Mikhail Bakunin
Team Owner
In this episode of The Melanated Files (MFiles), we introduce Aya. Aya is half-Black and half-Japanese and shares her journey growing up in Japan and her transition to life in America. Watch to hear her story.
In this episode of The Melanated Files (MFiles), we introduce Aya. Aya is half-Black and half-Japanese and shares her journey growing up in Japan and her transition to life in America. Watch to hear her story.
In this episode of The Melanated Files (MFiles), we introduce Aya. Aya is half-Black and half-Japanese and shares her journey growing up in Japan and her transition to life in America. Watch to hear her story.
Yep I was watch savannah sylver and she spoke on people only wanting to be her friend to learn english, she never was invited to anything. People know her for being the black woman married to the Japanese guy, but I can tell she is lonely and bored in Japan. She says her husband is her only friend, but to be a housewife with no friends in a country like Japan must be hard.She looked Thai when she was little, now she just looks black. It's never good to be an 'other' in a country where 99% of the population looks 100% the same.
She looked Thai when she was little, now she just looks black. It's never good to be an 'other' in a country where 99% of the population looks 100% the same.
To add to this point, I JUST watched a video where a pregnant black mom was rejected from maternity clinics in Japan (her husband is Japanese). She eventually found one that accepts black mothers but personally, I don't know why people put themselves or their future mixed children through that.
For starters, these homogenous countries rarely allow foreigners (including hafus) to get citizenship, if at all. Then you have to worry about your child having self identity issues growing up and wishing they were only the lighter half of themselves. Not to mention your child being potentially bullied in school because let's face it, children tease those that are different. I dunno. Just doesn't seem worth it to me.
Edit: Since your skeptical @Silver Donut here's the video.
Japanese people as it is didn't really like gaijins.I’m guessing by the pictures that she looked more “black” as she grew up and less japanese so it was harder to assimilate?
Can we start saying Half black half ASIAN? Black is a race, Japanese is the nationality.
Black people are still agreeing with their non-Black partners in raising their bi-racial kids in homogeneous counties like this??????
LORD....
Japanese people as it is didn't really like gaijins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAFU
When it comes to mixed-race people there's obviously going to be a difference, also not fitting in.
View attachment 2267215
Japanese is actually an "ethnic" term.
They don't call themselves "ASIANS" but are in that category.
Remember you are American. Americans and anywhere outside use different terms. For example you would be a GAJIN in Japan - a NON-Japanese national.
If that was true, then Chinese / Koreans / Indians and others in the ASIAN category would all be the same nationality.
Americans from what I saw the most love to say "I AM ASIAN AMERICAN" and then the often response is...well black is neither an ethnicity nor a race so the point still stands.
If you specify that a person is Japanese, then you should specify the black ethnicity or nationality.
The accurate way of saying would be - half Japanese half "Guinean" or half Japanese half "Fulani" for example.
To add to this point, I JUST watched a video where a pregnant black mom was rejected from maternity clinics in Japan (her husband is Japanese). She eventually found one that accepts black mothers but personally, I don't know why people put themselves or their future mixed children through that.
For starters, these homogenous countries rarely allow foreigners (including hafus) to get citizenship, if at all. Then you have to worry about your child having self identity issues growing up and wishing they were only the lighter half of themselves. Not to mention your child being potentially bullied in school because let's face it, children tease those that are different. I dunno. Just doesn't seem worth it to me.
Edit: Since your skeptical @Silver Donut here's the video.
To add to this point, I JUST watched a video where a pregnant black mom was rejected from maternity clinics in Japan (her husband is Japanese). She eventually found one that accepts black mothers but personally, I don't know why people put themselves or their future mixed children through that.
For starters, these homogenous countries rarely allow foreigners (including hafus) to get citizenship, if at all. Then you have to worry about your child having self identity issues growing up and wishing they were only the lighter half of themselves. Not to mention your child being potentially bullied in school because let's face it, children tease those that are different. I dunno. Just doesn't seem worth it to me.
Edit: Since your skeptical @Silver Donut here's the video.
Japanese people as it is didn't really like gaijins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAFU
When it comes to mixed-race people there's obviously going to be a difference, also not fitting in.
View attachment 2267215
Japanese is actually an "ethnic" term.
They don't call themselves "ASIANS" but are in that category.
Remember you are American. Americans and anywhere outside use different terms. For example you would be a GAJIN in Japan - a NON-Japanese national.
If that was true, then Chinese / Koreans / Indians and others in the ASIAN category would all be the same nationality. RIGHT?
Yeah that is fine.
(1) "Remember you are American"
I am not American. I am Jamaican and as a Jamaican I often times get annoyed when people use Jamaican as a race. The vast majority of Jamaicans are black but there are people here that are not black as well. However, some people like to make claims like "Jamaicans are not black" or that "all Jamaicans are black". Jamaican is a nationality that sometimes acts are an ethnic identifier outside of Jamaica. You would not, as a Jamaican, need to say you are Jamaican if you are in Jamaica right? Same for Japan.
If you ask a black person from an African country or a majority black country what they are they would say their nationality/culture/etc first. If you ask them their race the vast majority would say black. So a Japanese person would say Japanese if you asked what they were but on a global level their race would be Asian. Some might deny that their race is Asian but when it is time to pull that Asian card they do it with a quickness (eg when KPop groups are denied "western" awards these actions are classified as anti-Asian). If they can call themselves Asian when it can benefit them they can deal with being globally seen as Asian.
(2) "Americans and anywhere outside use different terms. For example you would be a GAJIN in Japan - a NON-Japanese national."
I would rightfully be a gaijin in Japan if I am not a national of Japan. If I immigrated to Japan, however, my nationality would be Japanese. A sizable portion of Japanese people would still see me as non-Japanese despite that and this is what a lot of immigrants and others in Japan are fighting against. For example, there are people who descend from Korean Asians (called Zainichi) that live in Japan and have lived in Japan for generations yet they are still considered outsiders till this day. This is discrimination and not just a simple 'some cultures do/say things differently' type of situation. If an immigrant went to America and got an American citizenship and was then told they are not a real American that would be classified as discrimination. The same is true in Japan. If the argument comes up that the 'USA is a different story because of imperialism' it would not hold any weight because Japan has a history of that too. If an American immigrates to my country (Jamaica) they would be a Jamaican despite some people in the US and elsewhere using 'Jamaican' as an ethnic group. Nationality is a nationality and I say this as someone who comes from a country that is as similarly homogenous as Japan (Black population in Jamaica is roughly 92.1%)
(3) "If that was true, then Chinese / Koreans / Indians and others in the ASIAN category would all be the same nationality. RIGHT?"
No? I don't understand the logic here. I am saying that Asian is the race and Japanese is a nationality. Therefore, Asians from China/South Korea/ India would still have whatever nationality they claim.
Eg. 1 - If a person who was born, raised and still resides in South Korea and is Asian their race would be Asian and their nationality would be South Korean. If That same person immigrated to India their race would remain the same (Asian) but their nationality would then be Indian. In India they could use Korean and an ethnic/cultural marker but that would not deny non-Asians of South Korean nationality from their South Korean nationality.
Eg. 2 - My race is black. That is unchangeable. My nationality is Jamaican. That can be changed. I can claim my Jamaican heritage/culture aboard if I decide to move to another country therefore using Jamaican as an ethinic marker. That is, if I move to the USA I would be Black raced, American by nationality and Jamaican by culture (a black Jamaican-American).
My main issue is that black people exist in every country/etc. So, by stating half black and half ethnicity/culture/etc it; (1) makes it seem that black people don't exist in those places which is false, and (2) makes it seem like only Asian and white races get to be identified by their culture/etc as well but we (black people) are ONLY a race. There are black people in multiple cultures, we speak multiple languages. We too are a VERY diverse group (in fact we are the most diverse racial group).
I hope I explained my point better.
The majority of black people in the US have multicultural heritage, much similarly to how the majority of white people in the US, while still being European have multicultural heritage. Because black people are ethnically mixed, but still largely of African ancestry, it's kind of an ambiguous term. Most white people in the US are mixed with English, French, Welsh, German, etc, so we just call them "white" instead of saying 1/4 English, 1/4 French, or something. This same example also applies to African-americans.Can we start saying Half black half ASIAN? Black is a race, Japanese is the nationality. If you are going to use the Asian parent's nationality then use the black parent's nationality.
When we say half black half "nationality/ethnicity/culture/etc" it gives the impression that there are no black people in those nationalities/ethnicities/cultures/etc.
Just a suggestion