Interviews on the street in Japan get some very interesting results.
Due to globalization and the flow of information through the Internet, even if you’ve never been to a foreign country before, you likely have an impression of the people who live there. For Japanese people, there is a strong correlation between Americans and Caucasian people, but that is certainly not the only race in the country. So YouTuber That Japanese Man Yuta headed to the streets and asked people about their thoughts on other ethnicities in America.
It was very interesting to see how recent events in the U.S. made it into the conversation, including the importance of Barack Obama becoming the first Black President and tragedies involving police brutality. Stereotypes still ran rampant through their answers, like the idea that black Americans are all good at sports.
When asked about Asian Americans, one respondent mentioned how he believed that they were labeled as smart, but others also believed that Asian Americans had a lower “status.” One person who was interviewed, who is actually Asian American, talked about how she felt sorry for some students who would get placed in English as a Second Language classes even though they didn’t need to be.
Non-white foreigners in Japan will be happy to note that most of the people who were interviewed didn’t seem to discriminate between foreigners in Japan. That may run contrary to some people’s personal experiences, but what people think does play a certain role in how people act. However, perhaps the most amusing question asked what percentage of America’s population was black or Asian. All the respondents overestimated the number of minorities in America, some by quite a lot.
▼ The racial minority with the highest population in the U.S. are Hispanics, but they’re not at 50 percent.
The video offers plenty more insight into the minds of a small sample of Japanese people and their thoughts on black and Asian Americans, so be sure to watch the whole video. And if you found the interviews entertaining, be sure to check out more of That Japanese Man Yuta’s candid videos on his excellent YouTube page.
Source, images: YouTube/That Japanese Man Yuta
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