Just because it’s not happening under your nose, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
To anyone thinking, “This doesn’t happen where I’m from!”, you couldn’t be further from the truth.
Just because it’s not happening under your nose, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
I have heard voices from the black community that while they are touched by the support, they are saddened and angered by the fact that an active voice from those in the white community isn’t a norm. I admit that I am guilty of only taking part in political activism when I see it in the media or on my phone screen. I admit that I have not done enough to educate myself up until this point. Just recently I proclaimed that Japanese people aren’t that racist (whatever that means) and it depends on the person like in any country, that I’m fortunate that racism is less extreme in the UK than the US. I am wrong. Racism is alive and well in every single country across the globe. And without our permission, it burns inside every single one of us.
How can we have forgotten about Grenfell, the calls for Brexit to remove “outsiders” who have taken “our jobs” from “our” country, the thousands of young girls who must have their hair braided or relaxed to fit in or to fit school guidelines, Mark Duggan, Rashan Charles, and the many other names I have yet to learn? Why couldn’t I recall the time an assistant language teacher acquaintance told me that a student in her class saw a picture of a black man in a textbook and called him a gorilla and yet she was too stunned to say anything? That I have avoided being questioned about my activities in Japan and where my residence card is here because I am a white woman?
I am part of a whole chain of problems, as I know you all are, too. I am not eloquent with my words and I do not claim to be better or wiser or closer to the problem than any one of you. I have fed into this problem my whole life. And there is nothing wrong in feeling shame and guilt in realising that. In fact, it’s important to. Right now is better than too late or never at all.
When I heard the gorilla anecdote I was furious and scolded my friend for not doing her duty to educate her student. But that, too, was wrong of me. There are times we have all made mistakes, but should have known better. There are times where we have all been stunned to silence and unable to act. But what we can do is reflect on those times and point out those faults and work on them. Getting angry was not the correct response, it was an emotional one, but I can only hope that since then she has thought about what she can do when (not if) the opportunity raises its ugly head in the future.
I, for one, have been guilty of leading a life of ignorance in ignoring to a large extent the systematic racism that occurs across the globe. I assumed that because I had happy, healthy, black friends in my community that things were okay and there was no way I could be racist (Me? Never!). But even within my community, some of those friends silently relied on systems like EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) or free school meals that I didn’t think twice about because of my privilege. In that same community, black people are 6 times more likely to be stopped and searched by the police and in the country as a whole that number raises to 40 (FOURTY.) There have been racist assaults and murders not so dissimilar to what we see in the news from America that have been swept under the rug and out of the public eye.
In Japan, I have and have had black American friends and coworkers and other non-white friends from all around the world, but it doesn’t change the fact that while we may all be used together as poster boys and girls for our company to tick its boxes, and while those same black coworkers are thankful to be away from the US where they saw innocent men lynched in their hometowns, the opportunity to work or even travel to Japan is a luxury afforded largely to middle class caucasian men and women. It doesn’t change the fact that foreign faces on TV are either white or Japanese “half”. That blackface is still very much a comical gag. Nor that tennis star Naomi Osaka has to shrug off being white-washed in commercials and comments about her being “too tanned” and “needing bleach”. And that’s just scratching the surface of the things I’ve come to see in my short time here. And just knowing black people doesn’t put a bubble around anyone and instantly distance you from the larger issue.
In Singapore, where the percentage of South Asian migrants far outweighs that of black migrants, there is a notion that people couldn’t be racist against the black community. They, however, forget that in one form or another, racism is deeply instilled in the country where migrant workers equality riots took place and people were detained and deported right under my nose and where women cover up from head to toe in 35 degree heat to avoid tanning god forbid they look like said construction workers.
While the exploitation of South Asian migrants is not the same as the plight of black people — and I want to make it clear that these struggles are two very different things and should not undermine one another — the logic behind the exploitation and national reaction to it resonates in both (as so eloquently written here: https://tuition.substack.com/p/9-black-lives-matter-in-singapore).
Don’t forget how the death of Kobe Bryant just 4 months ago pulled all races around the world together for a short moment. How we existed as one to grieve a talent who was celebrated for his ability and not his skin. Use that grief and your guilt and and your ignorance to spur on your desire to do better and hope that soon we will once again be able to reunite and stand in harmony as one, once and for all.
While I may be fortunate enough to have off-handedly claimed that racism depends on the person (in Japan, the UK, or elsewhere) because that is my experience as a white female, I could not be more wrong. Racism is a global structure. It burns inside all of us and we are born into it. Now is the time to acknowledge it. Now is the time to quench our thirst for knowledge and educate ourselves and those around us and quell the flame.
I have been wrong. I am wrong, but I am learning, and I hope you are too. Sign, donate, and read, and please share any useful pieces of information — let’s use the internet and its wealth of resources to educate one another to help the fight.
To find out more about how you can stay active and help, please visit https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/.
