Some of my preconceived notions were getting jolts when encountered with an incident of discrimination though not directed at me. I saw it happened at Morishita Toei Shinjuku station while waiting for train towards Higashi Ojima. Though I tried to convince myself that the acts of racism were not due to the skin color of the victim, I could hardly succeed in convincing myself. There were no other reasons to believe it was not due to skin color. If I could guess correctly, probably it was due to the hate towards a particular race.
And Japan is known for it as many of the personal bloggers declare with their own experiences. I defended many of the negative opinions expressed about Japanese people through this blog.
In acts of discrimination there are always three parties involved. The one who shows the hate feelings, the victim of discrimination towards whom the acts of the racists are expressed publicly and the third one are the witnesses. I was at the third position of witness and was watching the discriminator’s actions as he walked through the plat-form from where the victim was standing in the queue.
At first I thought of not writing about this incident as it may project Japan and its majority good and kind people in a detrimental manner. The discriminator here may be an exception from the vast majority of friendly Japanese people. Though an odd event, I could observe contrary to what I have been telling to my friends that I have never seen any kind of discrimination in Japan. This one of course was pure racist comments he spat on the plat-form with his antagonistic foul mouth.
Let me come out openly with what happened. I was coming down to the plat-form in the escalator at Morishita Toei Shinjuku station. The time was around 6:40 in the evening. The pink car is no more reserved for women. I used to board into the first compartment/car since it will reach first at the Komatsugawa exit by the time the train reaches Higashi Ojima.
There was standing a person who might be from one of the many countries of African continent. The physical characteristics of people including the skin color gives sufficient clue to guess the region and race of them. The person in black was gentle in his position, dress and looks. The moment he entered in a queue, I could see the Japanese young man who was already standing in the front looked at the guy in black and uttered some words in Japanese. The J-man walked away with an angry face and he showed as if he spit on the plat-form. This was to show his unlikeness to the person in black.
We, the witnesses could not see any reason for the J-man’s anger except the one that the B-man stood in his back of queue. They had to travel together once they enter inside the train. The J-man might have dislike towards the B-man’s race. There were no other reason I could guess in mind.
The witnesses of the J-man’s venomous words were just witnessing and did not show any surprise at his action. That is the great thing with Japanese people I have observed. Japanese people have an expressionless face towards many of the events in public.
What was the reaction of the B-man? He was engaged in eating chewing gum as if nothing new has happened. Some of the people walking were looking at his reaction, but he was not looking at anybody. He was gentle in his stand and the J-man was the ugly one showed up his foul mouth at the public place. Who is the winner here!
This one event looks different and dirty among other pages of life in Japan so far. Though not a victim of Japanese racism and discrimination towards foreigners, it hurts my feelings. At many incidents, some witnesses bear deep wounds than the victims. Still I bear the wounds and remember the moment I get down to the plat-form. That plat-form was the place where the castles of flatter on Japan built from the images of beautiful and kind people fell down in my mind. Still I like to believe this is an odd incident.
And Japan is known for it as many of the personal bloggers declare with their own experiences. I defended many of the negative opinions expressed about Japanese people through this blog.
In acts of discrimination there are always three parties involved. The one who shows the hate feelings, the victim of discrimination towards whom the acts of the racists are expressed publicly and the third one are the witnesses. I was at the third position of witness and was watching the discriminator’s actions as he walked through the plat-form from where the victim was standing in the queue.
At first I thought of not writing about this incident as it may project Japan and its majority good and kind people in a detrimental manner. The discriminator here may be an exception from the vast majority of friendly Japanese people. Though an odd event, I could observe contrary to what I have been telling to my friends that I have never seen any kind of discrimination in Japan. This one of course was pure racist comments he spat on the plat-form with his antagonistic foul mouth.
Let me come out openly with what happened. I was coming down to the plat-form in the escalator at Morishita Toei Shinjuku station. The time was around 6:40 in the evening. The pink car is no more reserved for women. I used to board into the first compartment/car since it will reach first at the Komatsugawa exit by the time the train reaches Higashi Ojima.
There was standing a person who might be from one of the many countries of African continent. The physical characteristics of people including the skin color gives sufficient clue to guess the region and race of them. The person in black was gentle in his position, dress and looks. The moment he entered in a queue, I could see the Japanese young man who was already standing in the front looked at the guy in black and uttered some words in Japanese. The J-man walked away with an angry face and he showed as if he spit on the plat-form. This was to show his unlikeness to the person in black.
We, the witnesses could not see any reason for the J-man’s anger except the one that the B-man stood in his back of queue. They had to travel together once they enter inside the train. The J-man might have dislike towards the B-man’s race. There were no other reason I could guess in mind.
The witnesses of the J-man’s venomous words were just witnessing and did not show any surprise at his action. That is the great thing with Japanese people I have observed. Japanese people have an expressionless face towards many of the events in public.
What was the reaction of the B-man? He was engaged in eating chewing gum as if nothing new has happened. Some of the people walking were looking at his reaction, but he was not looking at anybody. He was gentle in his stand and the J-man was the ugly one showed up his foul mouth at the public place. Who is the winner here!
This one event looks different and dirty among other pages of life in Japan so far. Though not a victim of Japanese racism and discrimination towards foreigners, it hurts my feelings. At many incidents, some witnesses bear deep wounds than the victims. Still I bear the wounds and remember the moment I get down to the plat-form. That plat-form was the place where the castles of flatter on Japan built from the images of beautiful and kind people fell down in my mind. Still I like to believe this is an odd incident.
This is what I have been telling Jaya. Japanese people, though not a majority, are racist. They have prejudices and discriminate foreigners. See their rules to the foreigners in Japan. Even if you get the alien card and a visa for 3 years still you are an alien. This means some outside element.
ReplyDeleteThe very basic structure of Japanese society is taught to differentiate between Japanese and the rest of the world. The rest of the world is alien. Japanese people like white skin. See the make-up the J-girls do. They spend a lot of money to look like Western girls. Japanese men and women likes fair skin. Let me repeat this again and again with my hundreds of life experiences with Japanese people.
OK, Let them prefer white skin, but why they hate the black skin? I heard from some of my Indian friends that they do not face any kind of discrimination from Japanese people in the name of skin color. Some of my Indian friends have dark skin, but still they have good opinion about Japanese people as they have no negative experience. I agree that some of the Indians have fair skin more or equal to that of Japanese people.
Then I would like to believe this attitude of Japanese people as purely racism. They are prejudiced against our race, not the black color. As you told, in some cases, witnesses bear more deep wounds than the victims, but who knows the pain of victims better than himself!
Let the victim come out and say it here, I wish.
Shame to J-man! Are they proud to be an educated lot?
ReplyDeleteShame to all of them. Is the discrimination based on skin color deep rooted in Japan?
I am sure, all Japanese are not racists like the one you saw. Many of us do not discriminate in terms of skin color.
ReplyDeleteWe have some foreign neighbors with whom our children play on Saturdays and Sundays at the nearby play-ground. We have some Indian family friends too. They are also very friendly to us and we used to have some shopping together in Tokyo.
I swear majority of us bear no racists feelings. In fact, we were also victims of racism and were called 'Yellows' or something if I am not wrong.
The incident Jayasan witnessed may be an odd one as he expressed in the last paragraph. It is obviously a shame, but unfortunately there are some people in every society including ours who show up their inferiority complexes through their racist actions.
I do agree with Mayumi. Some people are antagonistic towards others. Let it be foreigners or any other sect within their own society, they want something to show up their rotten mind. Such psychic people are part of our civilizations.
ReplyDeleteWhy I wrote about that experience? Whatever I have witnessed at Morishita station was a shock for my biased ideas that Japanese society is an extra ordinarily developed society. I hurts me then more when the rubbish happens from a Japanese national.
Hi Jayaprakash, as I said in a comment to your previous post that all kind of people make a society. So yes, there are a few people here too who dislike foreigners. In fact, in the past 12 years, a couple of times it so happened that if I sat in a train, Japanese people sitting next to me will get up and go and sit somewhere else or just stand! My Japanese hubby told me that it probably has to do with my skin color :( Initially, I used to feel very hurt about it. But now I do not care about it at all. In fact, I see a great advantage in the situation. I get to sit very comfortably in the train!! Such small things probably happens in every society..... Also, as I wrote in a comment to your earlier post, my experience here in Japan has been mostly very very good, and I know quite a lot of J-people who like me a lot irrespective of my skin color, my J-hubby being one of them :).....Enjoy and have a nice stay here in Japan.
ReplyDeleteMy experiences with Japanese people may be very limited during the last one year. In all the interactions, I had a positive opinion about them, except the one I wrote here. Even though the discrimination was not directed at me, it hurted me so much that I started thinking now that why not one day I could not be the victim? That is the reason I shared my experiences here.
ReplyDeleteNumike-san have been telling me that Japanese people dislike the dark color even though Japanese people are not like Europeans.
As he told I am yet to see the real face of Japanese people!
I do agree with you that there are good people and bad ones in a society. Luckily there are majority of good people in Japan compared to the bad ones.
Though lived ony 3 months I had more than four bad experiences from Japanese people. You told it happened to a B-man. No surprise Mr. Jayaprakash. My skin is white, but still they did not leave me unhurt.
ReplyDelete