When I arrived for this month's appointment, Shinji was listening to NPR streaming radio when I arrived—at least it
sounded like NPR, with the smooth
"mentholated" voice reporting the news; it turned out to be
WNYC, reporting on national and local news.
As I undressed, donned my fundoshi, and laid down on the table, the broadcast focused on the political situation
around the Confederate flag, the actions and debate around it’s removal
from capital buildings in several Southern states, and what that means for race relations in this country.
Much like when Shinji and I talked about American jazz after one of my earlier appointments, as I was getting tattooed I began to think about what he would think about this debate, as
someone from Japan? The long history of race issues in this country are difficult to contextualize for someone from outside this country—or would it be easier for someone from outside the U.S., with no preconceived ideas or… prejudices?
Historically, the Japanese have had their own
screwed-up ideas about race. (The historical treatment of the
Burakumin are one example.) It has traditionally been the opinion of the Japanese
that, unlike us here in the United States, they don’t deal with racial tension, as their population is uniquely homogenous. This has long been a popularly-held belief, despite
time and again being shown to not be the case. How does coming from
that history frame an understanding of what
we, as a country, are dealing with?
After a while, the talk about the confederate flag went to discussing
Obama’s recently-televised eulogy of Reverend Pinckney, slain at the Charleston church
shooting. “It seems Obama spends more time addressing his congregation than
his constituents,” pondered one of the guests. “Well he was giving a eulogy, in a church….” replied the host. Unless you’re familiar with the sermons of the South, and traditionally Black churches in particular, how
would
someone know when Obama was code-switching between his black and white audience?
The program then went on to cover Chris Christie’s announcement that he will be campaigning for President. How do you
explain Christie? His Blue-collar message of “work hard, and you will succeed”
message, coupled with references to how “runaway entitlements” are crippling the country
financially; the discussion of him in the “Guiliani” model, and how that may be
a hard image to sell outside the Northeastern U.S. How do you give that a
context?
After this was an interview with presidential once-hopeful
Gary Hart, discussing his new book and lamenting the current state of politics—and
lobbying, in particular. “I’m a student of history, but I’m no Arthur
Schlesinger,” he said, when discussing the sense of disappointment that he felt Jefferson,
Madison, and Adams would have toward our current, corrupt political system. “Well, I’m a student of Japan, but I’m no Donald Richie,” I
thought, as I pondered more about what Shinji must think about American politics.
After that was in interview with the director of the new
documentary
Cartel Land, about vigilante groups from the U.S. going after the drug cartels in Mexico. What would a Japanese person think of
all this, coming from a country that doesn’t have a drug problem—because they
don’t really have a culture of illegal, recreational drug use?
In the end, it really wasn’t, or isn’t, about what Shinji thought about all this, but about how hard it is to really make sense of it all with context—but especially without.
And my tattooing sucked today. The ribs were worse than
expected. And there was a woman with rage-fueled Tourette's on the bus on the way
back, which made the ride home all the more interesting.
