The Year of No Money in Tokyo

There is a new book out written by New York City native Wayne Lionel Aponte, an African-American journalist and teacher, who has lived in Japan for almost two decades. According to his website, Aponte  has written for several publications, including  The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Nation.

I have not received a copy of the book to review it but please check out the Wayne Lionel Aponte interview here. In the meantime, I will keep plugging away on my book! By the way, you may enjoy this post by NPR’s Planet Money on Shadow Banking.

Girl! I’m proud of you!

Here is the latest from Dear Life: WTH Let’s get it together ladies! She responds to email received from viewer that watched her You Tube video “What a Japanese guy thinks of Black girls.”

She says of the “Dear Life: WTH Let’s get it together ladies!” video, “This is not a rant, but something that I felt should be addressed. Ladies we gotta do better!” I will post more about Alafia and her “intro2the1″ videos later. Girl! I’m proud of you! 

BTW, shout out to 日本-SUKI for showing some blogger love!

Rev. Joseph E. Lowery Benediction Angers Some

I thought my ears played a trick on me when I heard Rev. Lowery open his benediction with words from the Black (Negro) National Anthem, “God of our weary years, God of our silent tears….” Although many that are not Black may not know the words to James Weldon Johnsons’ song, Lift Every Voice and Sing, it seems that some have misunderstood the meaning of the rhyme at the very last part of Reverand Lowery’s benediction: “We ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right.” When I was a kid we use to say: 

• If you’re white, you’re right
• If you’re yellow, you’re mellow
• If you’re red, your dead
• If you’re brown, stick around
• And if you’re black, get back.

What Lowery is talking about is institutional racism and the color preferences that existed in America, especially during his time. He is not talking to or about White people per se. To break this down further:

• Blacks getting in back refers to having to sit in the back of the bus and not having equal rights in America.
• Browns sticking around is the solidarity that was forming when Hispanics began to join with Blacks during the “revolution” of Black Power. 
• Reds being dead refers to the slaughter of the Native American and the plight they face in “their” land. 
• Yellow being mellow means that Asians were pacified especially after WWII (internment of Japanese-Americans and other Asians being lumped into the “Jap” category). 
• And finally, white being right refers to the preference and power that whites (as deemed by various Jim Crow laws and US government city, state and certain federal institutions) had/have in America. 

Listen to Big Bill Broonzy‘s song “Black, Brown and White” to hear the origin of Rev. Lowery’s poem. So please, before you slam Reverand Lowery try to understand where he and we (Americans) came from, ask somebody, do some research or just shut the hell up before you start bitching online! You’re messing up my groove! By the way, today’s inaugural speech is the first time a president has ever explicitly acknowledged “Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus” but non-believers as well. If that is not a good path to inclusion, I do not know what is! GOD (or whom/whatever you follow) BLESS US ALL!

A Change is Gonna Come

A few things came to mind as the day of service in honor of the Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to a close today. One was Dr. Martin Luther King’s Prediction.

Another was a song that I learned at a very early age during the Civil Rights Movement:  Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Black National Anthem) by James Weldon Johnson.

And finally, a song that could reflect the mood or hope that is sweeping the world:  A Change is Gonna Come

I’m counting down the hours until Bush lifts off from the White House lawn and the new Obama Administration begins to officially lift up the U.S.A. Of course it will be a take time to fix the numerous challenges in America but I think I am safe to say that after eight-years of not having prior proper planning which led to piss-poor performance, a lot of people believe that America will redeem itself at home and abroad.

A lot more people are now willing to work for CHANGE, are you? 

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Struggling Not To Lose Him

The birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has passed and for some it is just another federal holiday. While most in the world know of the deeds and sacrifices Dr. King made, few get to hear how others perceive his public story. Check out the video after reading the article below.

Slept On TV writes: “Too often, we are treated to a view of a romanticized and whitewashed Dr. King in order to fit the man and his struggle neatly within the prevailing political and economic power structures in a largely uncritical and non-threatening manner. This portrayal of Dr. King has been mass marketed as an accommodationist figure and is now so pervasive in our schools, media, etc. that it threatens to neutralize and placate the most ambitious, daring and challenging of King’s critique along with his struggle to confront and organize against not only racism, but economic exploitation and militarism-imperialism as well.

Black Tokyo Updates

Arigato to the BT’ers that emailed me while I was injured. The surgery was successful and I am slowly recovering and looking forward to physical therapy. Bring on the pain!

BT’ers can now follow Black Tokyo via Twitter. BT’ers can also join the Black Tokyo social network site (Google Friend Connect) with one click using your Google, Yahoo, AIM or OpenID account. Click the Join this site button found on the BT Friend Connect widget located at the top of the center column.

For those on Facebook, be sure to join the Black Tokyo Facebook Chapter.

Mata ne!

Commentary: What Barack Obama means to me

When President-elect Barack Obama and his family take up residence in the White House it means that he will move into every household in America. He will not be just some Black dude that moved in down the street in a predominately White neighborhood and his family will not become the new Cosby Show. The Obamas move on big time to prime time on the biggest channel watched by millions in the world.

I am a child of the 60′s and a US Marine Corps veteran that served and fought for America much like my father, uncles and cousins did during the Korean War and conflict in Vietnam. The biggest difference in the conflicts during my military service and theirs is that they fought wars abroad only to return home to fight various forms of in your face racism in America.

I am a product of the Detroit public school system and moved from the ghetto to the top flo’ (and at times back down) because others broke various glass ceilings. There was a school house in Little Rock, Arkansas that had its glass ceiling broken by some black children which ultimately allowed people like me, opportunity. There was a young lawyer that had only lost one case out of 30 who went on to become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in American history. His tenacity ended segregation in public schools. There was a little ol’ woman that rode a bus and refused to give up her seat (and she was not the only one, just the most famous) that translated into people like her being legally allowed to do more than keep their seat. When I headed to a school full of people that I predominately saw on television, in magazines, downtown or at the “white” shopping center, it was like being in a different country. A glass ceiling broke in my house and let in the fresh air of hope when I accomplished things that a couple of generations in my family had not. They paved the way, I just followed the path. Like a young Barack, I had a mother that shoved when I need a push and a family that supported me when I needed.

As a 16-year-old college freshman exposed to something new, I made the most of it. Barack Obama attended the some of the best schools in America and is headed as uptown as one can go in America. I am sure that he will take advantage of being exposed to something new and that he and the in-coming First Lady, Michelle Obama, will expose something new to many in America and around the world.

Black Scholars Who Make a Specialty of Asian Studies

I received the following question from a new BT reader this afternoon. He asked: “Why do you find Japan so fascinating?” My quick reply to the question: “I find Japanese history and culture fascinating, the Japanese interesting (from a sociological point-of-view) and life in Japan, as a case study of a nation trying to gain respect in the international a.k.a. multicultural world order. The new BT’er also asked: “Why don’t you focus on Africa instead of Japan?” Well, here comes the long answer!

Unlike past “norms” when life in Japan was mainly reported from the point-of-view of the victim or victor of wars with Japan, my current norm for examining Japan has more to do with how the Japanese and Blacks have interacted over the centuries. For example, some of my research looks at how the Japanese viewed and formed opinions of Blacks over the ages. We were seen:

• as warriors like Sakanoue no Tamuramaro (758 – 811), a Black man who is considered the first Shogun of Japan during the early Heian Period (check Chinese and Japanese historical records)
• as servants for the Dutch (1543)
• as samurai, like Yasuke (1582), who was personally trained by Daimyo Oda Nobunaga and later played a crucial role in Nobunaga’s last battle Honnou-ji no hen
• as minstrels thanks to Perry’s sailors in blackface 
• as Little Black Sambo
• as marginalized negro soldiers during the post-World War II occupation living in segregated barracks (i.e, Tachikawa AB)
• as whatever those that import “their” prejudices teach, preach, or tell
• as our own worst enemy as times

Other parts of my research deals with the works of Black and Japanese scholars who focus on African & African-American – Japan relations.

“Contrary to popular misconception, there are large numbers of Black scholars whose academic research has nothing whatsoever to do with skin color or race relations” (Fikes, Jr., 2002). 

To help the BT’er better understand why I chose to focus on Japan, I recommended the following publications from my constantly growing library:

• African Presence in Early Asia (Rashidi and Sertima)
• African American Views of the Japanese: Solidarity or Sedition? (Bracey)
• The African American Encounter with Japan and China: Black Internationalism in Asia, 1895-1945 (Gallicchio)
• The Black Samurai: A Novel of Feudal Japan (Bracey)
• Black Samurai: Work, Travel, Culture, Religion, Struggle, and Perspective of a Black American Man (Brown)
• America Encounters Japan: From Perry to Mac Arthur (Neumann)
• Securing Japan: Tokyo’s Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia (Samuels)
• U.S. Japan Strategic Reciprocity (Olsen)

Many Black academics often fall into certain academic fields that connect them to the color of their skin. There is nothing wrong with this but I want to follow the path of Blacks that have made it possible for other Blacks to provide information on Asia, in my case Japan, from an Afro perspective. 

What it means to be a Black American

Well now that Black History MONTH is finally over and I no longer see a zillion fast food commercials and the same old commercialization of Blacks deemed safe to represent the Black race, my man Smokey Robinson breaks down the meaning of being a BLACK American. Enjoy!