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 yet.
Because these comments are ALL over the place!
(by the way, If you haven’t read the article, you can peep it HERE:
It seems these incidents just happen or don’t happen, case by case. Regardless of wardrobe or location or time of day or night, etc…
Perhaps even regardless of race. That is, as long as your race is non-Japanese.
I’ve got white commenters saying it happens all the time, and black commenters saying it never happens. I’ve got people in the countryside feeling targeted and people in the inner cities saying they’ve never felt targeted.
I learned from reading the comments on this story that one white gentleman learned that the police in his case were stopping foreigners just for training purposes!!! (see the comment section HERE for more info on this incident).
There seems no discernible pattern. So hard to put your finger on a definite profile.
I’m beginning to think that it happens in waves everywhere…you know?
My theory is, it’s not a standing profile or order. But periodically there are sweeps (for whatever reason – an incident, a training exercise, etc…) that target foreigners and last for weeks or months, in any given area, and then stop. So you’ll get people who get caught up in these sweeps feeling the impact of the profiling, but once it’s gone people in that very same area will say they experienced nothing of the sort because somehow the sweep missed them.
Anyway, just hypothesizing…trying to discern a reason for the discrepancies. I would love to hear your thoughts or theories. Perhaps we can get them translated into Japanese and get them into the hands and minds of those who need to know what the objects of their training / profiling / random harassment (or what have you) are thinking and feeling.
As Jesse did so well in this article. Thank you Jesse for sharing your story with us.
Loco
PS: This is clearly a thing, so people who have not had this happen to them could you please refrain from suggesting that it doesn’t happen, or that these people are oversensitive and need to lighten up, or from suggesting it’s something that doesn’t require addressing because “at least they’re not shooting you or locking you up, like in America”? Why? Because it’s disrespectful to the people who have endured it consistently.