“I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.”
― Abraham Lincoln
“I can’t breathe,” said George Floyd. It was his last words before he was murdered by a Police officer, Derek Chauvin, in Minneapolis. It didn’t take long before his death sparked thousands of people to take action. “Black lives matter!” Not only did tens of thousands of Americans railed in cities and towns all across the nation, even Europeans, and Australians joined the global protest to fight racial discrimination against Black people.
When I was young, I didn’t care about what was happening in America or any other country simply because my small town was my whole world. Once my dad told me about American school kids and how different their education system is when compared to ours. I told him “why do I have to care about American kids? It doesn’t affect my life anyway.” At that time, I, of course, wasn’t able to speak English and didn’t know anything about foreign countries. My dad, however, kindly told me “the whole world is interlinked to each other. Nothing is indifferent to us, Yosuke.” At that moment, I didn’t quite get what he meant. But now I do.
Interacting with people from another country, culture, and religion is another way to take a look at ourselves. As my dad once told me, in this connected and globalized world, everything is interlinked to each other. Those seemingly indifferent matters happening on the other side of the earth may eventually affect us in some forms. That’s anybody’s guess, but it could happen in our connected world.
Considering what I mentioned above, think about racism in my own country, Japan. Does racism exist in Tokyo? Unfortunately, yes. But the definition of discrimination varies and it does exist in many forms. It’s never simple, and some people racially discriminate against others without knowing the fact that what they do is considered discrimination according to the global standard.
Let’s take a look at an example. It happened like ten years ago and is about a Korean ice skater, Kim Yuna. She was a South Korea’s former competitive figure skater and is the 2010 Olympic champion and 2014 silver medalist in ladies’ single. She’s a beautiful and talented figure skater.
However, how she was depicted in the Japanese media was a little different. Since she was considered a competitive rival to Japanese ice skating idle, Mao Asada, some Japanese TV shows introduced Kim as our nemesis. And it was not only because she was good at figure skating, but also due to the long-time rivalry between the two countries. But wait. Since when did she become our nemesis? Has she done anything personal to us? Of course no!
She just happens to be Korean and good at ice skating. And now she turns out to be our nemesis? That doesn’t make any sense! Think about it, we didn’t have any reason to direct our hostility towards her.
And what’s more, I want to emphasize how risky it is to broadcast such bullshit on public media. That’s because kids are also watching it. Have they ever considered the influence on them? How would those TV broadcasters take responsibility if those kids grew up watching their shows grow innate hostility towards our neighbor?
And this can be seen everywhere in the world. Look at Israeli–Palestinian conflict, India-China Border Dispute, and racial hatred towards those who have Asian appearance in the west over coronavirus concerns.
You see, governments try so hard to persuade us to hate those whom we never met just because they have different perspectives, beliefs, and skin colors.
So, here comes my question. Why do we have to hate each other? Why are we so divided? I know some of your countries have difficult histories and values. But that may be fixable. Why do we keep it remain as it is? Why can’t we just simply be friends? Instead of throwing bombs to each other, why can’t we just throw flowers at each other, just like Bansky’s Flower Bomber?
This is what the United Nations is for. Unfortunately, the organization isn’t functioning as it should. If it doesn’t, why don’t we start making some difference?
If your government tries manipulating you to hate a certain group of people for political reasons, ask yourself, why do you have to hate them? Instead of directing hostility towards them, try knowing who they are. And if you have a chance to have a conversation with some of them living in your country as immigrants or foreign residents, try talking to them. Be nice and kind, because kindness always makes a difference. Just give it a try and see how it goes.
Lastly, here are some shots of Hydrangea I photographed in Kamakura.
