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Originally Posted by MMM
Actually when this tradition began that is exactly what Japan was: cut off from the rest of the world. No foreigners were allowed into Japan. It was called a "chain country" meaning it was like a chain was around the isolated islands of Japan.
The pale skin of the elite was considered more attractive than the darker skin of those that worked in the fields. At the same time, black or crooked teeth were not considered a negative and there are stories of women with perfectly white teeth who break them with rocks to get a man.
Again, the tradition of lighter skin as more attractive than darker skin is has a long tradition before the modern era in Japan, and before black people were in Japan.
Nowdays that tradition is just that, a tradition. For as many women that avoid the sun to keep their skin pale, there are as many women who go to tanning salons and beaches to get their skin dark. Neither fad, fashion or tradition has anything to do with black people. I am not saying there isn't racism in Japan, but this "truism" really has nothing to do with black people...or white people, for that matter.
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We're not stuck in the Meiji Era. It's 2009. I've seen plenty of dramas and movies and magazines with black people in them. They are not cut off from the world - at least, not enough to not know who black people and white people are. I believe that internalized racism exists in Japan, to the point where many young people have looked at Western foreigners in the media and have wanted to copy them by bleaching their hair blonde and wearing light color contacts. Internalized racism shows itself in the women who get eye surgery to make their eyes look more "Western." With the ideas of wanting to look attractive by looking Western are the ideas that is unattractive to be black.
Light skin being more attractive is also a tradition in America and in most countries you travel to. Saying that it was a tradition in Japan long before black people set foot in the country doesn't change the fact that, today, when I step foot in Japan, people will see my skin and think that I'm not attractive - just as when I step foot in America, Brazil, England, ANYWHERE.
In the days of the confederate flag in the USA, people wanted to defend tradition - leaving the essentials rights of human beings behind. No, Japan isn't America. That doesn't change the fact that these are two countries filled with human beings - and human beings, around the world - no matter the history or geography - has the same habit of racism and oppression, no matter how subtle it is.