Hi there!
My name is Rennique Thomas, a first year JET in Omura City. “The land of wood and water” is often used to describe the land of my birth, Jamaica, which has produced legends the likes of Bob Marley and Usain Bolt.
The Caribbean region where I am from has often been said to be a melting pot of different cultures, due to the area’s history of colonization and migration. Notwithstanding, Jamaica is a country populated by ninety percent people of African heritage and, as would be expected, being black there is the norm. Being in Japan has thus been a completely unique experience.
As a foreigner and a person of colour in Japan, there have been many days when I wish I could hide away or melt into the group, so that I’m not easily identifiable. The weight of being different is especially heavy when people stare or when no one sits next to you in a train when the seats closest to you are readily available. I have on different occasions approached people to ask for directions and they have either instantly made an attempt to run away, or have been so evidently uncomfortable that I have just resolved to laugh such situations off.
Despite this, my first few months in Japan have been a wonderful learning adventure, where I’ve both been able to share contrasts and similarities with my own country as well as gain a deeper understanding about the culture and lifestyle of Japanese people. Never has my hair or skin been such objects of fascination! I enjoy learning new words that are used to describe my hair, and using my limited Japanese language ability to try to describe the process of having my hair twisted, flattened, or just getting a line and shave.
It’s always interesting explaining to younger children that this is the natural colour of my skin. Even more intriguing is the question of why my palms are not black as well, which one probably would never have questioned back home. People I have met here, however, are some of the kindest souls I’ve ever encountered and are genuinely curious about me as a foreigner and POC. People like my barber have brought up racial issues in conversation and asked me if I experience discrimination back home because of my skin colour. These conversations make me hopeful and genuinely happy that people are aware of problems that people of colour face.
My deepest times of reflection on being a POC probably come from my interactions with mixed children of African-Japanese heritage, where other children refer to us as “oya-ko,” or parent and child. Having limited contact with blacks, students often jeer at these mixed students, telling them that we look alike or that we are blood related. Though this doesn’t bother me, it makes me deeply concerned about the experience of those students, being half-Japanese and not fully understood. In some ways, it leaves me sometimes wondering if I should limit interactions with these students so they aren’t jeered at, or if I should embrace being who I am and instead help to show that humans aren’t so much different as we are alike. This makes me even more motivated to bring the world to the classroom to show that there are many more types of people outside of one’s borders.
Being from Jamaica, everyone assumes that I can run fast, often telling me that I look “athletic.” This should motivate me to do some exercise! As for advice for anyone coming here, it’ll take time, but you’ll learn! Use your time here as a time of growth! One love!
by Rennique Thomas, 1st year ALT in Omura
Nagasaki JET 