Hi, my name is Amanda.
My name is Andre.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Ayana.
My name is LaTonya Whitaker.
My name is David.
And this is Jonas.
My name is Alyse.
My name is Andre'.
Hi, my name is Brittany.
I have been in Japan a total of 4 years.
10 months.
Over 4 years now.
10 years
5 years
2 years
3.5 years
I am a housewife
and mother currently.
I am an English Teacher at anEikaiwa.
I'm doing dispatch teaching
part-time work at a preschool
and...
working at a bar for fun.
We are... a gospel teacher
English teacher
musician
cooking company...
I am a translator and game developer.
I first came to Japan as a musician
and I am an English teacher.
I am a translator and I'm a teacher.
And I have been a minority every place that I've lived.
Here, I feel like being black is celebrated.
It's much more loved.
I feel like, Japanese people, they expect
more of us, you know.
They actually are rooting for us, where I feel like in the States
they kind of have lower expectations.
Like, why should it be a big deal if a black person gets admitted to Harvard?
Japan really loves black people
Being minority in Japan
I'm special.
I get to do
more things that I would've probably wanted to do in America but
the saturation of the particular minority
makes me invisible.
For example,
you know, the music industry in America,
really saturated, right?
I write songs for anime and video games.
Final Fantasy XIII-2, Xenoblade X Chronicles,
and several anime.
The example they gave me was like
typical American commercial rap.
Okay, just foolishness.
So I wrote in a song in like two hours and recorded it.
They're like,
"Cool!"
I think maybe the biggest difference is safety.
Nobody is really trying to kill me here.
Last week, I was walking to work in the morning,
Saw a police officer, kinda walked close to each other
I usually cross the street when I see a police officer.
Kinda naturally.
He said, "Good morning!"
I said
"Good morning."
You know, just, walked away.
Me, living in Japan, I feel more comfortable, I feel safer.
I don't feel that someone's going to shoot me
just because of my skin color.
so that's why you know I want to stay in Japan
With the gun laws the way that they are in Japan,
I feel that it's safer for them.
And I mean he has so much love around him.
and he can go to the supermarket or go to the convenience store for me
at four o'clock in the morning.
And it won't be a problem.
There's no need for me to be a tough guy.
I can be a tough guy...
but it takes a lot of energy.
I like quiet, you know?
I just want to be me.
I just wanna relax, and be comfortable.
Church in Osu Kannon, where I go,
they love us there.
It's a bilingual church, in Japanese and English.
And they try to incorporate us.
They want to get to know more about us and our culture.
I've gotten a lot of support
from just wanting to eat my country's food,
or, I teach gospel music
so wanting to learn about gospel music.
I have my job because I'm an American
There are people who are people who are perfectly capable of doing my job
but they just happen to be Asian and they'll never get it.
People automatically think I'm cool
Unfortunately a lot of that plays into the stereotypes that many people have
but usually it's not in a negative way.
It's more of they want to be enlightened
or these are things that they had these misconceptions about.
I think a lot of Japanese people don't know about black culture
and it would be great to have more black people come to Japan
and just expose our beautiful culture that we do have
the history that we do have
so they can understand more.
I guess their experience would be limited to what they see on sitcoms
or in music and so it might not be a holistic view.
But when you tell them things I guess they are open to be corrected.
Some of them.
Apart from telling them Jamaica is not in Africa,
I also told them I don't know Tupac.
Children point and say "Ah, gaijin! Gaikokujin!"
Ah, picture taking of you, random picture taking as you're walking by. And laughing.
They always say that "Hey you're black so you know" *winks*"
Calling a black person the N word is not cool.
I'm a good dancer, I'm a good singer, I'm a good musician
or I'm promiscuous.
Catcalling gets really specific when you are black.
They like to call you Beyonce. I got a lot of Whitney Houston,
who I look nothing like at all.
They will question you about your hair.
People ask to touch my hair all the time.
And feel free to say get out my head and get off my hair.
One thing that kind of annoys me
and its not that big of a deal
as in, it's not something that would make me want to leave Japan,
is that I don't like being randomly touched.
My second month here in Japan, I went to Kyoto
and this old lady out of nowhere
just like grabbed my hair and touched it
and was like, "Ureshi, ureshi!"
I knew she was really happy to touch my hair
but its just like
excuse you, this is my hair.
I'm not touching you like an animal so
I would appreciate you don't do that.
A lot of times there are people who are
that curious.
People asking me, "Are they real?"
"Are they heavy?"
It doesn't just happen to her.
Like, "Wooooow"
"Your chest is big!"
"Can I touch your hair?"
They don't say, "Oh, can I touch your hair?"
Instead it's like, "Oh can I touch your hair"
"Are they heavy?"
The negative experiences I have had have been very few.
I did have one guy approach me at a bus terminal
and he sat extremely close to me
and was all up in my face
and he asked me if I was Nigerian.
And then he proceeded to caress my face.
I guess the look I gave him
kinda scared him away
and he walked off.
That was a little unnerving but that was like the only negative experience I've had.
It's nothing to me now, the staring.
The actions like walking across the street
that probably still can get me.
I was in my classroom,
and a little kid in front of all the parents
called me "Gorilla-sensei."
And I didn't know how to react.
I just had to laugh it off.
"Haha, okay. No, not gorilla-sensei."
And the child said it again.
But that time the parent heard and slapped her in her hair.
It was bad for me because
you feel so helpless, you don't know what to do
because you can't really communicate in Japanese in your class anyway.
And if I could, I couldn't say what I wanted to say to her
in a respectful way.
And tell her, "Hey, that's not a nice thing."
So...
But she got the business from her mother, clearly,
not to say it again, but.
It really was something I thought that wouldn't really affect me
but it did.
Children who don't have the tatemae
they can't hide whatever they actually feel
so they will visibly pull away from you
or avoid you
or cry when they see you.
So if you're going into English teaching and you're going to be teaching children,
be aware that that is a thing that might happen, that you might have to deal with.
Children crying, just from looking at you or
running away from you because they think you are scary.
I did have a couple of experiences with discrimination in Japan
but I don't necessarily think it's because I'm black
moreso just for the fact that I'm a foreigner here, I'm not Japanese.
I was looking for an apartment after I moved out of my first one
and the owner of that apartment said no to me because I'm a foreigner.
I felt that the discrimination that I've experienced here in Japan
is the same micro-agressions that all foreigners experience
since we're all lumped into the same foreigner category.
Like people not wanting to sit next to you on the bus,
or people shouting out random English phrases
because it's funny.
But as a black person,
I feel that maybe people are't as warm and friendly
to me as they are with other white foreigners.
But that I don't feel very often.
And maybe that's just because of where I live currently.
But I don't feel that much more discriminated against than the average foreigner.
Here the minority feeling gets very strong.
You very much feel like you don't fit in.
Everyone tends to stare, a little bit.
No matter what you are doing, or where you are going,
you get this head-jerky thing from everybody.
I definitely feel more comfortable in the States than I do in Japan,
only because people aren't staring all the time.
If you not Japanese you are discriminated regardless.
So, I mean, either way I'll never be Japanese.
And that's okay, you know?
Because I'm here to respect the culture and
I'm here to take advantage of the opportunities that's given to me.
I think that a lot of the places that don't want to serve foreigners
they just can't speak English and they don't want to deal with that.
I think it's more expensive for a business to
train their employees to speak English or to hire employees that speak English
or to look for employees that are specifically interested in speaking English.
I don't think I would stay here forever.
I don't plan on staying here forever.
Because of the way they treat minorities in terms of
people that are half-Japanese and half-anything else.
They kind of, especially children,
I hear a lot of horror stories about them trying to go to preschool
and being labeled as outcasts by other children
and the parents of those children.
And that's kinda f'd up so I don't think I would want to put my child through that.
Persons not want to talk to you
because they are not confident their English ability.
Business wise, I think in terms of trying to get things done in Japan
if you don't have Japanese with you it's really very hard.
If you don't speak Japanese is very hard for you.
All the places that I've lived,
it's not as lonely as it is here, in Japan
because at least I would see people who look like me
on a daily basis
whereas here I don't run into other black people
maybe once every few months or so.
I feel like black men get treated differently than black women.
For us black women we have to make sure we get our hair done,
buy products. That can be really hard.
I think with a lot of Japanese guys
a lot of them are kind of scared or shy to approach a foreign girl and
the ones that are they are usually not your typical Japanese guy
and I would consider my boyfriend not so typical.
I think it's easier for males than females,
because females maybe don't like certain things about Japanese male,
Males then to be less picky.
If you want something long-term, it may be a bit more difficult
but if you just want to get a fling,
I don't think it's difficult but depends on what your preferences are.
I've had women approach me and say,
"I've never tried a black guy before, do you want to have sex?"
They automatically have the assumption that I would sleep with them
for some weird reason.
There's not much you can say in that particular situation.
Just walk away, you know, no thank you.
People have this preconceived notion
that black people are promiscuous
or that they're not going to be faithful in a relationship
or they might just be good for fun, for now.
I've been treated like that as well.
There are some that will automatically assume that I am from Africa.
And the preconceived notion here
that I've noticed is that everyone from Africa has HIV.
Japanese men aren't typically the ones that are chasing after you.
But I was lucky and my husband was one of those rare ones.
And we have a seven month old daughter.
And it wasn't necessarily difficult having her here.
I do feel that people stared at me a lot more when I was pregnant.
Mainly because you don't see that many pregnant women.
Honestly our daughter gets a lot of positive reactions and feedback.
People are always wanting to see what she looks like and
they treat her like any other baby.
They talk to her and just talk about how cute she is.
But I do know that in the future it's going to change a little bit
because you know children can be really cruel
and being biracial or not 100% Japanese can be difficult
for a lot of people.
But I'm hoping that
she doesn't have to deal with those things
as much as time progresses.
And hopefully that we just teach her how to be strong.
So far she hasn't experienced anything negative.
Guys are so intimidated by us
because of what they see in the media and music videos
and how we are so aggressive and everything.
But if they come up to us and just say, "Hi"
talk to us, you know, we're pretty friendly.
In terms of dating Japanese people
I'm married to one but we didn't date in Japan
so it's a little different.
You get stereotyped more negatively here
as a black woman
being loud or really strong or
someone who will not adapt to Japanese gentleness.
That's something you'll have to deal with.
I had to deal with that at the beginning of my marriage
where he was like, "You're not gonna do this,
you're not gonna be like my mom,
you're not gonna treat me like my mother treats me?"
No, no I'm not.
And we got over that pretty quickly.
So that's good.
People are always people.
I mean one thing since coming to Japan that I've learned
is that people are pretty much the same everywhere.
Just be nice.
I mean, ignorance is what really drives fear.
So once you can clear up the ignorance,
it's pretty much smooth sailing.
Just like anywhere else in the world,
there are bad and good people
and the majority of people in Japan are good.
It's just for you to kind of get used to their culture,
without forgetting your own.
So it's like sharing. Cross-cultural sharing,
so that you can have an understanding.
If you are set on coming here,
just come to Japan and take your experiences for what they are.
You're gonna have good experiences, you're gonna have great experiences
you're gonna have negative ones,
you're gonna have bad days
but really I feel that it's all based on how you deal with those situations.
There are actually more of us here than you think.
Don't fell like you are alone when you come here.
There are a lot of us.
There is a network, there are facebook groups for black women in Japan.
And just don't be afraid to use these awesome resources
like the Internet,
to find us and make friends
cause we're all about helping you get comfortable.
Just don't give up
and stay positive.
There's actually a nice group on Facebook,
forgot the title of it,
but it's probably "black women in Japan"
and there I hear some of other women's experiences in Japan,
and also from many areas in Japan.
And some of them have experienced some of these discriminations
and racist remarks.
So again, they have experience I haven't.
But I do know it's out there and I am aware of it
So if it does happen to me,
I could probably face it a little bit better than
me just being like, "Oh, nobody's racist,"
or me being angry at everybody
because, "Oh, everybody's racist."
I'm not gonna do that.
So please come to Japan open minded.
And if you are in Osaka, please let me know.
Live in your community
and support your community. They will support you.
and many great experiences will come.
I strongly strongly strongly recommend
making as Japaneses friends as you can.
Japan has been nice to me so far,
I've made some amazing friends.
I'm mostly enjoying my time here.
There's a lot of love here. There's a lot of love.
So, yeah. Just come and try it.
The worst question you can ask yourself is, "What if? What if?"
You know, you don't wanna ask that because then if you ask, "What if?"
you're gonna envy other people on Facebook and friends who are like, "Oh, I wish I could do that."
Well then, do it. What's holding you back?
Thank you, everyone!