I am native Japanese. However, when I was a little child, I was mistaken for a “hafu” by many people, because of my appearance. I had a little pigment cell by birth so that I had blond hair and my skin was white like a Caucasian. That is why many people thought that I am a “hafu”. I felt happy when I heard about this from my mother, because I thought that being “hafu” is very cool. Although, my mother felt bad. Some people doubted that I was a “hafu” so that means they also doubted that I was not my mother and father’s real child. I had given my parents trouble any number of times, because of my appearance. Then I noticed that some time people seem to discriminate against appearances.

I think that one example of discriminate against appearance is racism discrimination. Nowadays, some people tend to label other people from their complexion without knowing anything about their personality. It is very stupid, because we cannot know anything about a person from their appearance. For instance, how much did you know about your friend when you first met the friend? I think most people would say “No”, because it is difficult for us to get personal information at a glance. We gradually understanding what are friends like over time. So, I mean it is important for us to take a person for who they are. Discriminating against appearance is already outdated and unacceptable from a humanitarian point of view. People’s appearance has nothing to do with what they can do or whether we can become good friends. We should learn about a man’s worth as it exists inside him.

In conclusion, I am against to discriminating against the appearance of the “hafu”, race, and so on for the reasons stated above. What is inside is the greatest asset a person can have, and that is only thing to know about who he is. So, we should not judge a person by his appearance. I hope to be part of a society where all discrimination vanished and nobody suffers from discrimination against their appearance.

by Erina Hayashi