The Interpretation of Racial Encounters: Japanese Students in Britain

Abstract

In recent decades covert and subtle forms of racism have increasingly been studied in Europe and in the United States. These forms of racism may be problematic for participants to perceive or interpret as racism, because some racially discriminatory actions may seem subtle or ambiguous at first sight, but after some reflection, information and knowledge, it may become clear that such encounters were not as innocent as they seemed before. The aim of this paper is to explore and document the racism experienced by Japanese students living in the United Kingdom. It reports on a study in which 51 Japanese were asked to describe their experiences of racism. Why did they think what happened was discrimination? In order to answer this question, participants had to reconstruct and interpret various ambiguous social situations. First of all, they assessed and evaluated negative events which may have had racist implications. Then the reason why the respondents eventually decided that they had been subject to a form of racial discrimination is explored. Finally, why some respondents believed what they had experienced was racism, while others did not interpret their encounters as racist ones, is discussed.