My latest article is up on the Japan Times website, a chat with the reigning Miss Universe Japan, Ariana Miyamoto. Check it out!

Here’s an excerpt:

Her name has lit up social media like the constellations since her coronation. Black media can’t stop talking about her. To many, she is yet another global validation of black beauty in the flesh, a young woman who overcame prejudice and race-based adversity to achieve the previously unachievable. How do you not talk about her? Even some of the big dogs, like CNN and Reuters, have given her the time of day, spreading her name and compelling story to media markets everywhere.

Well, almost everywhere.

According to Ariana, most of the major news outlets here in Japan have yet to give her story its due. Beyond the announcement of her having won the pageant — and the obligatory allusions to her not being a full-fledged member of the Japanese race — there hasn’t been much said or done. No one has taken a comprehensive look at this remarkable woman’s journey, nor has there been any discussion of what an Ariana victory at the Miss Universe contest could (potentially) mean for the future of Japan. Her manager, seated beside her, whipped out a stack of business cards he’d collected from media people on their interviewing spree, and he, too, lamented the under-representation of their homeland among them.

“Japanese people don’t even recognize me. Only foreigners recognize me!” Ariana said, clearly to her chagrin, though her brilliant smile never faltered.

 

Click Here For the rest of the story

Ain’t she something!

Loco