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There is a Stranger Among Us: The African-American Experience of Blackness in Japan

Beck, Key JR
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384850532

Abstract Details

2013, MA, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Anthropology.
Representations of "blackness" are present in Japan in the form of advertisements, television personalities, animated films, and other popular culture domains. In city centers, such as Harajuku and Shinjuku, representations overemphasize rap and hip-hop street culture, amplifying certain racial stereotypes of black people. Anthropologists and historians have examined this commodification of "blackness" in Japan through popular culture forms like rap music (Condry 2000), film (Russell 1998) and jazz and hip-hop clubs (Atkins 2000). This ethnographic research study examines ways African-American expatriates experience being black in Japan. Interview and observational data were collected from African-Americans currently living in Japan. Their shared experiences help highlight the fluidity of "blackness" and the implications of black-bodied identities as products within contemporary Japanese society. A reflexive methodology facilitated a contextualized view of transnational practices taking place including the commodification of "blackness", the emotional labor of "cultural ambassadors," and emerging and converging forms of authenticity and imitation.
Stephanie Sadre-Orafai, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Sarah Jackson, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
74 p.
Cultural Anthropology
blackness; ethnography; cultural ambassador; race; identity; Japan

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Beck, K. J. (2013). There is a Stranger Among Us: The African-American Experience of Blackness in Japan [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384850532

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Beck, Key. There is a Stranger Among Us: The African-American Experience of Blackness in Japan. 2013. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384850532.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Beck, Key. "There is a Stranger Among Us: The African-American Experience of Blackness in Japan." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1384850532

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1384850532
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© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.