{"id":17614,"date":"2025-11-16T10:22:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T18:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17614"},"modified":"2025-12-31T13:25:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T21:25:39","slug":"japan-commentator-karen-hill-anton-writes-on-what-racism-is-and-isnt-in-japan-her-substack-nov-12-2025-i-critique-as-its-under-researched-and-willfully-ignorant-of-the-historical-reco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=17614","title":{"rendered":"Japan commentator Karen Hill Anton writes on “What Racism is — and isn’t — in Japan” (her Substack, Nov 12, 2025). I critique, as it’s under-researched and willfully ignorant of the historical record. UPDATE: Karen responds on her Substack to say anyone is “free to disagree” with her, then deletes all of our correspondence from her Substack (which I archive as screen captures here)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Debito meets the Hill Antons as a guest at their home, June 5, 2024.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hi Blog. \u00a0Karen Hill Anton, a memoirist, writer, and longtime columnist and commentator on Japan I respect a great deal (and have met in person, which is why I will write about her by her first name), recently wrote something on her Substack that I take great issue with.<\/p>\n

The problems I have with the essay I’ll state at the outset:<\/p>\n

It’s not only poorly researched. \u00a0It misrepresents history, distorts the science, and even winds up disrespecting the activists who invested so much of their lives into this issue. \u00a0In sum, it’s a shock, and threatens to overwrite a history I’ve tried very hard to catalog and keep alive from the natural revisionism of time. And that’s why I’ll take a break from my constant grading and preparing for classes to critique it.<\/p>\n

First, let’s establish some credibility. \u00a0I write as:<\/p>\n

— Debito Arudou, Ph.D., Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo, 2014. My doctoral dissertation became the monograph of Embedded Racism: \u00a0Japan’s Visible Minorities and Racial Discrimination<\/span><\/a><\/strong> (Lexington Books, 2015, 2nd Ed. 2022); my other monographs include “Japanese Only”: \u00a0The Otaru Hot Springs Case and Racial Discrimination<\/span><\/strong><\/a> (Tokyo: \u00a0Akashi Shoten, Inc: English and Japanese 2004, updated 2006 and 2013). \u00a0I have also maintained Debito.org, this archive of human rights issues in Japan, since 1995, meaning more than thirty years of research and historical record, including 15 years of fieldwork cataloging “Japanese Only” signs and rules on businesses nationwide in Japan<\/a>. \u00a0My point is that I speak with some accredited authority on this topic beyond just my personal experience.<\/p>\n

I will put Karen’s article in boldface, then intersperse my comments:<\/p>\n

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

What Racism Is \u2014 and Isn\u2019t \u2014 in Japan<\/strong>
\nReflections from fifty years as a \u201cvisible minority\u201d \u2014 and why I don\u2019t call it racism<\/strong>
\nKAREN HILL ANTON<\/strong>
\nNOV 12, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n

Courtesy https:\/\/karenhillanton.substack.com\/p\/what-racism-is-and-isnt-in-japan\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long read and heard about how the Japanese discriminate against people who look different from them, especially \u201cvisible minorities\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

DEBITO: \u00a0I’m not sure if she’s read my books above on Visible Minorities. \u00a0She has not defined her term or offered any reflection on the science behind it. \u00a0If you as a serious author going to have a serious conversation about a topic this complicated, you must demonstrate you have done the background research and are qualified to talk about it. \u00a0“Long read and heard” aren’t real qualifications.<\/p>\n

As I am clearly a visible minority, here are some of my reflections and experiences during the years I\u2019ve lived in Japan, 1975 to the present.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

DEBITO: \u00a0Already, this is starting off as an essay grounded in Karen’s reflections based upon her personal experience. \u00a0I see this as part of Karen’s general methodology as a memoirist: \u00a0Her data set is her experience. \u00a0That’s fine within the scope of a personal memoir. \u00a0The problem with grounding your social science this way is that it leads a blind spot common in people, especially NJ Residents who willfully choose to ignore the evidence of what happens to other NJ, who tend to dismiss claims and cases as, “But it’s never happened to me.” \u00a0Bear that in mind as we look at the methods of gathering evidence for the rest of this essay:<\/p>\n

The majority of the time I\u2019ve lived here has been in a village, or small town. I imagine the experience of foreigners who live in the great metropolis Tokyo, for example, might be significantly different from my own.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the places I\u2019ve called home in Japan, if you follow the rules for putting out your garbage, and participate in community obligations like cutting roadside weeds, it could be said your outward appearance causes no particular problems.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DEBITO: \u00a0“It could be said.” \u00a0That’s an interesting way to phrase it. \u00a0But it could also be said that there are systemic barriers (such as “Japanese Only” signs and establishments<\/a>, explicitly exclusionary government policies<\/a>, even bullying Neighborhood Associations<\/a>) to Visible Minorities being harassed and excluded no matter how much effort they put into community effort and assimilation into Japanese society. \u00a0Plenty of journalistic and government surveys evidence the effects of this<\/a>, which is why we need more science behind this facile generalization.<\/p>\n

Still, it would be unusual, and highly unlikely, if I\u2019d never had a negative experience regarding my observable physical characteristics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like the time a shopkeeper came out from behind the counter as I was about to pay, caught up a bunch of my hair, which was in dreadlocks, in her hands and, while holding it, looked at the woman I was with, and, addressing her, said: \u201cIs this real?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The woman I\u2019d gone to the store with, a fellow volleyball mom (we\u2019d just dropped off a carload of junior high girls at a local tournament), duly mortified, was completely speechless. After all, what could she have answered?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI too am curious. Why don\u2019t we ask the person to whom the hair belongs?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I took the shopkeeper\u2019s hand by the wrist, removed it from my hair and said in a voice as cold as Arctic ice: \u201cIt\u2019s real. Don\u2019t touch it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure if this woman had lost her mind or just her manners. Although I am not capricious in attributing bad intentions to anyone, I will not tolerate poor behavior. Talk about being impolite, I call that kind of behavior rude and offensive. I\u2019d also call that woman ignorant, insensitive, and inconsiderate. No matter how different I may look, I am not an inanimate object.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would not, however, call this woman a \u201cracist.\u201d That\u2019s the term an American man I know used when I told hm this story. No, it wasn\u2019t a \u201cracist\u201d act. It was a stupid one.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DEBITO: \u00a0Okay, so this sort of targeting has happened to Karen, and she acknowledges it. \u00a0But she conclusively dismisses it as based upon stupidity rather than the process of racism. \u00a0And then shoehorned in that the racist claim is somehow grounded in a foreign context (“an American man”). \u00a0The underlying sentiment, as you will see as we read on, is “It’s not as bad as racism in America,” as if that is some yardstick. \u00a0However, modern scholars of racism do not see it as a matter of degree, or else you get into a “discrimination Olympics”, and the worst countries get held up to excuse the smaller permutations of racism elsewhere with “whataboutism<\/a>“. \u00a0Even the most ancient scholars of modern racism (such as W.E.B. DuBois, Souls of Black Folk<\/span>, 1905) see it not as a matter of definition<\/em> (which is harder to nail down), but rather a process<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In other words, don’t get bogged down on what race and racism is. \u00a0<\/em>Rather, focus on\u00a0what racism does<\/em>. \u00a0As such, modern scholars of racism talk about the process of “differentiation, othering, and subordination” (cf. Miles, Racism after ‘Race Relations<\/span>‘, 1995). \u00a0And that was in process with Karen’s hair example. \u00a0It just didn’t reach the subordination stage because this stupid person apparently didn’t have the power to refuse Karen service. \u00a0If she had, I assume we’d have the full range of motion that might even qualify under Karen’s worldview. \u00a0Maybe Japan’s notorious “hair police” in schools<\/a> would qualify.<\/p>\n

Any foreign child can go to any public school anywhere in Japan. If they could not, if they were prevented from attending because of their skin color, and because they were deemed an \u201cinferior race\u201d \u2014 I\u2019d call that racism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DEBITO: \u00a0Good. \u00a0Now we know what you would call racism. \u00a0Now do the research: \u00a0School exclusions based upon race, ethnicity, and nationality happen in Japan<\/a>. \u00a0That’s why we have so many ethnic schools for children with international roots. \u00a0So kids excluded and bullied out of Japanese schools can still get an education.<\/p>\n

If it required armed officers of the law to ensure these children could go to school unmolested, as was once the situation in the country of my birth \u2014 the United States of America \u2014 they would clearly be victims of racism. It\u2019s almost hard to believe now that there was a time when American children were harassed, threatened, intimidated, physically and verbally abused, simply trying to go to school.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DEBITO: \u00a0America as the international racism yardstick again. \u00a0Yes, that happened in America, and it’s a reflection of racist policies. \u00a0But that’s happened in Japan too. \u00a0How about the Japanese police raiding and shutting down Korean Schools in 1948<\/a>? \u00a0It’s from the same time period of the incident mentioned above (1957<\/a>). \u00a0You cite that, I’ll cite this. \u00a0And it was the opposite course — the government itself was harassing, threatening, intimidating, and abusing these kids simply trying to go to school.<\/p>\n

Racism systematically and effectively shuts out and excludes persons or groups from the social, educational, and economic mainstream.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When this system is forcibly maintained by tradition, and institutionalized by law, it is oppression.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DEBITO: \u00a0But it’s still the process of “differentiation, othering, and subordination”. \u00a0And it is<\/em> institutionalized by law. \u00a0The very Fundamental Law on Education (Kyouiku Kihon Hou<\/em>) in Japan doesn’t guarantee access to education to foreigners — only to citizens<\/a> — and that has been cited to systematically and effectively shut out and exclude NJ from getting a basic education in Japanese schools. \u00a0That’s why there is an uneducated Brazilian underclass<\/a> that fell through the cracks (as seen in Hamamatsu, a 42-minute local train ride from Karen’s house). \u00a0Likewise, how about the Supreme Court ruling in 2014<\/a> that NJ Residents systemically and systematically don’t qualify for the welfare programs they paid their taxes into?<\/p>\n

I could go on. \u00a0But I shouldn’t have to. \u00a0It’s been cataloged on Debito.org for 30 years now, there for people who are willing to do the research beyond one’s own personal experiences.<\/p>\n

All this, under modern definitions of racism that go beyond seeing American racism and Western “race relations”, still qualifies as racism, not merely “oppression”. \u00a0That’s why people should do some scholarship on the complicated topic before speaking aloud and workshopping ill-defined ideas.<\/p>\n

PHOTO CAPTION: \u00a0From left: Lila \u7483\u7f85 Mario \u771e\u7406\u96c4 Nanao \u5948\u3005\u7dd2 Mie \u7f8e\u679d<\/strong>
\nMy four children, born and raised in rural Japan, never had a foreign friend, playmate, or classmate when they were growing up here. They were always the only foreign children in their schools and our neighborhood. (Nanao, the eldest, was born in Denmark.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

This did not present any significant problems. Although it seems young children desire nothing more than to be like their friends \u2014 and have no desire to stand out, by looks, language, or anything else.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One day my second daughter, Mie, then in fourth grade, came home in tears, saying a boy in her class had said something mean to her regarding her [brown] skin color. I do not remember what he said, but recall it was offensive enough for my husband to report it to the principal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The very following day, the boy\u2019s mother, with her son in tow, (I noted he was dressed in a white collared shirt) came to our door. Bowing deeply in apology (and she was practically in tears), she offered me a flower bouquet, and a gift. I, keenly aware she was upset, bowed in return, as I accepted her apology, along with her gift of small cakes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

No ill feelings. As far as I was concerned, the matter was finished. There was no victim here. I thought of it as a lesson. Our daughter learned we would not let any act of bullying or offensive behavior go unaddressed. The boy would learn how he brought distress and embarrassment to his family and his school. As well as shame, a powerful deterrent to poor behavior in Japanese society.<\/strong><\/p>\n

DEBITO: \u00a0I am pleased that all was resolved so well, with the school admin and the kids’ parents being so cooperative, and that scars from the experience did not seem to linger in Karen’s children. \u00a0Bravo. \u00a0But this experience is hardly universal, and I can cite plenty of other cases where the parents of Visible Minorities weren’t so lucky in their experiences<\/a>\u00a0either administratively or interpersonally. \u00a0Some have even resulted in lawsuits with damages awarded<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Again, I see this is the blind spot of the memoirist. \u00a0If it didn’t happen in their experience, it doesn’t make the memoir. \u00a0But plenty of evidence attests that this methodology discounts or dismisses different experiences.<\/p>\n

Now get a load of the conclusion to this essay:<\/p>\n

There was an incident a some years ago in Japan when racism was charged in a civil suit against a shopkeeper who did not want a Brazilian woman in his jewelry store. The woman, who filed a discrimination lawsuit, and won \u2014 as well she should have \u2014 was described by a foreign journalist as \u201cthe Rosa Parks of Japan.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rosa Parks? Surely not the same Mrs. Rosa Parks, revered by Americans and people of conscience worldwide, for her courage and principled stance in literally sitting down while standing up to injustice. She succeeded in galvanizing a nation in challenging hundreds of years of oppression and institutionalized racism, protected by law, in the most powerful country on earth. That Rosa Parks? I don\u2019t think so. \u00a0ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n

DEBITO: \u00a0And that’s where my pencil dropped. \u00a0This is where the essay ends? \u00a0With the “Straw-Man Argument” that the plaintiff in this case, Ana Bortz, is not Rosa Parks? \u00a0Therefore what happened to Bortz is not racism?<\/p>\n

(By the way, even The Guardian calls this narrative of Rosa Parks a “fable”<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

This is why the tone in this critique is annoyed, not cajoling. \u00a0It’s willful ignorance and misrepresentation of the historical record during and after. \u00a0As seen in many long-term commentators (such as Daniel Kahl and others<\/a>) who simply refuse to do the research.<\/p>\n

I knew Ana Bortz. \u00a0I worked with her for years.<\/a>\u00a0 Catalogued her case on Debito.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bortz never compared herself to Parks.<\/p>\n

So why cite this hack journalist’s lazy sloganeering as a means to dismiss her case as basically incomparable to an American example? \u00a0A comparison nobody really made is somehow cited as proof that Bortz’s case is not racism… enough?<\/p>\n

(UPDATE: \u00a0It turns out that even Anton’s recounting of what the journalist actually said is likely untrue.)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

That’s manifestly incorrect. \u00a0Even Bortz’s judge expressly ruled that it was “racial discrimination” under the UN CERD. \u00a0How disrespectful to Ana Bortz’s work!<\/p>\n

But note what was left out by ending the essay there. \u00a0No mention of the Otaru Onsens Case<\/a>, which we took all the way to Japan’s Supreme Court, and where lower courts unanimously ruled that “Japanese Only” signs ARE “racial discrimination” (jinshu sabetsu<\/em>). \u00a0Or the Steve McGowan Case<\/a>, where an African and African-American were refused entry to a store, and we caught the manager on tape<\/em> expressly saying he refused Steve because he is black and he personally hates black people. \u00a0Or the Yener Case<\/a>. \u00a0Or the Aigi Golf Club Case.<\/a>\u00a0Or any mention of the umpteen other lawsuits, many successful, regarding racial discrimination<\/a>? \u00a0(Summarized in one essay here<\/a>.) \u00a0How disrespectful to them as well!<\/p>\n

When we met a year and a half ago for dinner, Karen and I talked about this issue in some detail, and there were no altercations or dismissive language between us.<\/p>\n

But if a respected writer is going to make claims in writing as grand as these to a broader audience, do the research. \u00a0It’s not hard. \u00a0Decades of work and publications are but a Google search away.<\/p>\n

If you don’t, you wind up paving over history with ahistorical revisionism that we’re already seeing on Karen’s Substack comments section<\/a>. \u00a0This is how ignorance proliferates.<\/p>\n

Karen has seen all this happen in real time to other people, but ignores it because it doesn’t fit into her memoir. \u00a0That’s just not good social science.<\/p>\n

Last word: \u00a0This was a disappointing tossed-off essay from someone who should write better. \u00a0And that’s why I’m responding: \u00a0I’m not going to let an influential commentator on Japan overwrite history just because it doesn’t fit her personal narrative on Japan.<\/p>\n

Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

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

UPDATE NOV 21, 2025:<\/span> \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n

I responded to Karen. \u00a0I posted the conclusion to this essay on Karen’s Substack comments section to this article, with a link back to this page. \u00a0Screenshot as evidence:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(link to this blog entry at the bottom cut off)<\/em><\/p>\n

Karen kindly responded, saying that those who disagree with her are *free to”:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(This screen capture is from an email notification from Substack.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Less than a day later, my post and her response were deleted from Karen’s Substack.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess we’re “free to” disagree as long as it doesn’t intrude into Karen’s Substack narrative. \u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even if she had left it up, note that her argument that she “didn’t mean to demean or denigrate Ana Bortz” could apply to anyone who wrongs anyone. \u00a0Including those who touch her hair. \u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t mean it.\u201d \u00a0But again, it’s easier to dismiss potential racists as merely “stupid” (and compare it to racism in America) than to challenge a system that defends and encourages them. \u00a0It’s easier to ignore and deny history than to research it.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

My takeaway from this event is that willful omission is the MO behind this world view. \u00a0A deliberate short-sightedness. \u00a0No mention again in Karen’s response of the Otaru Onsens Case or anything any other case I mentioned beyond Ana Bortz. \u00a0To Karen, as long as you put in the effort to contribute to your community, anything bad that happens is I guess your fault because you didn’t put in enough effort somehow. \u00a0No amount of clear-cut examples to the contrary shall be factored in. \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>They’ll even be deleted.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

But for someone who continuously holds herself up as a template for how to live in Japan, both in writing and in her public speeches to places like JALT, this is dangerous behavior. \u00a0I’ve already had one person contact me directly to say, “As a darker skinned minority whose kids were brutally bullied, who has experienced real racism, her platform and narrative allows real concerns to be dismissed.”<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Karen is welcome to her worldview, of course. \u00a0But when it becomes a means for other people to ignore (or, in this case, outright delete) history, this isn’t just poor social science. \u00a0This is dangerous denialism. \u00a0And it deserves to be called out. \u00a0Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

SECOND UPDATE, DEC 5, 2025<\/span><\/strong>:<\/h3>\n

Karen Hill Anton has since deleted ALL of our correspondence, including the follow-up exchanges, from her Substack. \u00a0She calls it “clutter”. \u00a0I guess counterarguments would indeed clutter her mind and her narrative, which is now verifiably and firmly rooted in denialism. \u00a0Why brook dissent when it undermines her brand? \u00a0Screen captures for the record again. \u00a0Sincerely, Debito Arudou, Ph.D.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Image 1: \u00a0My followup after Karen deleted my comment archived above (click on image to expand):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image 2: \u00a0My answer to her short answer (click on image to expand):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image 3: \u00a0Karen’s short answer, then my response to that (click on image to expand):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image 4: \u00a0Finally, Karen’s final answer before she deleted this exchange entirely (click on image to expand):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image 5: \u00a0How the site looks now after all the deletions of the record. \u00a0Nothing left but the subsequent comment from Frederick Stimson Harriman you saw above. \u00a0Karen’s comment underneath that is also indicative (click on image to expand):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

ARCHIVE ENDS<\/p>\n

Last word: \u00a0As another person wrote to me personally on this case (identifying information redacted):<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

—————————-<\/p>\n

“Gawd, thank you. I felt gaslit with my assessment and reaction to her work. I checked the comments to her substack and her responses. As someone with a graduate degree in [a social science], I question how she got the work she did. She appears to be anti-DEI and has survivorship bias<\/a> when it comes to race issues. You are someone who is an academic in the field you publicly write about, so responding to her article as you did even though you met her is redeeming and it feels like you have given me a voice.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An older Chinese woman I know who has spent more time in Japan than China was recently shoved and told to go back home. I mentioned this as a concern of rising aggression to friends and their response was that it was nothing, the person likely had mental issues etc. not wanting to discuss it intellectually. It represented another first hand ground level anecdote to how attacking, delegitimizing the field the field you research has shifted from being pushed by the far right to being normalised. I work in the field as well and it guts me how narrative is being manipulated to benefit those in privileged positions. You are doing good work and it gives me faith that some are willing to punch through the BS wall built by the people who benefit from dividing us.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

THIRD UPDATE DECEMBER 22, 2025<\/h3>\n

Karen Hill Anton responded on her Substack to another supportive comment<\/a> (after deleting a few more critical ones, or course) from an editor I locked horns with a few decades ago. \u00a0Her response is within character. \u00a0I guess “engaging with me directly” means keeping my counterarguments to her only despite her public post. \u00a0It’s an ironic use of “coward”, and a fallback to her methodology of “I can write whatever I want because it’s my personal experience,” never mind doing research on and being honest about the historical record on an issue so complex. \u00a0The self-promotion schtick at the expense of others will no doubt continue. \u00a0And I’ll probably have to keep calling it out. \u00a0Archiving this again for the record:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Caption: Cowardice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

======================
\nDo you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0Please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>. Or if you prefer something less complicated, just click on an advertisement below.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karen Hill Anton, a memoirist, writer, and longtime columnist and commentator on Japan I respect a great deal (and have met in person), recently wrote something on her Substack that I take great issue with. It’s not only poorly researched. \u00a0It misrepresents history, distorts the science, and even winds up disrespecting the activists who invested so much of their lives into this issue. <\/p>\n

For example, she concludes her essay with: “There was an incident a some years ago in Japan when racism was charged in a civil suit against a shopkeeper who did not want a Brazilian woman in his jewelry store. The woman, who filed a discrimination lawsuit, and won \u2014 as well she should have \u2014 was described by a foreign journalist as \u201cthe Rosa Parks of Japan. Rosa Parks? Surely not the same Mrs. Rosa Parks, revered by Americans and people of conscience worldwide, for her courage and principled stance in literally sitting down while standing up to injustice. She succeeded in galvanizing a nation in challenging hundreds of years of oppression and institutionalized racism, protected by law, in the most powerful country on earth. That Rosa Parks? I don\u2019t think so.”<\/p>\n

Note what was left out by ending the essay there. \u00a0No mention of the Otaru Onsens Case, which we took all the way to Japan’s Supreme Court, and where lower courts unanimously ruled that “Japanese Only” signs ARE “racial discrimination” (jinshu sabetsu). \u00a0Or the Steve McGowan Case, where an African and African-American were refused entry to a store, and we caught the manager on tape expressly saying he refused Steve because he is black and he personally hates black people. \u00a0Or the Yener Case. \u00a0Or the Aigi Golf Club Case. Or any mention of the umpteen other lawsuits, many successful, regarding racial discrimination? How disrespectful to them!<\/p>\n

I critique the rest of her essay in full because I don’t feel that an influential commentator should ignore and overwrite history just because it doesn’t fit her personal narrative on Japan. <\/p>\n

UPDATE: I notified Karen that I critiqued her essay by posting to her Substack. She responded. But soon she just deleted my post to her Substack completely. All of that is substantiated with screen captures on this blog. My takeaway from this event is that willful omission is the MO behind this world view. \u00a0A deliberate short-sightedness. \u00a0No mention again in Karen’s response of the Otaru Onsens Case or anything any other case I mentioned beyond Ana Bortz. \u00a0To Karen, as long as you put in the effort to contribute to your community, anything bad that happens is I guess your fault because you didn’t put in enough effort somehow. \u00a0No amount of clear-cut examples to the contrary shall be factored in. \u00a0They’ll even be deleted.<\/p>\n

But for someone who continuously holds herself up as a template for how to live in Japan, both in writing and in her public speeches to places like JALT, this is dangerous behavior. \u00a0I’ve already had one person contact me directly to say, “As a darker skinned minority whose kids were brutally bullied, who has experienced real racism, her platform and narrative allows real concerns to be dismissed.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,75,54,36,22,44,19,34,20,5,12,26,73,4,15,56,60,2,11,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-japanese-only-signs","category-pinprick-protests","category-bad-social-science","category-cultural-issue","category-discussions","category-education","category-exclusionism","category-history","category-human-rights","category-immigration-assimilation","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japans-blame-game","category-japanese-government","category-lawsuits","category-nj-legacies","category-nj-voices-ignored","category-otaru-onsen-lawsuit","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\/17614","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=17614"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17681,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17614\/revisions\/17681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}