{"id":42320,"date":"2015-08-20T14:37:09","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T14:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=42320"},"modified":"2015-08-20T14:37:09","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T14:37:09","slug":"beauty-pageants-blackface-and-bigotry-japans-problems-with-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=42320","title":{"rendered":"Beauty pageants, blackface, and bigotry: Japan’s problems with racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beauty pageants, blackface, and bigotry: Japan’s problems with racism<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The Wilson Quarterly<\/a>
\nWashington, D.C.
\n2015-07-23<\/p>\n

Maya Wesby<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPhotograph via Twitter<\/small><\/p>\n

Bearing a false belief of racial singularity and superiority, can Japanese culture ever embrace diversity in an ever-intertwining world?<\/em><\/p>\n

In most developed nations, issues of race occupy headlines and are components, unstated or overt, of nearly every conversation about policymaking \u2014 whether the topic is public housing in France, crime in Brazil, or the inheritance tax in the United States<\/a>. Mostly, its relevance to the issue is framed in matters of promoting harmony and expanding opportunity.<\/p>\n

There are, however, notable exceptions. Japan<\/a>, a pillar of technological development and progress<\/a>, has yet to address race as a pressing national issue. The racial discrimination that exists in Japan is reminiscent of the segregation-based atmosphere of 1950s America, posing a hostile environment for those of non-Japanese origin.<\/p>\n

One of the more prominent victims of Japan\u2019s ingrained discrimination is Ariana Miyamoto<\/a>, who represents Japan in the 2015 Miss Universe competition<\/a>. Miyamoto, the daughter of a Japanese mother and an African-American father, is categorized as hafu<\/em>, a Japanese term and bastardization of the English word \u201chalf,\u201d indicating someone who is mixed race.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Japan, Miyamoto\u2019s skin tone and curly hair caused others to shun her; classmates and their parents referred to her as kurombo<\/em>, the Japanese equivalent of the N-word. Rather than identifying solely as black or Japanese, Miyamoto instead chooses to present herself as a representative of all ethnically and racially mixed Japanese. Her participation in the Miss Universe pageant opens the door for hafus<\/em> to be accepted as part of Japanese society, and changes what it means to act and appear \u201cJapanese.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reactions from the Japanese public have been less than kind. Posts on social media read, \u201cIs it okay to select a hafu to represent Japan?\u201d, \u201cMiss Universe Japan is\u2026 What? What kind of person is she? She\u2019s not Japanese, right?\u201d, and \u201cEven though she\u2019s Miss Universe Japan, her face is foreign no matter how you look at it.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beauty pageants, blackface, and bigotry: Japan’s problems with racism The Wilson Quarterly Washington, D.C. 2015-07-23 Maya Wesby Photograph via Twitter Bearing a false belief of racial singularity and superiority, can Japanese culture ever embrace diversity in an ever-intertwining world? In most developed nations, issues of race occupy headlines and are components, unstated or overt, of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,16,8,26],"tags":[19675,1793,20772,20770,20771],"class_list":["post-42320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-asia","category-media-archive","category-politics","tag-ariana-miyamoto","tag-japan","tag-maya-wesby","tag-the-wilson-quarterly","tag-wilson-quarterly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42321,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42320\/revisions\/42321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}