In my experience, Japanese people view African Americans as they do other Americans. (They don't really know enough about them, other than the BS that's on T.V., Movies, and Music, to make a judgment call on who or what a black person can offer.) When I went to Japan 2009-2010, I went with three other white Americans. The Japanese never called me Black, they called me American. They didn't assume I came from Africa because I was black, they didn't treat me any differently than they treated the white Americans I came with.
Thinking more and more about this... I don't think that there was a time in history when the Japanese had a problem with Africans or African Americans specifically. The problems in that regard started in the Western world and I believe that some people still try to push the beliefs that they grew up with or where exposed to on the Japanese and their way of thinking as if they, too, think like the western world. Like RealJames was talking about his gf's grandparents. They aren't racist because he is white, they are racist because he is foreign. If it were someone like my brother, a black man, they would be the same way, not because he's black but because he's foreign.
I think that it would be just as tough for a white woman, with blue eyes and blonde hair, to find a man that loves her for her and not her eyes or skin don't you think, RealJames? I know full well that a black woman would definitely stand out in Japan, but a white women would too in a place of mostly Asians.
MMM, I asked you when you lived in Japan because it's very easy to judge the reactions of a society based off of the time period you experienced..... It was quite some time ago that you experience day to day life in Japan and times have definitely changed since you lived there.
There were A LOT of people that wanted to take my picture or touch my hair (I have dreads) or even touch my boobs!!!!! (Japanese girls.... I guess to make sure they were real haha) But I never thought that they were my friends just because I was foreign. They didn't do that with my black friends from Kenya or France. I really believe it was my personally, my interests, my willingness to be outgoing (even when my Japanese wasn't good yet) that won them over.
Nyororin makes a VALID point. Dating is TOTALLY different than marriage. That's went you put up or shut up, to put it bluntly. I have no doubt about being able to date a Japanese guy because it is just dating and if I'm there long enough, it'll happen at some point. But when all cards are laid out on the table and all bets are off, it is the marriage that matters. (To me at least)
Please keep the comments coming.
