Twenty-year-old Ariana Miyamoto is a lot of things. A stunningly beautiful model. The first ever mixed-race winner of Miss Universe Japan. A Nagasaki native and Japanese citizen. And, now, the victim of racism in one of the world’s most racially homogenous countries. Since winning her crown and making history, Miyamoto has been criticized by those in her home country for not being “Japanese enough.” This has sparked an important conversation around the world about a very specific type of racism experienced by mixed-race individuals in particular.
Western audiences seem to understand why the criticism Miyamoto is facing is racism, yet it’s important to also realize that Western culture is still infected with a particular racism toward individuals who are mixed race.
Canadian rapper Drake wrote personally about this very topic on his latest album “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.” The song “You and The 6” centers around a conversation between Drake and his mother, and speaking of the criticism Drake himself has experienced in regard to his ethnicity, he writes, “I used to get teased for being black / And now I’m here and I’m not black enough.” Drake is one of the only major rappers that has a reputation for being “soft” or overly sensitive, and these lines magnify the type of rejection mixed race individuals often feel from both or all of the communities they represent.
In a country as racially diverse as the United States, we may find Miyamoto’s critics shocking, but it’s crucial that we use this as an opportunity to look into our own culture and the ways in which we treat our own mixed-race public figures.
The most upsetting aspect of the racism Miyamoto is experiencing is that it comes in the face of such a historical moment for Japan and the beauty pageant industry. Miyamoto won her crown in a country that is 98 percent ethnically Japanese, in an industry that is notorious for favoritism of lighter skin. The modeling and pageant industries are plagued with racism and have contributed to the incorrect ideology that white skin is the global beauty standard. ThinkProgress reported just last month that between 2008 and 2014, roughly 80 percent of the models hired for New York Fashion Week were white. The New York Times reported that only three major African-American designers were featured during Fashion Week this year. That’s out of 260.
It’s clear the Miyamoto is breaking barriers where they most desperately need to be broken. Yet she is still forced to defend her Japanese heritage, despite the fact that she was born in Japan, lives there currently and speaks fluent Japanese.
This type of rejection felt by mixed-race individuals is undoubtedly hurtful. People like Drake, who are half-white and half-black, often do not gain full acceptance or experience the same privileges individuals who are “fully white” do. The racism that whites have historically institutionalized puts people of color at a social disadvantage, whether or not a person is mixed- or single-race.
Often, however, the African-American community rejects those who are mixed race as well. It’s a type of middle-ground erasure, where mixed-race individuals are stuck in between two communities that they rightfully belong to because of the historical implications white people have put on being a person of color. These people are often forced to reject half of their heritage in order to gain some semblance of acceptance into a community.
Bisexual individuals have an experience that is markedly different — considering race and sexuality are so fundamentally different — but guided by the same principles. Because of the implications heterosexuals have put on being gay at all, bisexuals are often unable to gain acceptance by heterosexuals socially. Yet, LGBT groups can be just as bad at being accepting of bisexual individuals, saying they aren’t “gay enough” or trying to force them to “decide what they want.”
Everything is a spectrum. Race and sexuality are no different. White heteronormative values seek to make us believe that everything is black or white, straight or gay, but that’s just not the case. In Japan, it’s the same way. The highly homogenous nature of the country has caused the overwhelming majority to feel as if being fully ethnically Japanese is the only way to be Japanese.
The erasure and rejection that individuals who subvert compartmentalization feel is both harmful and prejudiced. It’s important for those of us who are a part of any type of social majority to examine and evaluate the values homogeneity can perpetuate and the effects these values can have on people who don’t fit neatly into the arbitrary groups we’ve created. Because, after all, Ariana Miyamoto is a beautiful representative for Japan, and, honestly, where would any of us be without Drake?
