I watched two interviews the other day, both of which I found really interesting. I’ve linked them below.
Though I don’t necessarily believe that someone can be “half” Black due to the historical context of the word (Black being used as a negative label in order for Europeans to other-ize Africans and those of African descent, despite whether or not they had European blood), this interview was really interesting to watch. It’s really sad to see how she has been treated, especially seeing as Japan has been her home her entire life. Contrasting this with the second interview…
Tiffany is only culturally Japanese because her parents worked as English teachers in Japan and are both Black. Her first language is Japanese… Her experience living in rural Japan seems much different than Maica’s, though there are definitely similarities.
If you decide to watch the videos, be sure to check out the comments as well. There are some interesting insights found in them.
Hi Leah, thanks for posting these interviews. It was so interesting to see two different experiences from two seemingly similar situations. Environment has a lot to do with generating societal ideas which was definitely captured in those interviews. As you reccomended, I read through a few comments and it was interesting to see how people kept talking about passing/blending into this or that culture due to language expertise, cultural knowledge, etc.