TV marks Black History Month with provocative, creative fare

this is how America has treated us. This is how we feel

Every race, gender, religion, sexual orientation etc. was a victim at some part of their history. Should we dwell in victimhood for the rest of our lives? We would never succeed.

The Jews, Japanese, Chinese, Muslims, Irish, Eastern Europeans, Mexicans all faced adversary, racism and discrimination in the US, yet all developed into economical strong communities. Asian-Americans impress with economic and academic archivements. Why is the black community still light years away from these accomplishments despite civil rights movement, end of Jim Crow, affirmative action, increase of governmental anti-poverty measures and a black president? Please explain this to me? Could it be that the victim mentality creates an invisible oppressor and eliminates any self-responsibility and self-effort?

Could it be that the victim mentality creates an invisible oppressor and eliminates any self-responsibility and self-effort?

You posted a lot recently about racism in Japan, that Japanese don’t want foreigners here, look down on them, exploit them through cheap labour etc.

Could it be that it’s all imaginary and foreigners should stop whining and pull themselves up by the bootstraps?

The director Sacha Jenkins’ origins were in explicit graffiti and other ‘art’ resulting in illegal property damage in the minority communities. The above image chosen by the director(?) Sacha Jenkins does nothing here to promote a positive image of minorities expressing their equal voice as part of society.

The above poster of ‘a black man with a white fist shoved in his mouth’ is as hate-filled as the title & intent of his previous (2017) documentary (the actual title of which, even censored for this site, is not allow as part of a user’s commentary.

The above poster is only self-serving and continues the cycle of negative images about minorities.

Oh goody. Now I look forward to White History Month, Indian History Month, Far-Eastern History Month, Arab History Month, Eskimo History Month ... I just wonder if there are enough months in the year for every ethnic group. Maybe then it would be best to do away with this exclusive categorisation and just make films and programmes based on merit rather than political obsession and extremism.

The above poster is only self-promoting for the director and continues the cycle of negative images about minorities being weak.

*- “…**promotional art for the series "Everything's Gonna Be All White," premiering Feb. 11 on Showtime,” -*

Could it be that it’s all imaginary and foreigners should stop whining and pull themselves up by the bootstraps?

Yeah, sure. I guess we are all just imagining things when are are refused an apartment, refused entry into venues and our children tell us about being bullied at school due to them being a ハーフ. Closing the borders for foreigners regardless of vaccinations status or motives for entering serves only as a virus counter measure and is absolutely not related to pandering to a scared, old voter base. In western countries there are laws in place that prohibit this sort of discrimination and the support for victims is tremendous. In Japan that support or understanding for minorities is lacking. If you watch Japanese TV, struggles of foreigners are rarely mentioned. Instead, we are given the „funny and exotic“ brand.

Moreover, a lot of highly qualified and successful foreigners are already living and studying in Japan. None of them claim that they are held back by institutions or that they are being oppressed. It is the way we are perceived that bothers me and the lack of support inside the society.

Would love to see the Marian Anderson documentary. Wonderful voice.

Why any celebration of the non-white races in US, hurts the feelings of many, many, many white christian patriotic lovers of "freedom"??..

everything’s gonna be all white,” 

how witty and clever.

and just as racist as the racism they trying to bring to attention.

can’t fix racism by being racist yourself

why is Black History month the shortest month?

A country as divided as this won't hold together much longer.

In Japan that support or understanding for minorities is lacking. If you watch Japanese TV, struggles of foreigners are rarely mentioned. Instead, we are given the „funny and exotic“ brand.

Your victim mentality is creating an invisible oppressor that looks like Japan, Mable.

Learn some self-responsibility and put in some effort into making life better for you and yours in Japan.

Your victim mentality is creating an invisible oppressor that looks like Japan, Mable.

Learn some self-responsibility and put in some effort into making life better for you and yours in Japan.

I don’t think I have made any statement that I consider myself oppressed in Japan. I am doing quite fine for myself, just like many other foreigners. What bothers me is how foreigners are perceived in this country. Unlike some BLM activitst in the US I have never claimed that there was an institutional racism that is oppressing minorities. But I assume you just wanted to sound intellectually superior by turning my own words against me instead of making a valid argument that rebuttal my arguments.

Btw, still waiting for an answer to my original question at the top.

@mable

how in god’s name did you make this all about you ?

Yeah, sure. I guess we are all just imagining things when are are refused an apartment, refused entry into venues and our children tell us about being bullied at school due to them being a ハーフ. etc etc

So your point is everyone is a victim and rather than just dwelling in victimhood should just try harder and move on. Black history month is an excuse to feel victimized against an ‘invisible oppressor’.

Only the racism you experience in Japan is real and needs to be discussed.

I see.

why is Black History month the shortest month?

Because it is in February.

Did you mean to ask why is it in February?

Because it coincides with the birthdays of Lincoln and Douglas.

I Must admit that my previous responses were a little bit too emotional and too heavy on anecdotal evidence, but it occurs that some people here are more interested in twisting words, being appalled and constructing straw man arguments instead of engaging in a discussion.

So allow me to clarify and let’s calm down:

Yes, there is racism in the US as well as in Japan.

No, my experience with racism is not more validated or more important than the experience that a colored person has in the US. Racism is Racism. Discrimination is discrimination. It is disgusting.

However, I have always wondered why the black community underperforms academically and economically compared to other minorities despite so much progress in society. We all have the right to point out discrimination we have experienced, but explaining failure with racism or so-called “institutional racism” alone is simply inadequate.

Unlike some BLM activitst in the US I have never claimed that there was an institutional racism that is oppressing minorities.

You yesterday:

“ I appreciate your honesty. You provided a good summary of what many Japanese think about gaijin: „You are allowed to spend your money here, stay for a few weeks, praise us, but please don’t live here and have an opinion.“

“I guess some of these students have learned something that years of language study, anime/manga consumption and a BA in Japanese Studies never taught them: Japan is not particularly fond of foreigners.”

Could it be that it’s all imaginary and foreigners should stop whining and pull themselves up by the bootstraps?

Very different from a system that basically made the US financial powerhouse throw hard work and self-reliance, in Japan, the foreigners don't have the same opportunities or even have the same system that functions the same.

However, I have always wondered why the black community underperforms academically and economically compared to other minorities despite so much progress in society. We all have the right to point out discrimination we have experienced, but explaining failure with racism or so-called “institutional racism” alone is simply inadequate.

One of the primary reasons is that the majority of blacks in the US vote for the Democrat party, the party of government and government dependence, and for over 60 years the majority of blacks have been voting overwhelmingly for the party of government assistance almost by default, the Republicans believe in small government, less reliance and working in the private sector. To be fair the GOP (in the past) did a poor job up until the late 80's at recruiting blacks and other people of color, the party was primarily supportive of the more affluent society and that has not changed, the GOP have essentially become the party for the poor and working-class and the Dems for the affluent. The black communities suffer from a lot of social issues that are never addressed by the party that they support, the Democrat party. The party has done very little over the 60 years to address or fix the problems that are destroying the traditional family unit, most have some of the worst public school records, the cities have some of the highest crime, a lot of kids struggle academically in the field of math, writing and basic reading comprehensions, this is a huge problem, not a problem they want or created, but from the teachers and many having low standards, these are some of the underlying reasons why so many don't do as well as other races, but it is a topic the left doesn't want to talk about, because if you do that makes you a racist and as long as we overlook these serious tragedies, you will see more blacks fall through the cracks.

Very different from a system that basically made the US financial powerhouse throw hard work and self-reliance, in Japan, the foreigners don't have the same opportunities or even have the same system that functions the same.

So you are saying that Japan has institutionalized racism but the US dies not.

The ‘system’ that originally made the US a ‘financial powerhouse’ was slavery. Something some people need reminding of even still.

As for your last ‘paragraph’, baloney.

To be fair the GOP (in the past) did a poor job up until the late 80's at recruiting blacks and other people of color, the party was primarily supportive of the more affluent society and that has not changed, the GOP have essentially become the party for the poor and working-class and the Dems for the affluent. 

All over the place and completely self contradictory.

Obviously, this discussion is useless. There like is a huge difference between saying:

“There is racism in society” (there is in any society more or less)

or

”There is racism in society and an active system that wants minorities to fail.”

@Bob I fail to see your point, but it is ok to make unwarranted claims and intentionally misinterpret statements, if that is your strategy.

There like is a huge difference between saying: “There is racism in society” (there is in any society more or less)

or

”There is racism in society and an active system that wants minorities to fail.”

There is also a difference between

”There is racism in society and an active system that wants minorities to fail.”

And

"There exist parts of the system that have inadvertently resulted in racial discrimination; systemic racism."

There exist parts of the system that have inadvertently resulted in racial discrimination; systemic racism."

First of all thank you for contributing in a productive way. Systemic racism would mean that there are laws and regulations in place that clearly discriminate against minorities. Again, discrimination is present in all countries more or less, but you would have to show me modern democratic societies with regulations or laws that clearly discriminate against race.

I don’t see a systemic, institutional racism in the US or Japan, but I do think that a lot of Japanese are very conservative in how they view foreigners which can lead to negative connotations, but not necessarily oppression.

The question remains: Why does the black community underperform despite so much progress in comparison to e.g the Asian community, which suffered tremendous racism in their immigration history to the US (look at the Nikkei during WWII).