Black Expat: Chuck Johnson – Kickin’ Butt in Japan

Black Expat Magazine has a great feature on fellow Detroiter, Chuck Johnson, martial artist and rising movie star. It would be great to meet Chuck and converse in Korean. I bet that would be interesting! 

 Movie Having lived in Asia, I know first hand how stereotypes Westerners bring with them (including myself) often obtained through the media can clash with reality. It is the things, and people, that you do not expect and don’t fit our perfect mold that make life interesting. Like the six foot North Korean on the opposing basketball team that slammed all over me in pickup basketball. There were many other excellent Chinese street ballers I tried my mediocre skills against. After a game, a girl walked up to me and told me “I thought I was going to see you play like on the ‘AND1′ video but I’m kind of disappointed.”

I am sure many people think of Chuck Johnson this way in Japan. An expert and national champion in the United States in Olympic taekwondo, Chuck’s swift kicks, skill, and discipline have shattered the normal stereotypes of Blacks being hip-hop gangsters or unruly soldiers in Okinawa. Chuck currently resides in Tokyo, Japan but has also lived in Seoul, South Korea and has visited 30 other countries as a volunteer. Not bad for someone who first started being an expat in 2004

Chuck originally hails from the home of Motown, Detroit, Michigan. After moving north to Okemos, Michigan with his family in his early teen years, he first started learning Olympic taekwondo at age 15 and began winning victory after victory in local tournaments. By age 20, he had won gold medals in the state junior championships and began traveling back and forth to Korea for more intensive training. “While I was in Korea, and I saw just how big the world really was… and how much opportunity there was out there for people who were willing to explore it,” he tells Black Expat about his first experience abroad.

Keeping Pace in Japan: From Shima to Shima, Part I

I enjoyed Turner’s posts reflecting on his two-year of Life in Japan. I am sure that you will too! 

When I first set out to write this all-inclusive thriller of yet another expat’s experience in the land of the rising sun, I put forth far too much effort in an attempt to make the article suitable for the likes of world class travel magazines. These conclusions are not for the armchair traveler, the yet-to-travel layman who chooses to spend his money on National Geographic rather than a plane ticket. No, this is for you, my Japan readers. Those who have lived the life of teaching English on a year’s contract, those who look back on years past, now struggling to remember the simplest Japanese expression. And those who have yet to arrive. Let me be of service.

More Black Face in Japan

No matter how many times I see pictures like the one above hit the Japanese media, it seems like “some” people here still don’t get it! Previously there was uproar over the Tokyo Metropolitan Government discriminatory depictions of blacks in their Earthquake Pamphlet, corporations using racist language and imagery in advertising and of course a few music groups using blackface during their performances. I guess with the current Obama boom in Japan, some of these soccer players need a  swift kick in the balls to reach the goal of having a clue! Oops! I meant no offense, it was done in jest. By the way Nissan, next time be sure to check the oil!

Japan Probe writes: “Dan writes to let us know about a shocking encounter at an event for Japanese soccer fans:

On January 31st, the J.League Division 1 team Yokohama F. Marinos held “Tricolore Festa”, a party for its supporters. Events included speeches, meet-and-greets, open practices, and skits performed by the
plays to the amusement of all.

http://www.f-marinos.com/tools/page_store/news_3187.html

I’ll, um, let you scroll down to the bottom and figure out what’s wrong with this picture.

A Gosperats impression, or some other form of African imitation?

Those who wish to complaint can do so by contacting the e-mail address on their site.”

Negro Leaguers in Japan

 

I wanted to outline a couple of connections between the Negro Leagues and Japanese baseball that aren’t (I think) all that well-known.

First: for decades, the standard story about the rise of professional baseball in Japan has credited a 1934 tour of Japan by major league all stars, including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, for sparking interest in the sport and leading to the first professional league two years later.  But the Japanese baseball historian Kazuo Sayama, in the 1987 Baseball Research Journal, told a somewhat different story. 

He argued that much of the credit should go to Negro League teams that toured Japan in 1920s and 30s, particularly the 1927 Philadelphia Royal Giants, featuring HOFers Biz Mackey and Andy Cooper, along with Rap Dixon and Frank Duncan, among others.

While the 1934 white major league visit has gotten all the attention (and credit), cause-and-effect might actually have been reversed: Sayama noted that the tour was sponsored by the Yomiuri newspaper company, which was already planning to found a professional team (which would become the Giants). So rather than being the catalyst for Japanese pro baseball, maybe it would be more accurately viewed as publicity for a venture that was already in the works.

Sumo in Japan: Does smoking a joint beat murder?

Former makuuchi division Russian wrestler, 20-year-old Toshinori Wakanoho (whose real name is Soslan Gagloev), under arrest for possessing marijuana, has told police that he first turned to drugs in his early teens, and that after he entered the sumo world he smoked dope every time he went home to Russia.

According to a statement Wakanoho made to police, he went to a nightclub in Tokyo’s Roppongi entertainment district by himself on June 20, where he was offered marijuana by a Russian man and a black man. He smoked the drug in the club’s restroom using a bong, or water pipe. Wakanoho then bought marijuana, two pipes and rolling papers from the black man for 20,000 yen.

USA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Team Wins Gold

The Olympic Games started on 08/08/08 and the U.S.A.’s eight-year quest for gold in international basketball has the U.S. men’s basketball team (a.k.a. the Redeem Team) beating Spain to win the 2008 Olympic gold medal. Spain fought hard but had to settle for silver and Argentina takes home the bronze medal. In women’s 2008 Olympic Basketball, the USA women’s team won gold. 

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USA Upsets France in 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay

I rarely get excited about swimming but I love competition! Well, Team USA’s 4×100 Freestyle captain, 32-year-old Jason Lezak (he’s oldest man on the U.S. swimming team), showed great competitive spirit and pulled off one of the great comebacks in Olympic history. He saved the day in the men’s 4-x-100 freestyle relay as the U.S. team beat the French (a.k.a. “We will smash the Americans”) swim team in a neck-and-neck race. His teammate Michael Phelps has a shot at breaking the all-time record for gold medals in a single Olympic Game.

The victory also marked the first time an African American (Cullen Jones) swimmer has claimed gold in the 4×100 freestyle at the Olympics. Jones is the SECOND African American swimmer to win an Olympic medal. An ambassador for African-American swimmers, Jones wanted to shatter stereotypes one lap at a time, eager to spread his message that, yeah, black kids can swim too.

Gold medal winners pictured above: Cullen Jones, Jason Lezak, Michael Phelps and Garrett Weber-Gale. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle / August 10, 2008)

Note: Anthony Lee Ervin (born May 26, 1981 in Burbank, California). In 2000, he became the first swimmer of African American descent to make the US Olympic team. At the 2000 Summer Olympics, in Sydney he won the gold medal in the Men’s 50m Freestyle, finishing with the same winning time as Gary Hall Jr.Also at the Sydney Games, he won Silver in the 4x100m Freestyle.