I have been finding myself getting a little angry every time I read about Obama being our first “black” president. In the first place we all know that by now. OK let’s get over it and move on from here. On the one hand I can, and do, understand the pride that a black American can take in that fact. I think I want to amend that to just American. I take pride in his presidency also. But more troubling to me is an assumption I have noticed. Is our definition of “black” or “African American” anyone with any amount of tint to their skin other than the pasty white alabaster version that some of us are cursed/blessed with? Maybe the problem is in the labeling as Half, bi or double? One family’s trouble seems to suggest. When it comes right down to it we are all African Americans – including those we call “native Americans”. Some of our ancestors just took longer detours than others.
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I asked myself a few questions after thinking about Half, bi or double? One family’s trouble. How is my characterizing the Japanese “racist” any different than their views of the burakumin, Zainichi or Ainu? Is my anger over the pigeon holing of President Obama as “black” about racial profiling or is it about wanting to take credit for one half of him being a member of my race? I also thought about what Jesus would have said about people of mixed parentage. I think I know. He told a parable about one of them. In Jesus’ times the Samaritans were of mixed ancestry. They were a mixture of the 10 tribes deported by Assyria (surley that deportation by the Assyrians was like that of the Babylonians many years later – not all people would have been deported, maybe just the upper class?) and whoever the Assyrians moved into Samaria. That was one of the reasons that Jews disliked the Samaritans so much. And so today even in English we have a term celebrating a half (or bi or double). Every one knows what a good Samaritan is.
I wonder how the President views himself. Half, bi or double?