I’ve been a minority in almost every place I’ve lived.
This was a quote in a YouTube documentary I watched yesterday, but it’s been very applicable to me. Truth be told I’ve become increasingly good at being the minority, so much so that in a crowd of Black faces I don’t always know how to fit in. But put me in a homogeneous city in Spain or China and at least I understand my place in those societies. That being said, when I did live in those places I instinctively and almost immediately sought out other people 'like me' in one way or another.
When I was in China I was given the book Factory Girls not too long after arriving. It was an excellent read especially because I could see the themes and stories play out day to day in front of me. I think it really helped create a sense of understand and affinity for Chinese people, culture and history. Whilst in China I also had the very good fortune of striking up a friendship with another Black-Somali-British girl. She helped me feel connected to a sense of home. So despite the trials, annoyances and frustrations of living in China as a black foreigner I benefited from a sense of connection to both where I had come from and where I was at the time.
I’ve been in Tokyo a total of 14 days and had been looking for a way to connected. Being that I don’t speak Japanese yet and haven’t had the good fortune of stumbling upon a excellent book that will bore a hole into the collective Japanese conscious, it’s quite hard to feel connected to this place. It is early days of course.
In the other direction I’m looking for a way to fell connected to an identity that I hold. Commence social media search for ‘Black in Japan’ hastags. It’s the easiest identity to connect with in places like Spain, China and Japan. And this is how I stumbled upon this documentary.
This is the short version and I did watch the long one too. It’s very interesting because a lot of the experiences described in the documentary I can relate to from my time in Shenzhen: intense staring, children recoiling, cat calling, unsolicited touching, hair comments etc. But I have not felt the same things in Japan. Granted I am in Tokyo and if you wander around Shibuya of Harajuku, you might as well be in Hong Kong. However I live about 20 minutes from Shibuya in a residential district where everyone is Japanese except my housemates, and I’ve had one person call out “Cute” while gesturing at his hair. I think he was complimenting mine, at least in his mind. Compared to China I’m virtually being ignored.
I’m really curious to see how my experience being a black foreigner in Japan will unfold, especially when I decide to move out of Tokyo. If I had to predict, I’d say that because of my experiences in China, the micro-aggression mentioned in the video may fall like water off a duck’s back, but of course it remains to be seen.