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A Sojourn in Haiti
I had planned to write a travel piece about Haiti, describing how idyllic she is: the lush green countryside, the cloud-capped mountains, the clear blue waters, the wistful art, the dignified people,...
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Self-Emancipation for Dummies
World-renown black leaders like President Barack Obama, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X) actually come from a long line of inspired intellectuals and gifted...
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If You Live in Japan and Never Use These, Consider Yourself Japanese
Over the course of my 13 years in Japan I have found that many of my feelings I just can’t express well in Nihongo. The Japanese “cuss” words just don’t do it for me. For example, all the feelings I...
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Filling The Black Hole in the Space Program
When I was a kid, mankind had already walked on the moon, planted their flags in her and moved on to new business, mainly satellites. But, in Hollywood we were all over the galaxy. At least white...
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On Bullying, Hazing, and Backbiting in Japan
My eye caught the hand movement and spotted the projectile as soon as it left its source: Matsui-kun. Takahashi-sensei (not her real name), the other half of my teaching team, was writing something on...
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See That Black Boy Over There Runnin’ Scared?
I was 9 or 10 and a 5th grader at a very revolutionary school in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. It was a Friday evening, I believe, and I was staying over my best friend and classmate Ketema’s house, as I often...
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Amina DuJean: The Girl-Next-Door and a WHOLE Lot More!
The new #BlackEye hits the newsstands tomorrow, 2/20/17, featuring the “first black American idol” in Japan, Amina DuJean! Amina DuJean: 黒人アイドル あみにゃん Since her arrival in Japan a mere 2.5 years ago,...
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I’m Your Mamma, I’m Your Daddy, I’m that Nigga in the Alley!
When I was a kid, so-called blaxploitation films were a hot ticket! Who wouldn’t rather see black folk kicking white ass all over the place? Not to mention black tits and ass! When Superfly was first...
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One Sunday in Savannah: A Birthday Post for My Mother
One Sunday, in March of 1941, a child was born to sharecroppers in Savannah, Georgia. They named her Rosemary, and the whole of creation shouted, “praise the lord!” for she was a godsend, like all...
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From 9/11 Til 3/11: An Evolving Relationship with Fear
I was about to leave home for work- my office a mere 5 block walk from my apartment in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn where I had lived on the top floor of a 4-story Brownstone for about 7 years- when the world...
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Butterfly Effect
Yesterday I was sitting in the outdoor section of a Starbucks near Yokohama station sipping coffee, when I noticed a butterfly flitting and fluttering about, checking out the cafe as if to see if it...
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Black Women in Japan are Winning!!
The latest #BlackEye is up! Featuring four of the members of Black Women in Japan sharing the recipe to the group’s phenomenal success! It’s no accident that BWIJ has experienced tremendous growth...
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How Do You Say ‘Dementor’ in Japanese?
This conversation took place today at a cafe in Yokohama between a student and I. Me: Hey, how are you? Student: I don’t feel so well. Me: Physically or emotionally? Student: Emotionally. Me: Sorry to...
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Congolese Architect Builds More than Just Buildings in Japan
Growing up in New York, you tend to turn a blind eye on much it has to offer. Native New Yorkers generally leave all that gawking, oohing and ahhing to the tourists. Celebrities might get a nod…maybe....
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Maintaining Mental Health in Japan
…is not easy but there’s no need to suffer in silence and isolation. Sometimes you just need someone to listen, who gets it. There are services available here in Japan for people who might just need a...
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Is Japan Really a Land of Opportunity?
The latest #BlackEye is up and atcha! This month’s piece tackles the question of opportunity in Japan, and how viewing this country as such (or not) might just be a matter of where you’re coming...
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Who’s Teaching the History and Diversity of “Blackness” in Japan?
#BlackEye is Back! Previously Black Eye has brought you several series. The first (a three parter) on maintaining identity in Japan. The 2nd was another three-parter on Jamaicans in Japan. The 3rd was...
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Are Blacks and Japanese Still Allies? Understanding “Blackness” in Japan
The latest #BlackEye is up and atcha! This month we launch a series on who is teaching “blackness” in Japan, as well as the how and why. We start appropriately with an academic beast! The author of the...
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A Japanese Professor Explains Why it’s Essential that Japanese Learn the...
This month’s #BlackEye, for the first time in its 3-year run, speaks with a Japanese professor, Dr. Keiko Shirakawa! As I explained in the previous column, we’re in the midst of a series on teaching...
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Talking About THIS Japan???
Just wanted to take a moment out to say thank you all for your support of this little enterprise of mine known as Black Eye. When I started Black Eye back in 2014, I only knew one thing for certain:...
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Why Japanese People Fear Black People (Confessions of a former Japanese Racist)
In a recent video on his popular YouTube channel “Find Your Love in Japan“, the YouTuber known as “Nobita” decided to tackle a subject that (as you guys well know) is near and dear to me: Pokemon! Nah,...
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Obstructing Japanese Chikan (Perverts) on the Trains
I could feel the awkward pressure against me, his bodily insistence that I move when moving was unnecessary; ample space awaited him in the other direction I discerned with a glance. If this were NY I...
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My Welcome to Japan
When I first moved to Japan I lived in Musashi Urawa out in Saitama. It’s about 20 minutes from Tokyo on the Saikyo Line. The Ekimae (the area around the station) has a handful of shops and...
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My First Time was Relatively Painless
Dateline: January 9, 2011 Place: Yokohama, Japan Venue: Bad Communication Podcast Interviewers: Andrew and Hiroki Interviewee: Yours Truly My very first live interview! Can’t believe it’s been almost 7...
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Mi Kasa, Su Kasa (Aoi-san’s Last Stand)
As I laced up my boots preparing to leave my house, I realized that the noise that had awakened me an hour earlier than my alarm (and the sound I’d been trying to ignore all morning) was the...
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Is Baye-Sensei a Nee-Gah, Too?
There’s a cute little 13-year old ハーフ hafu (biracial African-American and Japanese) among my 1st year students. Her name is Risa (not her real name) and she kinda favors Rue from “The Hunger Games”....
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Autumn in New York: Advising a Japanese Friend about NYC
This conversation took place between me and a student in a cafe in Yokohama: Student: So, I have some news. Me: What is it? Student: My company is sending me to New York at the end of October! Me:...
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A Chat with the New African President of a Japanese Uni
As teased and promised earlier this week, #BlackEye introduces the first black president of a Japanese university (according to the Japanese Ministry of Education), Oussouby Sacko, who was generous...
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Japan Writers Conference 2017: Black Eye is in da House!
The 11th Annual Japan Writers Conference will be held this (long) weekend October 8th and 9th (Sunday & Monday), at Nihon University College of Art, Ekoda Campus. And once again I’ll be presenting....
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How to Win in Japan? “Compete at the Japanese Level!”
#BlackEye is back! As promised, Part Deux of my conversation with the new president of Kyoto Seika University, Dr. Oussouby Sacko, detailing his rise to the top slot in Academia once arriving in Japan....
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What the World Needs Now…is More Kwanzaa!
This month for you guys I’ve put together a special holiday #BlackEye focused on the African-American celebration known as Kwanzaa. I’ve been celebrating Kwanzaa since I was 6 years old, back when the...
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The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa Illustrated Pt. 1: Forging Umoja Abroad
This year, I took the liberty of writing personal messages illustrating what the Nguzo Saba (Seven Principles of Kwanzaa) mean to me and how they’ve impacted my life since I first celebrated the...
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The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa Illustrated Pt. 2: My Name is Baye
Maybe you’ve wondered how an American, from Brooklyn, got an African name like Baye. Well, it was a result of the 2nd principle of Kwanzaa, Kujichagulia. Kujichagulia: My Name is Baye! Me and...
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The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa Illustrated Pt. 3: The Land of Ujima
The third principle of Kwanzaa is Ujima, and I’ve seen Ujima best illustrated, surprisingly, here in Land of the Rising Sun, which I’ve rechristened for the purposes of this post: The Land of Ujima....
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Japanese Speak Up on Blackface in Japan
日本語でのコメントが下に掲載されています Happy New Years to all! #BlackEye is back! To begin the year I’m gonna do something I began last year: I’m gonna let Japanese people talk about Blackness in Japan. After all, when...
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Is This How The World Views Us? Part 2: Image is Everything!
If you haven’t read part 1, Loco in Cap-Haitien, HERE you go! I wasn’t in Japan long at all before I came to learn that here, particularly for non-Japanese, you are what the image of you portrays you...
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Traumatic Reminiscence at a Japanese Cat Cafe: Neko in Yokohama
When I mentioned to one of my students that I liked cats, she recommended I check out this new Cat Cafe in Kannai, Yokohama called Cafe Miysis. So I made my way over there today to check it out. I’ve...
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Was Dr. King’s Dream Deferred? A Birthday Message to the Good Doctor
Dear Dr. King: In 1951, long before you made your “I have a dream” speech, the great poet Langston Hughes wrote the following poem, called “Harlem”: What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up...
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How to Avoid Becoming a Stalker
So, last night, I was out in Yokohama stalking random Japanese people using my fearsome physique and menacing mien to threaten them with bodily harm or worse…actually I was headed to my friend’s house...
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Gaijin Hygiene
One of my favorite things about Japan are onsens (hot springs). I was introduced to onsens on my first visit here, before I decided to relocate. I came to visit a friend and stayed with him for a...
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On Trump’s Inaugural Speech: Speechless, Sleepless and Shook!
Last night I couldn’t sleep. I had received a lot of requests from friends and fam to boycott the Inauguration by not watching it. But I went ahead and did it anyway. You might as well be telling a...
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How to NOT Get Racially Profiled in Japan…if You’re Black
The latest #BlackEye is coming at you right now! Interviewing a brother by the name of Jesse Freeman who finds himself on the business end of police harassment way too often. In this interview he makes...
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Theories on Racial Profiling Discrepancies in Japan
Been getting so many comments on today’s #BlackEye article that I believe I’m going to have to do a follow-up. Perhaps even something investigative, either on my blog or on my column. haven’t decided...
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Is This How The World Views Us? Part 3: Furious Styles Packs A .357 Magnum
If you haven’t read parts ONE: Loco in Cap-Haitien and TWO: Image is Everything check them out. To me, the true point Chris Rock made in his stand-up routine (purposely or obliviously) is this: Just as...
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The One-Eyed Black Jew Who Changed the World!
When I was a kid there was a TV show I watched every sunday called Wonderama. I really only remember a couple of things about the show…the songs mostly. One song in particular was performed by a black...
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“Mannnn! You Come Right Outtavah Comic Book!!”
Seven-year old me sat in a rat infested cat patrolled theatre with my brothers, eating stale popcorn and sipping watery sprite, watching Chinese men have their eyes ripped from the sockets by other...
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Nothing But Love for THIS Love Hotel!
One of my favorite areas in Yokohama is called Shin-Yokohama. It doesn’t have a lot to offer, but what it has, it has in spades. For one there’s the ramen museum. Y’all know I’m big fan of ramen! (You...
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Could ‘Black Panther’ Change Japanese Perceptions of “Blackness”?
After a one month hiatus (the reason for which is explained in the article) #BlackEye is back! Yay, right? Thanks for all the love and messages of concern. My soul is on the mend. Thanks in part to the...
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From the US to the UAE to Japan: This Brother be Ballin’!
Samir St. Clair, the subject of this month’s #BlackEye, started his basketball coaching journey on a humble, helping his friend run a team of pre-teens. Little did he know his love of leading and...
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Are Blacks Dangerous for Japan?
The latest #BlackEye for The Japan Times is up and atcha! This time around we respond to the alarming increase in racist SNS content aimed at the presence of people of African descent living here in...
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