By Miggy Cruz
Jeffery Lesser, in “From Japanese to Nikkei and Back,”
discussed the ways in which the Japanese immigrants made Brazil their new home.
He compared Brazilians of European and Japanese descent, finding latter as “are
more “original” “or authentic”’ (113). He focused on the elite Japanese
community in Brazil and revealed the strategies in which these Brazilians of
Japanese descent took control of Brazil and how they manipulated their “whiteness,”
to be the top ethnic group of Brazil.
“Instead, the elite was sharply divided between those who
saw the “whitening” of Brazil as a goal … and others who saw “whiteness” as
related to economic growth and domestic production” (114).
The quote reminded me of a concept I learned in Sociology
from W.E.B Du Boise, “colorism” or the “epidermal capital.” It describes the
way in which it is a social norm for those who have darker skin aspire to have
lighter skin, and one way to do so was bleaching. It has become a social norm,
even in the Philippines to have lighter skin. However, I find that changing one’s
skin color is changing one’s identity, which is already questioned for any group
that has been displaced from their “homeland.”
Question: Why are
most people so keen on getting lighter skin? Is this a social construct; if so,
can we or should we change it?
Sources:
Lesser, Jeffrey. “From Japanese to Nikkei and Back:
Integration Strategies of Japanese Immigrants and Their Descendants in Brazil.”
Displacements and Diasporas: Asians in
the Americas. Ed. Wanni W. Anderson and Robert G. Lee. New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press, 2005. 23-38. Print.
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