I was riding my bike to the store yesterday when I heard one of my friends shout behind me. Apparently she was heading that way, too. I slowed down to allow her to catch up. A few minutes later, she pulled up beside me and said, “You know, it’s really interesting riding a ways behind you.” I said, “Why’s that?” She laughed and replied, “I get to see all the people doing double-takes and staring at you. One guy almost crashed because he was looking at you!” Wow. All I could do was laugh.
I’m a naturally blonde, blue-eyed American living in southern (“country”) Japan. It’s not every day the locals see someone who looks like me. However, it very rarely bothers me when people stare (occasionally an older guy might make me a bit uncomfortable, but that’s rare). Especially little kids are so cute in their innocent and genuine curiosity. Often I might be sitting on a park bench somewhere or walking along the street and along will come a bunch of school kids eager to practice their English. They’ll say something like, “Hello! Nice to meet you!” or, my personal favorite, “Hi!! I am fine, thank you, and you?!” Sometimes I smile back, say hello, and that’s the end of it as the children continue on their way, now in a fit of giggles. Other times I go on to continue the conversation, and the kids freak out due to either a) lack of vocabulary, b) being freaked that a foreigner is talking to them, or c) a combination of the two. Overall, this sometimes turns into a very cheap form of entertainment for myself.
One of my coworkers from Canada is extremely uncomfortable in situations such as that. She died her naturally medium brown hair black in hopes to not be noticed as much. She hates it when random people look at her or try to talk to her. I think she’s setting herself up to get burnt out really quickly.
Overall, I think gaining the experience of being a minority is very eye-opening. I now understand more of what minorities in my own country might go through on a regular basis. Rather than being offended or bothered, I am enjoying this opportunity to educate myself and others about different cultures and show that people of difference cultures are capable of living together peacefully.
As a white American from the Midwest, I didn’t think I would ever be a part of the minority, especially not one as extreme as what I am currently (less than 1% in my community). Now that I am, I find it a life-changing (in a good way!) experience. I will return to the states with a whole new respect and perspective of minorities. I think more Americans (especially white Americans) should experience something similar to what I am.
Hi, what you say is very much true. Until someone knows how it like to be a minority all someone can do is criticize. However, being a minority does not alway mean that you just get the strange stare from people. It also must harder to co-exist with the dominant group when just one or two person in the minority group do something bad to the dominant group and the whole minority group get the blame and get treated as criminal. However, when a person from a dominant group do something bad to another person in the dominant group, it treated as nothing. It a very sad thing how people treat each other especially when it come to race.