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 […]
Patriarchal narratives
Before 2016, how easy had it been to point out the sexist/racist remarks without making the commenter defensive or downright offensive? “It’s just locker-room talk.”“He doesn’t mean it.”“Not too bad.” […]
Essay on discrimination – part 1
Soon after the third year started in April 1992, we saw the news about a riot in Los Angeles. A video was released of a man named Rodney King, pulled […]
Insignificant truth about us
A few years after I saw Madame Butterfly, I was in Tokyo to go to university. I took English lessons outside the school to prepare for the study abroad program. […]
Ghost of Madame Butterfly
I first became aware of my identity in the context of race and gender when I watched (forced to watch) opera Madame Butterfly in the high school music class. A […]