＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
<Added March 22, 2021> An incident has occurred that demonstrates the deep-rooted discriminatory attitudes toward Asians among Westerners.
The shooting and strangulation of black suspects by white police officers once sparked a loud cry for the slogan “Black Lives Matter” for the anti-black racism movement.
However, recently, eight people, including an Asian woman, were shot and killed by a white man in Georgia, USA. I believe this incident is emblematic of the deep-rooted discriminatory attitudes toward Asians among Westerners.
It has been reported that the US Department of Justice has determined that Asian Americans and whites experienced racial discrimination during the admissions process at Yale University, one of America’s most prestigious universities.
On August 13, 2020, the US Department of Justice released the results of an investigation into Yale University’s admissions process, finding that the university discriminated against applicants based on their racial and ethnic origins in violation of the law and “adjusted the racial makeup of its student body.”
It seems that, given the same academic performance, Asian Americans had only one-tenth to one-quarter the chance of being accepted compared to Black Americans. It is no exaggeration to call this “reverse discrimination” based on race.
Incidentally, in August 2018, the US Department of Justice also found discrimination against an Asian American (the eldest son of Chinese-born John Shen) in Harvard University’s admissions process. The lawsuit was filed by the nonprofit organization Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA).
However, in October 2019, a federal district court in Boston ruled that “there was no evidence of any racially motivated malice.”
1. Why the US Department of Justice launched an investigation
An Asian American organization filed a lawsuit against American universities, alleging that despite Asian applicants receiving higher academic scores, they were receiving lower ratings in character evaluations due to their race. The Department of Justice began investigating the case two years ago.
2. Reasons for Yale University’s Racial Manipulation of the Student Body (Speculation)
In 2018, Tokyo Medical University was found to have “uniformly reduced the scores of female applicants in the entrance exam, manipulating the system so that over 70% of the students were male.” This appears to be a similar manipulation.
As I am not involved, I can only speculate, but I believe the reasons for this are as follows:
(1) “Affirmative Action” (US: affirmative action / UK: positive discrimination)
“Affirmative action” refers to measures to improve the situation by giving preferential treatment to groups that have historically or socially suffered disadvantage, such as minority groups and women.
In the United States, President Kennedy first issued an executive order in 1961 banning racial discrimination in recipients of federal contracts.
Subsequently, racial quotas were introduced as “preferential treatment quotas for minority races,” but they came under criticism as “reverse discrimination against whites,” and a 1978 Supreme Court ruling on admissions declared racial quotas unconstitutional. However, this was an incomplete and half-hearted rule that only allowed race to be considered when there were equally qualified candidates.
Thus, while racial quotas are unconstitutional at American universities, they are permitted to consider race in the selection process, resulting in a “de facto racial quota system.”
According to SFFA, Asian Americans generally tend to perform well on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and while the number of Asians applying to college is increasing, the proportion of Asians among accepted students between 2006 and 2014 remained roughly constant at 18-20%. The proportion of other races has also remained unchanged, leading to the organization’s assertion that racial quotas are effectively in place.
(2) Pressure from Anti-Black Racism Groups and Reputational Risk
Deep-rooted racial discrimination against Black people has existed in the United States for a long time. Recently, a Black suspect was killed by excessive force at the hands of a white police officer, sparking large-scale protests led by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, a nonviolent civil disobedience organization.
In this social climate, if the proportion of Black people among university students suddenly declines due to the rapid rise of high-achieving Asian Americans in recent years, perhaps they thought this would lead to increased backlash and protests, increasing their reputational risk.
(3) Donations from “Anti-Black Racism Groups”
Similar to the backdoor admissions scandal at Tokyo Medical University in Japan, if there were any illicit financial transactions between Yale professors and the parents of Black applicants, it would be a major issue. However, could it be that anti-Black racism groups were making large donations to the university?
(4) Deep-rooted Western Peril toward Asians
① Yellow Peril Theory
The “Yellow Peril” theory, also known as the “Yellow Racial Threat,” is a form of racism that emerged in white countries such as Europe, North America, and Australia from the late 19th century to the early 20th century.
Triggered by Japan’s military advance into mainland China during the First Sino-Japanese War, this policy ideology spread to Russia, Germany, and France, which also had advances into mainland China.
While Koreans may now also be targeted, the Yellow Peril theory primarily targeted Chinese and Japanese people in modern times. Examples of this include the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Japanese Exclusion Act of 1924 in the United States.
Incidentally, Okakura Tenshin (1863-1913) used the term “White Disaster” in his English-language essay, stating that “Western imperialism, accompanied by military and Christian missionary activities, is encroaching on the lifestyles and cultures of other countries.”
This essay was read in Europe and published in Japan as “The Awakening of the East (The Awakening of Japan).”
② Discrimination against Japanese People in Sports
Whenever Japanese athletes begin to perform well, rules have almost always been revised to disadvantage them.
In America, known as the “melting pot of races,” racial issues include not only “racism against Black people” but also “racism against Asians,” “reverse discrimination against white people,” and “excessive preferential treatment for Black people.”
Going forward, I believe that Japanese people, like Chinese and Koreans, should clearly take a stance against the “deep-rooted discrimination against Asians in America.”