{"id":14968,"date":"2018-07-30T13:02:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T23:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14968"},"modified":"2018-07-30T13:06:06","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T23:06:06","slug":"nyt-dr-sacko-kyoto-seika-universitys-african-born-president-claims-no-experience-of-racism-in-japan-just-being-treated-differently-because-he-doesnt-look-japanese-huh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14968","title":{"rendered":"NYT: Dr. Sacko, Kyoto Seika University’s African-Born President, claims no experience of racism in Japan. Just of “being treated differently because he doesn’t look Japanese”. Huh?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. We’ve talked about this in passing before<\/a>, but let me highlight it as a separate blog entry: People in Japan are still accepting the antiquated notion of “race” as an abstract, biological concept. As opposed to a socially-constructed one that differs from society to society in its definitions and enforcement, or as\u00a0a performative one that is created through the process of “differentiation”, “othering”, and subordination<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So strong is this centuries-old belief that even Mali-born naturalized Japanese Dr. Oussouby Sacko, recently-elected president of Kyoto Seika University (congratulations!), made the bold statement in the New York Times that his differential treatment in Japan is not due to racism:<\/p>\n

“Dr. Sacko, a citizen of Japan for 16 years, says he is treated differently because he does not look Japanese. But he distinguished that from racism. ‘It\u2019s not because you\u2019re black,’ he said.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sorry, that’s not now modern definitions of racism work anymore, Dr. Sacko. Differential treatment<\/a> of Visible Minorities in Japan<\/a> is still a racialization process. \u00a0But I guess anyone can succumb to the predominant “Japan is not racist” groupthink if it is that strong. \u00a0Read the NYT article below for fuller context.<\/p>\n

But the questions remain: \u00a0Is this a form of Stockholm Syndrome? \u00a0A cynical attempt to parrot the narrative for the sake of professional advancement? \u00a0A lack of awareness and social-science training on the part of a person, despite fluency in several languages, with a doctorate in a non-social science (engineering\/architecture)? \u00a0I’m open to suggestion. \u00a0Especially from Dr. Sacko himself, if he’s reading.<\/p>\n

Anyway, much better articles than the NYT’s about Dr. Sacko’s background and training are available from Baye McNeil in the Japan Times here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In any case, congratulations, Dr. Sacko. \u00a0But I would suggest you utilize your position also to raise awareness about the very real issues of racism in Japan<\/a>, not attempt a mitigating or denialist approach. \u00a0Dr. Debito Arudou<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

In Homogeneous Japan, an African-Born University President<\/strong>
\nNew York Times, April 13, 2018, courtesy of DTJ<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/nytimes.com\/2018\/04\/13\/world\/asia\/japan-african-university-president-sacko.html<\/a><\/p>\n

KYOTO, Japan \u2014 On a beautiful spring Sunday during cherry blossom season, the new president of Kyoto Seika University welcomed students for the start of the Japanese school year. \u201cYou have left your home,\u201d he told the 770 first-year and graduate students gathered in a gym on the hilly campus. \u201cBut this is also your home.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In Bamanankan \u2014 the lingua franca of his native Mali.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And so Oussouby Sacko, 51, quickly dispensed with the elephant in the room: He is a black man in a homogeneous country that has long had an ambivalent relationship with outsiders.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Sacko, who is believed to be the first African-born president of a Japanese university, segued elegantly into fluent Japanese, invoking Hannah Arendt, Edward Said, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Malian writer Amadou Hamp\u00e2t\u00e9 B\u00e2. The university, Dr. Sacko said, was \u201cdiversifying and internationalizing,\u201d and he wanted the students to \u201crecognize your difference from others.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In this island country that is sometimes less than welcoming to immigrants, Mr. Sacko is an outlier. A resident for 27 years, he obtained Japanese citizenship 16 years ago and worked his way up through the ranks of a Japanese institution.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

With a declining population, Japan is being forced to confront its traditional resistance to taking in foreigners. Last year, according to government figures, the number of foreign nationals living in Japan hit a record high of more than 2.5 million, with about 15,140 of them from African countries.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet that total number of foreign nationals makes up less than 2 percent of Japan\u2019s population of 127 million, a lower proportion than in South Korea, for example, where foreigners make up about 3.4 percent of the population. The share is much higher in the United States, at 14 percent, and it is close to 40 percent in Hong Kong, according to data from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Obtaining Japanese citizenship is extremely difficult. Since 1952, just over 550,000 people have managed to naturalize as Japanese citizens, most of them ethnic Koreans whose families have lived in Japan for several generations since the colonial occupation of Korea.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And despite recent efforts to allow highly skilled foreigners to obtain permanent residency more quickly, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has declared that he will not relax immigration policy to address the country\u2019s falling population.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Sacko says he believes Japan needs to allow in more outsiders, simply as an act of self-preservation.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cJapanese people think they have to protect something,\u201d he said during an interview in English before a reception recently to celebrate his appointment. But, \u201csomeone who has a broad view from outside on your culture can maybe help you objectively improve your goals,\u201d he said, occasionally interrupting the interview to greet his guests, switching effortlessly between English, French and Japanese.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Sacko, the eldest son of a customs officer and homemaker, grew up in Bamako, the capital city of Mali. A strong student, he won a scholarship from the Malian government to attend college abroad.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He had never been anywhere other than the neighboring country of Senegal. With 13 other students from Mali, he was assigned to study in China and landed in Beijing in 1985 to study Mandarin before embarking on a degree in engineering and architecture at Southeast University in Nanjing.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On a vacation to Japan after obtaining his undergraduate degree in 1990, Dr. Sacko found himself enchanted by what he observed as strong community ties and the hospitality toward guests. Although he had begun graduate studies in China, he was frustrated that a government minder always shadowed him when he conducted field research in local villages.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He had also met and started to date a Japanese woman, Chikako Tanaka, whom he later married and with whom he has two sons.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Sacko moved to Osaka, Japan, for six months of language lessons before enrolling in a master\u2019s degree program at Kyoto University. In meetings with colleagues, he was often asked to take minutes, which helped him improve his listening comprehension and writing ability. At night, he watched Japanese television shows and socialized with Japanese classmates.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Twenty percent of Kyoto Seika\u2019s student body comes from abroad, much higher than the 4 percent overall ratio in Japanese higher education. Dr. Sacko hopes to raise Kyoto Seika\u2019s figure to 40 percent within a decade.Kosuke Okahara for The New York Times<\/em><\/strong>
\nHis dedication to becoming fluent distinguished him from other foreigners. \u201cThey said, \u2018If you speak Japanese, they will put you in meetings and on committees and that\u2019s not interesting,\u2019 \u201d he said. Many foreigners, he added, \u201cspend too much time among ourselves.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Sacko said he had hoped to return to Mali someday, but after a military coup in 1991, his employment options were limited. As he pursued a doctorate in Japan, he worked to understand a culture where people can say the exact opposite of what they mean. \u201cYou don\u2019t always catch things from the meanings of the words,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to go deeper.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Along the way, there were some misunderstandings.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After hosting a few parties at his apartment, his neighbors remarked that he and his friends always seemed happy and that they were envious. Dr. Sacko urged them to join his next party.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead, they called the police.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe police said, \u2018You are too noisy,\u2019 \u201d Dr. Sacko recalled. \u201cAnd I said \u2018But my neighbors like that!\u2019 \u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He applied for a job at Kyoto Seika, which specializes in the arts, and started as a lecturer in 2001. Colleagues say that over the years he has worked very hard to adapt to Japanese social codes while also retaining his own sensibility.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHe deeply understands Japanese culture and the way of thinking,\u201d said Emiko Yoshioka, a professor of art theory whom Dr. Sacko appointed as vice president at Kyoto Seika. \u201cBut he also is able to poke fun at the fact that he is a foreigner.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The faculty vote for president was extremely close, with Dr. Sacko winning by just one vote. At his inaugural reception, a group of musicians played Malian music on a patio, and Dr. Sacko stood quietly on a small stage during a parade of speeches from the mayor of Kyoto; the Malian ambassador to Japan; and various academic colleagues, including a professor from Kyoto University who repeatedly slipped up and called him \u201cProfessor Mali.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ryo Ishida, chairman of Kyoto Seika\u2019s board, noted that the university had recently started a campaign to embrace diversity.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t think his election was much to do with the university\u2019s promotion of diversity,\u201d Mr. Ishida said. \u201cHe was elected as the best leader of the university among his colleagues.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a practical sense, Dr. Sacko\u2019s appointment could help Kyoto Seika appeal to more foreign students at a time when many universities across Japan are struggling to maintain enrollment.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Already, 20 percent of its student body comes from abroad, much higher than the 4 percent overall ratio of foreign students in Japanese higher education. Dr. Sacko said he hoped to raise Kyoto Seika\u2019s level to 40 percent within a decade.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI think he will help shrink the distance between Japanese and foreigners,\u201d said Chihiro Morita, 18, an illustration major from Hyogo Prefecture.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Other black residents of Japan said that Dr. Sacko could help improve race relations in a country where performers still appear on television in blackface.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that he has been placed in such a prominent position will have a significant impact on how we\u2019re perceived,\u201d said Baye McNeil, a Brooklyn-born black columnist for the English-language Japan Times who has lived in Japan for 13 years.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Sacko said he had not experienced racism in Japan but said he was treated differently simply because he does not look Japanese. Despite his Japanese citizenship, for example, he says he is automatically routed to lines for foreigners at the airport when he returns from trips abroad. \u201cIt\u2019s not because you\u2019re black,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s because you\u2019re different.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He said he considered it his mission to foster differences beyond race. When recruiting Ms. Yoshioka as vice president, he told her he wanted her for the job because she was a woman and a single mother.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t have a person like you in the top administration of the university, the board will just be filled with men,\u201d he told her when she first hesitated to take the job. \u201cAnd that doesn\u2019t fit my vision.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\nENDS<\/p>\n

=============================
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People in Japan are still accepting the antiquated notion of “race” as an abstract, biological concept. As opposed to a socially-constructed one that differs from society to society in its definitions and enforcement, or as\u00a0a performative one that is created through the process of “differentiation”, “othering”, and subordination. So strong is this centuries-old belief that even Mali-born naturalized Japanese Dr. Oussouby Sacko, recently-elected president of Kyoto Seika University (congratulations!), made the bold statement in the New York Times that his differential treatment in Japan is not due to racism: “Dr. Sacko, a citizen of Japan for 16 years, says he is treated differently because he does not look Japanese. But he distinguished that from racism. ‘It\u2019s not because you\u2019re black,’ he said.”<\/p>\n

Sorry, that’s not now modern definitions of racism work anymore, Dr. Sacko. Differential treatment of Visible Minorities in Japan is still a racialization process. \u00a0But I guess anyone can succumb to the predominant “Japan is not racist” groupthink if it is that strong. \u00a0Read the NYT article below for fuller context. But the questions remain: \u00a0Is this a form of Stockholm Syndrome? \u00a0A cynical attempt to parrot the narrative for the sake of professional advancement? \u00a0A lack of awareness and social-science training on the part of a person, despite fluency in several languages, with a doctorate in a non-social science (engineering\/architecture)? \u00a0I’m open to suggestion. \u00a0Especially from Dr. Sacko himself, if he’s reading.<\/p>\n

In any case, congratulations, Dr. Sacko. \u00a0But I would suggest you utilize your position also to raise awareness about the very real issues of racism in Japan, not attempt a mitigating or denialist approach. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,36,19,35,26,11,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-bad-social-science","category-education","category-good-news","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-shoe-on-the-other-foot-dept"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14968"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15111,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14968\/revisions\/15111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}