Discrimination
The scene
On my walk from he train station to my school this morning, I passed a middle school student in an alleyway. I always see students walking and I could tell where this boy went to school by his uniform and bag. As I was walking past the student, he turned toward me and almost jumped when seeing me. He just kept staring intensely. So I smile and said, ‘good morning’ in English (since he could end up being my student in April), with a slight bow. I am a fast walker, so I just kept going and was surprised when I realized he was approaching me quickly, possibly jogging. He was now walking next to me, staring at my face again. He asked me where I was going. Who was I?
I told him I was an English teacher. 'Watashi wa eigo no kyoshi des.’
‘ALT?,’ he asks?
Yes. I am an ALT at Takasago Minami.
All of a suddenly, he starts aggressively saying something about kyo (today) and itte (go).
Kyo…Itte… HOME! Go home. Now! Go home. Today. GO HOME.
He is pointing toward the way I came and pretty much yelling. I would have thought he was drunk were it not 7:45am and he was not 13 and on the way to school. I calmly told him ‘no’ several times and kept walking until I had to turn, not truly responding to his actions.
My reaction
I have been harassed before, but I have never been the direct victim of racial discrimination, so I am not exactly sure how to react. My gender has provoked issues (even physical), especially in the Middle East. There was also an incident while I was a student in Norway where I was on a subway car that was gassed by a neo-nazi gang; but, even then, I was part of a larger group and was not the direct aim of the attack. The gas turned out to be fire extinguishers and everyone was fine. An arab man even kicked me (hard) across my back once for speaking harshly to a man. But this still feels different; it was direct and in my face and this kid - a student - was shouting. Too close to home.
The situation
I told one of my colleagues about the experience and she was as shocked as I am. While I sometimes feel that being a gaijin (foreigner) can elicit reactions ranging anywhere from scum to superstar status, Americans are generally welcomed in Japan and discrimination of this sort is rare.
On my walk from he train station to my school this morning, I passed a middle school student in an alleyway. I always see students walking and I could tell where this boy went to school by his uniform and bag. As I was walking past the student, he turned toward me and almost jumped when seeing me. He just kept staring intensely. So I smile and said, ‘good morning’ in English (since he could end up being my student in April), with a slight bow. I am a fast walker, so I just kept going and was surprised when I realized he was approaching me quickly, possibly jogging. He was now walking next to me, staring at my face again. He asked me where I was going. Who was I?
I told him I was an English teacher. 'Watashi wa eigo no kyoshi des.’
‘ALT?,’ he asks?
Yes. I am an ALT at Takasago Minami.
All of a suddenly, he starts aggressively saying something about kyo (today) and itte (go).
Kyo…Itte… HOME! Go home. Now! Go home. Today. GO HOME.
He is pointing toward the way I came and pretty much yelling. I would have thought he was drunk were it not 7:45am and he was not 13 and on the way to school. I calmly told him ‘no’ several times and kept walking until I had to turn, not truly responding to his actions.
My reaction
I have been harassed before, but I have never been the direct victim of racial discrimination, so I am not exactly sure how to react. My gender has provoked issues (even physical), especially in the Middle East. There was also an incident while I was a student in Norway where I was on a subway car that was gassed by a neo-nazi gang; but, even then, I was part of a larger group and was not the direct aim of the attack. The gas turned out to be fire extinguishers and everyone was fine. An arab man even kicked me (hard) across my back once for speaking harshly to a man. But this still feels different; it was direct and in my face and this kid - a student - was shouting. Too close to home.
The situation
I told one of my colleagues about the experience and she was as shocked as I am. While I sometimes feel that being a gaijin (foreigner) can elicit reactions ranging anywhere from scum to superstar status, Americans are generally welcomed in Japan and discrimination of this sort is rare.
posted by Brenda Ann Elizabeth McKinney @ 7:08 AM
2 Comments:
At 1:34 PM,
Gunnar said…
I am very sorry to hear this. It really hurts when someone attacks you like that for no valid reason. I think the best – but not always easiest – reaction is to honestly wish them "god bedring" as we say here (get well soon).
At least you're stacking up a lot of those good memories, too. Keep the reports coming, agent Rice Field ;)
At 11:18 PM,
Anonymous said…
I wouldn't really be surprised if this were the case... when I lived in Okinawa, Japan for 3 years there was some discrimination against the Okinawans, let alone the American military families, because of the battle in WWII! Hopefully this 13 year old boy didn't have ulterior motives associated with his perceptions of "liberated" Western women. ;)
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