Author Archives: japansociology

Race Blind Ideology in Mexico

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by Kaoruko Sorai

To talk about race and color in Mexico, we need to understand the concept of race blind ideology first. Race blind ideology means talking about race, racial differences or racial hierarchy is considered taboo and deemed inappropriate. Furthermore, only a small noticing on racial differences makes you immediately a racist. People in Mexico are extremely reluctant to talk about race issues. Why and how was this ideology of race blindness built in Mexico?

Christina A. Sue did case studies in the twin cities of Veracruz and Boca del Rio, where this ideology appears remarkably. Due to its history of being a major port of entry and incorporation of African slaves, there is diversity among the population, ranging from güero/blanco (white), moreno claro (light brown), moreno (medium brown), moreno oscuro (dark brown), and negro (black).

Because of their history of having African slaves in their region, they conceive blackness as something different and foreign to people living in Veracruz. Therefore they are unconsciously distancing themselves from blackness. It is very common to marry someone in order to “clean their race” (limpiar la raza), in other words, to get the “refined” features. Though people care about their appearance so clearly, especially their skin color, they think that they are not racist, and talking about color is not considered as taboo, what is surprising about this is that people talk about their color frequently in their daily lives.

By these Christina A. Sue’s case studies, we observe that Mexicans think of race and color as distinct folk categories. For them, race connotes categorization and creation of hierarchy as once it was, but color does not. They think of color only just a descriptive marker. They do not realize that they are still fixed to the old fashioned idea of white superiority and black inferiority. People in Veracruz believe that there are no black people, that people in this town are black because of the sunlight, not because of their African ancestry.

However, in my opinion, people in Veracruz are actually racist because they differentiate from black people. This phenomena clearly shows that they think black are inferior to others, therefore they do not want to be in that group.

A Mexican columnist once said in the LA Times that “Although subtle, discrimination has become something invisible in our (Mexican) society. We no longer see it, or we consider it normal”. I totally agree with her. Race blind ideology is, in fact, that discrimination, like the social classifications along their skin color, became so normal that it has become something invisible. And it resulted into the paradox of race blindness and people’s desire to whiten their skin color.

Brazil – A Racial Paradise?

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by Lee Hyeon Woo

I remember watching a film about Brazil. It was a film titled Tropa De Elite, or Elite Squad. The film was about special police forces named the BOPE hunting down drug dealers in Brazilian slums known as the favela. As I watched the movie, I realized that most of the population consisting the favela were dark colored. There were only a few completely black men, and most of the population had brownish skin. At first it didn’t matter because I thought Brazil was a “dark country”. But when the movie suddenly showed the image of a Brazilian medical university, I was surprised to find out that most of the students who are introduced as Brazilians were white. That’s when I realized that Brazil was not free from racial problems.

I found out that Brazil’s major populations were white people, who took up 49 percent of the entire Brazil population. Then followed brown, or pardos, which took 42 percent of the population. Blacks, contrary to my original belief, took only 7 percent of the entire population. However I also found out that due to the long history of Portuguese colonization, most of the population were of mixed ancestry regardless of skin color. These include mulato, a black-white mix, mestiso, an indigenous-white mix, and cafuzo, an indigenous-black mix. To my surprise there were also considerable numbers of Japanese Brazilians. Because of this mixed ancestry, Brazilians have no point of discriminating each other with racial ancestry. It was no wonder that the Brazilian government would promote that, since there are so many races living together in harmony, their nation is a “racial paradise”.

While it would have been the best if what the Brazil government claims are completely true, I unfortunately found out that even in a “racial paradise” discrimination exists. Even if the ancestry is mixed, Brazilians would still discriminate race by fundamental means – the skin color. To simply put, the whiter you are, the more advantageous you are in Brazilian society. These discriminations can apply in job interviews, education, and environment. As I mentioned the Favela in the film, Tropa De Elite, most of the populations in the favela are dark skinned people. On the contrary, in university, which requires a large amount of tuition, most of the students are white, implying that white Brazilians have more economic benefits than darker ones. The most difficult part in solving this discrimination is that it is hidden. Everyone in Brazil says that they are not racists and they respect all races, but when they face a situation which involves other races, they would subtly engage in discrimination. Sometimes they don’t even know that their act is a racial discrimination.

Black and White in Brazil? – It’s hard to identify race

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by Aya Murakami

flagWhile the US has been importing a racial system from Latin America, Brazil is going in an opposite direction. It has imported the traditional US way of classifying race. The system called ‘Black movement’, and it divides people into two categories: black and white. Even though there are another two classification systems, this idea has been rapidly spreading over Brazil and having huge impact on people’s idea of race.

Traditionally, Brazil had been identifying itself as “racial democratic” country. Brazil is one of the most racially mixed societies. It counts 2nd largest black population and the largest Japanese population outside of Japan. There was no legislation to divide people into racial groups and people could claim their own racial categories. As a consequence of these reasons, racial groups in Brazil were very ambiguous and elusive.

However, even in Brazil, the racial democratic country, statistic revealed that discrimination toward darker skin people exists. Although afro-Brazilians occupy at least 50% of total population, there were less than 5% of blacks in the government. Also, nearly two third of poverty was made up by Blacks. The average income gap between white and black was huge, black only gained 40% of which white did in 1980. Moreover, blacks were unlikely to be able to get higher education.

These are some of my Brazilian friends.

These are some of my Brazilian friends.

Since 2001, some of the state and federal universities have provided a certain percentage of seats to blacks. As a result, the number of black students in the university has been bigger and bigger. It has certainly given chance to blacks and in the long run, people are expecting it to reduce the gap between black and white.

However, it is true that these actions are providing equal opportunities for blacks? Or rather, it is increasing the gap between white and black? There remain some questions. Since most of the people are mixed race hence it is very difficult to draw a line between two categories. In fact, it is still ambiguous who is black and who is white. Sometimes family members, such as siblings are categorized in different racial groups.

Also, the system made people to think whether they are black or white whereas most of people have never thought about it. Thinking about it and assigned in a racial group increased awareness of race. As people started to have sense of belonging to either black or white racial groups, some white people felt that the black were taking benefit from the system. Actually, there were some violence attacks toward African students from white students.

Therefore, it can be said that it is difficult to define racial categories especially a country like Brazil where most of people are racially mixed. In my opinion, without clear classification I think it would be very difficult that the system work efficiently. Although the quota system might bring brighter future for blacks, there are still some controversial questions to be answered.

See Also:

Movies

Black in Latin America E02, Brazil: A Racial Paradise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh7c46U5hhY

WIDE ANGLE | Brazil in Black and White | PBS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g29P3-xj7GQ

Articles

Guardian. (2011, November 17). Brazil census shows African-Brazilian in the majority for the first time. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk

The Economist. (2012, January 28). Race in Brazil: Affirming a divide. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com

Is color–blind ideology a solution to racism?

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by Emilie Hui Ting Soh

Turning color-blind, in this context, refers to consciously ignore and disregard the skin color of an individual so as to eliminate the race factor that one possesses just by the way he or she looks. The negative issues of race normally come from the judgments and stereotypes one makes in his or her mind, which will then be translated into actions. Indeed, this is a very ideal concept and if the society is that simple and gradually turned that way, then the people living together in the society will have peace with one another. This is, however, an assumption. The point of discussion that I want to make here in this blog post is on whether or not such an ideology will help in solving the negative issues concerning race?

There are several criticisms being made to the ideology of being color–blind. The first criticism argues that such an idea would add more cruelty to the negativity, which racism brings about. The concept is to ignore and disregard an individual’s race and their unique racial experience and treat every individual as ‘race–less’. Let us put this criticism in an imagined scenario. Imagine that we are all ‘race–less’ and treat everyone as though we are all the same and forgetting any differences we have amongst one another or simply, noticing the difference yet having to keep it within yourself because it will be frowned upon when mentioned. With that, would it not make life more difficult for both ‘us’ and ‘them’?

Furthermore, the question to this ideology is whether or not we can really turn a blind eye to race, and disregard the differences between ourselves. For a long time, we have been advised to not have or should not practice any racial discrimination. However, in the process of growing up, we observe the surroundings and the people around us and internalized these observations within ourselves and develop our own mindsets. Hence the imagery and stereotypes that we have developed thus far will remain deeply rooted in our mindsets and behavior consciously and subconsciously.

Therefore, in my opinion, even if we do succeed in turning the blind eye to any racial differences, would it not just become a silent form of racism, whereby we do not talk about it but still hold on to some kinds of negativity towards another individual? There should be other ways or methods we can adopt and use to ease these issues such as accepting that such difference exists and to educate the future generations. We should share the common idea that we may look different from one another, but we are no different in the use.

Racial Stratification in Hong Kong

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by Chris Leung

Latin Americanization means the phenomenon of racial stratification and the book Shades of Difference took the example in the United States. However, this term can also be applicable in other places. For instance, in my birth place, Hong Kong, racial stratification is also obvious. However, the situation is quite different from the States.

Since Hong Kong was colonized by Great Britain, racial stratification has already been installed into people’s minds. In terms of the strata, in the beginning of the colonization period, British people and other European were obviously in the top level, followed by East Asians especially Indians. Finally most of the Chinese were in the bottom of the strata. However, there were also some elite Chinese, who could manage to live in the same standard with the Europeans, most of them also discriminated against the collective Chinese with the Europeans. At that time, many luxurious restaurants and shops insisted “Not allowing dog and Chinese.”

This strata system lasted for a quite long period until there were more Chinese people started to work for the government. Nowadays, as Hong Kong has already returned back to China, the strata system has also changed drastically. As there are no more foreigners taking major role in the government, the Chinese could finally regain the position they used to have before colonization and the discrimination against races has a lot improved.

However, when I say Chinese, it only means those who born and grew up in Hong Kong, those who emigrated from the mainland China in this decade also face a huge discrimination by the local ‘Chinese.’ Since many of them are not well educated, they could only do low-paying jobs like cleaner or security guard. Further, there are many family issues among these immigrants, hence the area they live is always a big social concern to the government and there were few movies trying to describe the life in the area where many of the residents think that the movies tried to label their living place as the slum of Hong Kong.

In conclusion, the situation in Hong Kong is quite special. In general term, stratification and discrimination are always between races like in the States. However, in Hong Kong, such things are happening inside one race, which is the Chinese.

Hafus’ citizenship and their identities

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by Ryota Ochiai

You might have looked at a situation that a lot of hafu are living in Japan, today. In this article, hafu mean the people who are half-Japanese and half-something else. They spend days while they are often bound by that stereotypes like being seen as “cool” or “cute”.

However they are faced an important choice seriously until being 22 years old. The thing is “choosing own citizenship between two countries”. Dual citizenship is not accepted in the current Japanese Nationality Act (JNA). Therefore, hafu who chose Japanese citizenship have to withdraw another citizenship. In fact, however, hafu should leave the foreign citizenship when they will be foreign public such as police and member of National Diet. If in this case, hafu may only lose Japanese citizenship. However, the foreign citizenship does not disappear only by having reported that hafu chose the Japanese citizenship. Moreover, in Japan, there are no penal regulations about not withdrawing the foreign citizenship. It is approved by the government if I declare that “I choose Japanese citizenship.” However this declaration also means “an acting as for the withdrawal of the foreign citizenship” because JNA is telling. It is not compulsory to withdraw own foreign citizenship. These mean that “dual citizenship” might be accepted legally.

Nevertheless, the problem of the citizenship of hafu is not solved easily because of relating one country and another country. The time when hafu were born and family-forms maybe include in these factor. Ms. Sandra said that “If there are 10 hafus, there are 10 different stories about citizenship.”

We just see that hafu could have dual citizenship in Japan legally. Well, how about their identity? A problem of the identity for hafu is not “a problem in adult”, but “a problem facing you since you were child”. I felt unconsciously, that the way of thinking of human relations in “my foreign blood” is different from that of Japanese. I did not understand identity when I was a child. However I can felt what’s called “sense of estrangement” somehow. What distinguishes a Japanese from a foreigner? I fell into such a problem deeply in a childhood. However, an answer for oneself was found now. The answer is “not to distinguish own”. Even if two or three kind of bloods is flowing my body, it does not matter. Recognizing the environments that imposed on myself and taking it balance is my answer. I would like to take Japanese citizenship but I don’t want to waste my experiences and environment which are bound myself. Therefore I want to help hafu who are troubled with identity and say to them “Take it easy!”

Thank you for reading my post. I’m waiting your comments or feedback.

References

http://half-sandra.com/ <Thinking of Hafus’ Problems (Hafu ni tsuite kangaeyou)> written by Sandra Heferin.

Hafu issue and Japan

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by Kensuke Ikeda

There are a lot of hafu whose parents don’t have the same nationality all over the world and there are many Japanese hafu in Japan. I found though movie about hafu that hafu cannot accept adequately in Japan because some Japanese people regard hafu as foreigner and other Japanese people don’t have interest in them. Also, hafu tend not to have own identity because they have difficulties for finding their origin and nation. Hafu issue, I think, is based on the lack of identity. The lack of identity is related to some questions are “where am I from” and “who am I”. Now we (my classmate and I) have discussed the situation of hafu and some students recommend multicultural education and global political policy for improving the idea for Japanese hafu on Facebook.

Of course the multicultural thinking is important, but the thinking is not perfect because the multicultural education is taught only to younger people such as school students. Therefore I suggest another way that Japanese government should allow for hafu to get two nationalities and follow the wave of globalization.

First I explain first solutions. To begin with, you should recognize the cause of lack of identity for reconsidering the issue. The loss of identity has relationships to the citizenship of hafu. They have to choose their nationality and citizenship in some countries such as Japan and Korea compared to the USA. In other words, these governments force hafu as minority to abandon one side right of their nations without getting double nationality. In my opinion, Japanese government should make room for hafu to have double nationalities and identities.

Second I introduce another method for solving hafu issue. Japanese people still tend to keep from foreigners because Japan is said to be a racially homogeneous nation and Japanese people get used to treat foreigners. On the other hand, globalization is advancing by improving IT such as the Internet and SNS. If this globalization is increasing, naturally the number of hafu will increase and the kinds of hafu pattern are more various, and then the environment for hafu in Japan will be changing. In other words globalization makes Japan racially multination. Therefore, I suppose that Japan should be more global and Japanese people get more opportunities to treat hafu. If this solution can, hafu will not need their identity because they could have the sense of belonging. They are treated as just a “human”. They would not lose something they could rely on.

How can people become Japanese?

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by Tatsuya Haishi

Through the discussion in our class, I realized that there are many ways to become Japanese; however, it is a very difficult attempt to succeed. If I must choose one way to become Japanese, I would mention Japanese language. We cannot judge people’s nationality by their appearance like skin, hair and eyes in the age of globalization. We feel comfortable when we can communicate well with other people, yet if we feel that we cannot communicate well with them, maybe we begin thinking about a disparity between us and them. The most effective way to communicate well is the language. When I hit it off with a foreigner who really wants to be a Japanese citizen, it is difficult for me to recognize him as Japanese although I would like to.  He would be one of my foreign friends. However, if he can speak Japanese and communicate with me in Japanese, I will regard him as Japanese with no doubts. Accordingly, I think hafu people who grew up in Japan and can speak Japanese well are perfect Japanese.

I think that to be Japanese is still harder than to be other country’s citizen. Although I have no idea about the exact reason of that, in my experience, many Japanese people have the feeling that our society is a homogeneous community. Of course we learn and know Japan is not a racially homogeneous nation, but we have such sense unconsciously. I think that’s because we have few opportunities to meet foreigners in Japan. I also had never talked with foreigners until I entered the university.

Now, for most of Japanese people, to be Japanese means to be “Japanese-Japanese”, not “Korean-Japanese” or “British-Japanese”, but this situation may change in the near future. Japan is an aging society with a declining birthrate and is facing a decrease of the work force. It will be necessary to accept immigrants from other countries to hire them. When they adapt themselves to Japanese society and have their kids, some of them come to feel that they are Japanese. I take it for granted that there are many kinds of races living together in London. Today, it is a quite natural scene that various different ethnic people are living together in the U.K. On the contrary, I would feel strange if there is a TV drama or a movie that a foreigner acts as Japanese. However, Japan may be a multiethnic nation like U.K. in future. If it becomes real, it will be easy to become Japanese.

Japan and Hafu Nationality

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by Reina Doi

Imagine that your parents have an international marriage (one of your parents is Japanese), and you are living as hafu in Japan. In your house, two type of cultures are mixed, and you belong to two countries through your experiences. However, if you were 22, you would have to choose one country as a nationality. You used to have two nationalities that your parent’s home country, but you can choose only one nationality, so you automatically have to abandon one nationality, though you have two countries’ identity.

Do you think that situation is unreasonable? I think many people think “I want to keep both nationalities like before!”. However, this is real story that hafu people face. In Japan, dual citizenship is not admitted, and as I say before, hafu are forced to choose one nationality by age 22. Many countries such as America, France and UK allow dual citizenship, and hafu get guarantee from country.  Why Japan does not admit like other countries? I think the reason relates to dual citizenship demerits. In America, there are many immigrants from all over the world, and America give citizenship for them. It seems good, but American government does not officially support dual citizenship, because if person has two nationalities, it would be trouble when person committed one country’s law. Besides, it is annoying to some Americans that some people might come to America for giving birth, and the children get American nationality, and then go back to their home country.

Thus, dual citizenship has some negative aspects. However, I think Japan should allow dual citizenship. Globalization is coming to Japan too, and we cannot stop this stream. Some people believes that Japan is homogeneous country, but that is not true. Many foreigners are lived as a worker and international marriage is getting more and more. Therefore Japan should prepare that follow globalization. Japan does not have enough care and guarantee for foreigner, and even hafu. Hafu is also increasing (one out of thirty baby is hafu) recently, so Japan have to think whether continuing present nationality’s system or not. I think giving up one nationality means forcing to lose one own identity from government, so Japan should give right to choose that hafu choose one or keep two nationalities.

To join global society, Japan should quit old system, and accept new style. More people should come, and Japan’s lived foreigners and hafu will increase. Therefore I think it is time that Japan prepare and take action for hafu to live better in Japan.

How can Japanese people accept hafu? Hafu people struggle with Japanese society

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by Kazuki Ando

In Japan, there are a lot of hafu people. In fact, there are many types of hafu. For example, some hafu  have a white parent and a Japanese parent. Other hafu have an Asian parent and a Japanese one. According to the article, a member of hafu project has struggles with prejudice against hafu in Japan. On their experience, most members had bad memory. While people in other country accept these people, people in Japan tend not to accept them. It is really controversial problem now in Japan. How should Japan change this situation?

First, I learned that hafu have some troubles. For example, a hafu man who is French and Japanese worked in Japan, and then he had a French name and a Japanese name. He tried to use his Japanese name, however his boss suggested him that he should use his French name. I think it’s a kind of discrimination against him. His boss wanted the customer to overlook him because he is a foreigner. Next, I have some hafu friends, and I saw some discrimination against them when I was elementary school student.  However, I don’t see such discriminations right now in university life. What’s the difference? In my opinion, while young people have curious about the difference between them, university student can understand the difference of looks and culture. These processes through elementary school student to university student are significant to accept these people.

Second, we are not familiar with hafu people unlike people in other country. That’s why we have a good image of hafu. For instance, hafu can speak more than two languages and their looking is so cool or cute. We have such good images, so we can’t understand their feelings. For me, to know their feelings about being hafu is first time. Besides we can’t distinguish hafu people from foreigners because they look absolutely foreign, not Japanese. Hafu regarded these prejudice against them as serious problem, so I pointed out that these problems comes the difference between hafu and Japanese in terms of looking.  As my professor mentioned, most hafu people in Japan came from some Asian countries, so they have no difference with us. I agree with his opinion, and they can easily assimilate themselves into Japanese society, compared to hafu people from Europe. That’s why white hafu need to assimilate to Japanese society easily, too.  It is necessary for Japanese to understand both advantages and disadvantages.

In conclusion, Japanese culture is said to be homogeneous, so we have the image of a typical Japanese. In addition, Japanese are also stereotypes, so Japanese don’t tend to accept people who have difference between Japanese and hafu. It’s difficult to remove the way Japanese think soon from now on. As a result, I think Japanese need the education about culture of heterogeneous in order to understand the way of thinking, and should learn that hafu has a lot of distresses. In fact, hafu people looks different, compared to us. However it doesn’t matter now. I hope that it is possible for both Japanese and hafu to make harmony with each other.