by Miho Tanaka
From two articles, “Not black, but Habasha: Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants in American society” by Habecker and “Ethnic and racial identities of second-generation black immigrants in New York City” by Waters, I found how black Americans were distanced from each other because of tension with other ethnic groups. Though second generation immigrants sometimes fit into black American culture if they interact with black American friends, many black immigrants de-emphasize their ascribed black racial identification and try not to be categorized as black Americans in the US (Habecker, 2011, p.1206). However many other ethnic groups cannot distinguish them from black Americans since their appearance is very similar to black Americans; therefore they tend to be treated just like black Americans even if they have strong identity of not being like them. In addition it is impossible for black immigrants to reform the “apparently immobile structures of America’s racial hierarchy” even though they make efforts on maintaining social distance from black American (ibid, p.1215).
I suppose how much they experience discrimination, and how much less opportunity they have are deeply connected to the darkness of their skin of color. In the Black community, the tradition of lighter skin and straighter hair are often considered to be in ‘better’ status (Williams, 2013). In this sense I can see colorism pretty much prevails in US society and the world, and their social or economic levels are often determined by how dark they are. I feel Japan is not an exception. For example Okinawan or Ainu people in Japan have been discriminated from the dominant group. Okinawan have darker skin compared with Japanese living in Honshu island and I saw Ainu people when I was in a junior high school and went to school trip, they had darker skin, too. Okinawan people are often suffering from noisy airplane of U.S. military and sometimes Okinawan girls or women are raped, and Ainu people had been segregated and now they are disappearing. I can see that Japanese society also adopts colorism.
On a large scale, we should notice how colorism forms the structure or hierarchy of this world. I feel the darker skin people have, the more poor area they live in. When we think of black immigrants who rarely assimilate into the other culture which white or lighter skin colored-people control we should think about how colorism effects on their lives and their opportunity and how it is sustained in the world.
References
Habecker, S. (2011). “Not black, but Habasha : Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants in American society” (pp.1200-1219). In Ethnic and racial studies. London : Routledge.
Waters, C. M. (1994). “Ethnic and racial identities of second-generation black immigrants in New York city” in International Migration Review. Vol.28, No.4, pp.795-820
Williams, C. (2013). Colorism : The war at home. Retrieved on June 13th 2013 from http://www.ebony.com/news-views/colorism-the-war-at-home-405#axzz2W6aYYoEN
JAPANsociology 
Reblogged this on Akkorn Photographic and commented:
Interesting…
Okinawa people are not born darker skinned than the Japanese of Honshu island. Okinawa people are tanned by the sun.
Okinawa people were not discriminated against because of darker skin. Okinawa people were discriminated against in the past due to religious and cultural reasons.
In the past, the Japanese of Honshu island were primarily Buddhist and vegetarian. The Japanese of Honshu island did not eat meat in the past. Okinawa people, however, ate pork which was a violation of the strict Japanese Buddhist protocol of the time. Okinawa people were discriminated against mainland Japanese society because they regularly butchered pigs.
Reblogged this on berealblack.
This is interesting… It’s not only in America where we see seemingly “Black” people claim being of another racial or cultural distinction as though we can just opt. out of being black is rampant in Canada too. Somalians, Eritreans, Etheopeans, Brazilians, Cubans, Jamaicans all of which LOOK black and are born in Canada seem to want to escape the “stigma” of being Black and therefore they cling to the cultures of their generations. Colorism isn’t just a North American or African issue. The issue of skin color is age old and hopefully drops dead sooner than later.
~Rachelle