Black Lives Matter In Japan – A Look At The Language

Cocoalizzy

Cocoa Lizzy posted a series of insightful video entries on her Instagram. She highlighted several examples of her own experiences of racism in Japan as a black Japanese person in this post. 

Here is a translation of an excerpt:

私も日本にいるころはバイトをしていた時も黒人からものを買いたくないからあの子をやめさせてほしいと言われたこともあるし

When I was doing a casual job in Japan I had someone say “I don’t want to buy stuff from a black person, you should get rid of her”. 

黒人だからお客さん怖がらさせてしまうかもしれないから君はレストランで働けないかなって言われたこともあるし、

At a restaurant someone told me “I don’t think you could work here because you’re black and you may scare the customers”.

でもまだよかった方

But really that’s the least of it

こっちでは肌の色だけで殺されたり捕まっちゃったりとかする人もいて

Over here there are people who are killed or arrested 

もしかして日本人のみんなはこれがただの黒人と白人の戦いと思っているかもしれないだけど、

And Japanese people might just think that’s just some fight between black people and white people

違くてこのこういう人たちこういうブラックの人たちが世界的に弱い立場にいることをどう思いますか。

But, from a distance, what do you think about the fact that black people are in this position of weakness?

という。考えてくれていますか。Are you thinking about these things?

皆はこれが違うって沢山の人が立ち上がっているのね。

There are a lot of people who think things have to change that are standing up.

だからあなたが黒人か、白人か、日本人かとかは関係なくあなたはこの状況をどう思いますかっていうこと

So whether you are black, white, Japanese it doesn’t matter, it’s what you think about the situation.

でもし皆の好きな歌手が黒人で皆その人の歌を聞いていて

But if people have a singer that they like and listen to

今もその人が生まれてときから今までもずっと黒人として扱われていて

And that person had been treated as a black person from the moment they had been born

その人達がSOSを出しているとき皆はただ見てみぬフリをするのかそこで私達は一緒の人間だって、

And if that person was putting out an SOS signal, would you act like you had seen nothing or would you acknowledge that they have the same humanity as you.

肌の色で扱いが変わることはおかしいって立ち上がる人がもっともっといてくれていいじゃないか

Wouldn’t  it be great if there were many many more people that stood up to the idea of changing the way you treat people according to the color of their skin?

Twittersphere

Across twitter there were a lot of comments. We don’t want to give too much air to people espousing more or less racist views, but it is important to acknowledge the debate that is happening. Here is a selection of some of the posts we saw:

Tweet:

日本人は黒人を差別したことはありません。

Japanese people have never been racist towards black people.

日本で黒人が殺されたことあるの？

日本で黒人って理由で入店拒否されたことあるの？差別してないよね！

Has there ever been a black person murdered in Japan?

Has there ever been a black person that has beef refused entry to a shop? Really, we don’t racially vilify do we?

Melissa Luna:

私たちが受けてきた差別は全部デタラメだったんですね？

いかに自己中心的で盲目なのかが伝わります。これがマジョリティの特権。

So all the racism we have experienced is just a load of rubbish right?

It is clear just how self centered and non-seeing the people writing these comments are. This is the privilege of the majority.

Tweet:

日本人がコロナ対策のために『三密』を避けて頑張ってるのに、日本人の命はどうでもいいのでしょうか？

Japanese people are doing everything they can to go social distance and fight the coronavirus. But I guess Japanse lives aren’t worth anything right?

宇多田ヒカル Tweet

日本で生まれ育った日本人からすると人種差別っていまいちピンと来ないかもしれないけど、今アメリカで起きていることは未来の世界史に載るような歴史的な局面かもしれない…というかそうであってほしい

To people who are born and raised in Japan, racism may seem like they have no connection to. What is happening in America may be a historic moment in the future…it least that’s how I hope this may be.

Tweet

ここは日本。

『日本人の命は大切だ！』

明日は土砂降りになりますようにUmbrella with rain drops

This is Japan. Japanese lives matter!

I hope the rain buckets down on you tomorrow.

Tweet

都合良く問題を一般化しないでください。ドイツが難民受け入れを「世界の課題」にしてるのと似ている。

Don’t generalise the problem according to your own agenda. This is like how Germany called the need to accommodate refugees a “world problem”.

Tweet

ここ数日で黒人に対する見方が本当に変わったわ。黒人とは関わらないようにしよう。

In these past few days my opinion of black people has really changed. I’m going to do my best to not associate with black people.

私は、日本で生まれ育った日本人ですが、日本に人種差別がない、なんて小学生の頃から思っていませんでした。近くに在日コリアンの方々がいたし、朝鮮学校もあったし。彼等もずっと差別の中にいると思う。その環境を作ったのは私達日本人。差別は許されない。

I was born and raised in Japan and I’ve never thought for a moment from elementary school onwards that Japan is a country without racism. Around me there were members of the Korean diaspora, and a Korean school. I believe these people have been the subject of ongoing racism. It is us Japanese that have created that environment. There is no place for racism.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/daisukekawasaki/20200607-00182173/

Blogs

川崎大助 | 作家 Yahoo

この問題は、対岸の火事ではないのだ。遠く離れた大陸での出来事かもしれないが、しかし「日本人だから」という理由で無視していい問題ではない。「日本人も人類の一員」ならば、無視はできない。

This problem isn’t “a fire on the far coast”. This may be something that is happening on a far away continent, but “I’m Japanese” isn’t an excuse to ignore the problem. If Japanese people are just one people within a larger human race, then there is no excuse to turn a blind eye.

Ruru Ruriko ピンク 55 Telling Asahi 55

今まで差別について考えたことがなかったり、経験がない人は差別をされる人の気持ちを想像するのは難しいでしょう。そして、日本人が黒人の気持ちや経験を理解することは不可能です。しかし、わからない、知らないでは、このまま一生状況は変わりません。

疑わずに、まず当事者の言葉に耳を傾けてください。

For people who have never had occasion to think about racism, or have never been racially vilified, it is probably difficult to imagine what it must be like to be the subject of racism. But if we keep saying “I don’t understand” or “this is not something I know about” the situation will never change. 

When in doubt, start by lending your ears to those directly affected.

Cocoa Lizzy (Part 2)

We’ll end this look at the language around BLM in Japan with 2nd entry by Cocoa Lizzy

白人の特権とみんなの特権 #BLACLIVESMATTER Understanding own privilege

さて今日はホワイトwhite privilege (白人の優遇)と私達それぞれのprivilageについて話していきます！最近ドールテストの動画をストーリーに上げたりして、みんなも興味を持ってくれました。沢山の人はまだ肌の色だけで、”怖い” ”強そう” ”危なそう”などのステレオタイプ(思い込み、先入観)があると思います。でもそのステレオタイプを政府や世間、警察に持たれた黒人はアメリカでどのような扱いをされているか考えたことはありますか？黒人である私達は、肌の色のせいだけで、政府から悪いイメージをずっと持たれ、今も普通の生活をしたいだけでも他の人種の人と比べられて公平な支援やサポートをしてもらえません。

Today I would like to go ahead and talk about White privilege, and all of our own privilege. Recently I added a Doll Test video to my story, and people were kind enough to show some interest. I believe there are a lot of people who see black skin and, through stereotyping, think “they look scary” or “ they look strong” or “they look dangerous”. But have you ever thought about how black people in America are treated by a government, a society or a police force that hold this stereotype. For a black person such as myself this means I am looked down on by the government just for the color of my skin. Even now, all I want to do is lead a normal life, but I am compared to people from other ethnic backgrounds and am not offered the same backing or support.

逆に私はアジア人だけど、黒人だからイエローとかコロナって呼ばれない。それは私の特権の１つ。1人ずつそれぞれ人種のことから、家族構成、生活において特権や社会的地位は変わってきてしまう。それを当たり前に思い、その特権を持っていない人に対して攻撃する人、政府がまだ世界には沢山あります。自分も気づかずにしているかもしれません。

Conversely, I am Asian, but I am black so people don’t call me “yellow” or say “Corona” to me. That is one of the ways that I am privileged. Each person, has their own ethnic background, family make up, way of living that, that can’t help but come to influence their social status. There are still many people, and governments, in the world that believe that this is only natural and are willing to attack others as a result. I may even be guilty of doing the same thing without even being aware of it.

人間はすべての人達が同じ権利を人間として持つはずなら、性別、出身地、外見、家族の事だけで下に見られたり、チャンスが無かったり、比べられることは無いはずなのに。私達が自分の特権で今この不公平な世界を作っていて、自分の特権を見つめる事で悲しむ人に寄り添って力になる事ができると思います！

If humans are supposed to all have the same human rights, then there shouldn’t be such a thing as drawing comparisons or losing opportunity according to gender,  place of birth, appearance or family background. All of us create this unequal world out of our own place of privilege. But I believe that through gazing into our own privilege, we are able to draw closer to those experiencing hardship and become a force for good.

Some Japanese words around racism:

有色人種 ゆうしょくじんしゅ People of Color

人種差別主義者 じんしゅさべつしゅぎしゃ Racist person

黄色人種 おうしょくじんしゅ asian “yellow” race

特権 とっけん privilege

優遇 ゆうぐう privilege

対岸の火事 たいがんのかじ Fire on the far coast

See also this videothat aired on NHK during this period that was widely criticised, and later withdrawn, because of it charicaturing of African Americans:

https://youtu.be/WqmII4DuJO0