Narrating One's Own Experiences of Discrimination

Abstract

Narrating one' s own experiences of discrimination is neither the act of discrimination nor narrating discrimination in general and abstract terms. In everyday life, we rarely talk about our own experiences of discrimination or exclusion of others. In this sense, this work of narrating is uncommon, but is a very important phenomenon for the sociology of discrimination.I will demonstrate the nature of such narratives at a seminar on Buraku sabetsu (Buraku discrimination). At this seminar, a man tells his own experience of discrimination in a high school. The coordinator asks gently, “Why did you do so, what was the reason for your discrimination ?” The coordinator never criticizes him but only asks why, so that he can reflect on his past deeds, thoughts, and feelings, and tells them with his own voice. He doesn't discuss his reasons and feelings in general or abstract terms. He and other members present can hear his own “voice” and reflect on the meaning “ere-and-now.” By hearing and reflecting on “such” voice, they can think about discrimination as an everyday life event and create their own ways of living and ethnomethods to develop awareness.How do we narrate our own experiences of discrimination ? How do we think, tell, and experience discrimination as an everyday life event ? How do we use ethnomethods to avoid reflecting on such experiences of discrimination as “here-and-now”? Considering the anatomy of such narratives is very important in the sociology of discrimination