Aftermath
When J was evicted from the house, they kept out the audience due to numerous death threats sent to the show. J apologized profusely for her racist remarks and the […]
How the delusion of power culminates
It started with discord over a shopping list. The actress showed no intention to argue, but her dismissive response ignited J. She grumbled about it to herself and the two […]
Tension
My routine was to study until 5 pm and stretch my body while watching “Friends” rerun. If I left the TV on, I caught a short program that updated the […]
Introduction to British telly
The weeks of Christmas and New Year was the most peaceful time I had had in a long time. After a year of a long-distance relationship, Stuart and I celebrated […]
Accent politics – part 2
I didn’t fully grasp how political accents could be until much later. In a novel Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian woman who returned from […]
Accent politics – part 1
Since I arrived in Europe, especially as I started seeing Stuart, I became increasingly conscious of my accented English. Because of a stint in California, my accent was tinged with […]
Vengeance
I initially considered Jon as another Noah, whom I also saw at the time. With his privilege and power, Jon introduced me to an illusion of the world where I […]
Befriending a white man
I kept seeing Tom but never told anyone else but my friend Sachi. I told Tom to keep it a secret, too, which hurt his feelings. He eventually texted me […]
Whitewashed dolls
Like the sisters in The Bluest Eye, I once destroyed a doll. It had chestnut hair and soft, large eyes. Her racial ambiguity with a Japanese name confused me, and […]
Challenges
There was a popular narrative among very high-minded students that you should immerse yourself in the environment in which you had no choice but to speak English because having Japanese […]
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