[Audio from George Floyd's fatal arrest] – [Floyd] Please.
[Audio from George Floyd's fatal arrest] – Please, I can't breathe.
[Audio from George Floyd's fatal arrest] – Please, man. Please... [Inaudible]
[Rivonne] I...didn't want to see it, for a number of reasons.
But, yeah.
[LaTanya] It scares me that that is something that can happen
to my husband or to my son.
[Rivonne] He could have been my father.
He could have been my brothers.
[Ebony] Makes me very angry.
[Rivonne] And to know that it still happens at home...
it's painful.
["Living While Black, In Japan"]
– [Henry] And as a country boy from West Virginia, I never thought I would see
any place other than my home, so I wanted to study abroad.
[Ebony] I liked the language, I liked the culture
and I knew I wanted to live and work here.
So, directly after I graduated university in New York,
I moved to Japan.
[Tyrone] And I was like, "Yeah, like, I'll give it a shot."
But at the time, you know, I didn't even have a passport
or anything like that, so it was — it was
definitely a big leap of faith for me.
[Rivonne] It was mostly to try something new
and to see what we can do out here.
– [Henry] So, I've been working in Japan for 24 years.
– [Ebony] I work in music and entertainment here.
– [Tyrone] Olympic short track speed skating team,
I'm their strength trainer.
– [LaTanya] I own a restaurant with my husband.
And I am a food coordinator,
and a gospel teacher,
and so many other things. [Laughs]
[Tamru] When I moved to Japan, I was moving to Japan.
It wasn't for a visit.
I was ready to leave the United States.
I was ready for a change.
[Henry] Right, I didn't leave because I was running away from anything.
I left because I felt I could be more myself in Japan.
[Tamru] Living in Japan, as an African-American,
I've honestly never felt more free.
[Ebony You know, I can do things here in Japan that I can't do...
back at home, in the U.S.
[Tamru] I can catch a cab when I'm not trying to catch a cab.
People in stores that are supposed to serve you,
serve you, like they serve everybody else.
[Henry] We were walking and we saw this courtyard was open and there were plants.
[Tamru] I was sitting on a bench. It's a little park near my house.
– [Henry] And an old man comes up
and says, "Oh, hey. Come on in."
[Tamru] And it as a little old lady,
bent over, coming down the block.
– [Henry] And, you know, and he offers us free vegetables.
And then he offers us some tomatoes, and he was just friendly and kind and...
[Tamru] And she passed me and I said, "「こんばんは (Konbanwa — Good evening)."
And she looked up and she said, "「こんばんは (Konbanwa — Good evening)."
And she put her head down and kept it moving.
She didn't turn around, to see if I was behind her.
She didn't care.
[Henry] We didn't have to worry whether someone was gonna call the police on us.
That we were going to get shot, that we were going to get assaulted.
[Tamru] Because we've been...
trained, we've been...
programmed...
that people are afraid of us.
But, here?
I really don't get that.
I really don't get that. I feel good here.
[Henry] America forces us, unfortunately, sometimes to live in terror.
Not just of police.
But that America is the greatest country. You can only be successful here.
I look at my home, I look at my family,
I look at my friends, I look at my career,
and I know that's a lie.
– [Tamru] Back home, I felt targeted.
[Tyrone] Certainly. Less of a person, more of a threat.
[Henry] They get out of the car and they say, so- they stop me.
[Tamru] It's a really tense situation, you know, when you see this
white cop coming towards you, especially if it's two.
[Henry] They say, "Where are you going?"
And I’m, like, “Huh?”
And they told my friend Brad — blonde hair, blue-eyed, white fella —
they say, "We don't want you, son. Leave."
[Tyrone] I'm always extremely polite. "Yes, sir." "No, sir."
[Rivonne] But I feel like no matter how I act...
it's up to the officer of how my life is gonna go after.
[Henry] He's like, "Can I have you I.D.?"
And I'm like, "Sure."
[Tyrone] There was a fear there.
There was a worry that something like that, along those lines,
could happen to me, being accused of something that I didn't do.
[Henry] And I said, "I'm giving him my Harvard student I.D.,
'cause maybe he'll think, if something happens to me,
someone will miss me."
[Ebony] I feel intimidated, I feel scared.
I feel like I need to carry myself... perfectly.
[Henry] Two more police officers — four police officers —
just for me.
[Tamru] It makes me feel powerless.
[Henry] And then, he stands in front of me and asks me this question.
He says, "So, what do you think about that O.J. verdict?"
And I thought to myself, "He's trying to get me to say something or to do something
to provoke him into hurting me."
There's no need for him to ask me that.
There was no need for him to stop me.
[Tyrone] You would think that I did something terribly wrong,
and just the body language, the demeanor.
The tone of his voice, just the way he spoke to me.
It was, it was almost demeaning.
[Henry] And I- I remember my mother, my mother teaching me
what to say when a police officer stops you.
And there was nothing in my rolodex for this.
All I said to him was,
"I'm sorry, officer, but I don't know what you're talking about."
And he looked at me, and he looked at my I.D.
And he said, "Hm. Well, it's just sad for everyone."
I'm like...
[Tamru] You sort of get numb to it,
because it's been going on forever.
- [Tyrone] Well then, it doesn't matter
whether I'm doing right or wrong or whatever.
The police are an entity to completely avoid.
[Henry] Gives me my I.D.,
and I proceed to cry and shake and just...
almost scream, but I waited until I got to school to scream.
I haven't felt so violated since. Ever.
[Audio from 'Black Lives Matter' protest in Japan] - Black live matter! - Black Lives matter!
[Audio from 'Black Lives Matter' protest in Japan] - Eliminate discrimination! - Eliminate discrimination!
[Audio from 'Black Lives Matter' protest in Japan]
[Rivonne] Racism in America has definitely kept me in Japan, for a number of reasons.
[Tyrone] My decision to stay here, definitely,
if I'm considering how I'm treated here in Japan compared to how I'm treated in America —
that, you know, all of that definitely played a big part.
[Rivonne] Yeah, I did not intend to stay for 12 years.
But here I am. [Laughs]
[Henry] I became a Japanese citizen on May 25, 2018.
[Ebony] Living in Japan as an African-American is an interesting experience.
[LaTanya] How blacks, or African-Americans, are seen in Japan...
a lot of it comes from television.
- [Rivonne] And the majority of it is kind of bad.
We're thugs, we are mammies.
We are 'hos' or prostitutes.
We're loud, we're angry.
[Ebony] I've gotten very strange questions or assumptions made about me
because of the fact of me being black.
[Rivonne] But my job, and I've taken it very seriously,
has been to dispel as many myths as possible.
[Ebony] Instead of getting angry, I've — in the beginning, I was just
kind of politely correcting people.
"Maybe you saw that on T.V. It's not necessarily true."
[Henry] Most of the time, it breaks down.
It breaks down.
'Cause ignorance breaks down.
So, yeah. In Japan, it's ignorance.
And that I can deal with.
That I've been dealing with my whole life.
[Tamru] Have I felt racial bias in Japan?
[Laughs] It's hard to answer that question,
because not really.
– [Tyrone] This is an extremely homogeneous society,
so I stick out like a sore thumb as a black man.
[Rivonne] I don't feel that I've been discriminated against because I'm black.
I do feel that I've been discriminated against because I'm foreign.
[Henry] The worst you get in this country is someone looks at you a little weird,
or a kid will stare at you because they've never seen a black person.
[Tamru] But, overall...
I don't feel racism here.
I feel different.
But I can’t say it’s racism.
[Rivonne] This is Japan's racism — it's like racism-lite.
Like if you could, if you can bottle it up, you know,
Original — America.
Japan — light, with a lemon finish. [Laughs]
[Henry] The only difference is that when someone sees me,
there's not hate in their eyes.
[Rivonne] I feel in Japan, I'm treated with respect.
[Ebony] And I wouldn't have lived in Japan for 10 years if it wasn't positive.
[LaTanya] And it's interesting, because America is the land of the free.
[Tyrone] But ultimately, the freedom to just live safely.
That feeling of safety, if we look at our hierarchy of needs,
that's, you know, at the base level.
So, to feel safe.
To feel like I'm not threatened by those who are authority,
in authoritative positions,
I think that's essential for anybody to live with peace of mind.
[Tamru] And sometimes, I like to walk around and look at the big houses and just dream.
And, um...
when I see the police coming, I tense up.
But they just say, "Hello," and keep it moving.
[Ebony] I don't think they'd put a knee on my neck until I died, you know what I mean?
Like I feel that way towards American police
I think they are way more aggressive.
– [LaTanya] Ha-ha-ha, do I see myself going back to America?
[Henry] The answer to that question is, "No."
[Tamru] Absolutely not.
I would never consider going back to America.
[LaTanya] Being in America really was hard.
[Ebony] I don't hear great things happening for black people back at home,
so it makes me think, "Maybe I am OK here."
[Tyrone] Every time that I go back to the U.S. now,
I feel uncomfortable. It doesn't feel like home to me anymore.
- [LaTanya] And my son was born,
and, of course, you had Trayvon Martin, you had just...
so many different things happening.
The answer was no.
[Henry] You know, I have more bandwidth to handle that
in a more productive way than I would if I was in America.
[Ebony] Moving to Japan made me very aware of the fact that
I'm a black woman and I'm different from everyone here.
And it made me prouder.
- [LaTanya] But I began to truly love who I am in Japan.
[Henry] Do I feel that it's home?
Not yet.
[Ebony] I do eventually want to go back to the U.S.
That's my home.
[Rivonne] Isn't that crazy?
A place where I know that I'm not welcomed everywhere.
[Henry] Your home is home,
but you've got this abusive mother or father, so it doesn't feel like home.
So, America is, I guess, my home.
It's where I was– it's where I'm from.
But it doesn't feel like home.
I can't- I'm not relaxed when I'm there, for the most part.
It's sad, but true.