Identity crisis?

Hey all,

Yesterday was my first taiko performance (the group's performed before, but usually on weekends when I've had Genki rehearsal, so this was the first one I was able to attend) at an event in Muroto. I made a few minor mistakes out of nervousness, but I thought it went pretty well overall.

After the performance, we were hanging around and mingling, and a lady I'd never met came up to me and greeted me as Michelle. When I told her that I was not, in fact, Michelle, she just said, "Oh. Have we met?"

There are about 100 JETs here. The black JETs in Kochi prefecture can be counted on one hand, Michelle and I included.

This woman didn't glimpse me from a distance, and she didn't accidentally mix up our names — as I said, we'd never met before. She was facing me from two feet away, convinced that I was Michelle, and she wouldn't have realized I wasn't if I hadn't pointed it out.

...Um, okay...

I've always attended predominately white schools and have often been confused with my friend Jennifer in high school and my friend Nikole in college. Now I'm being confused with my friend Michelle in Japan. Jennifer is tall, Nikole is tiny, Michelle has dreads. All beautiful black women, all friends I love to death, but none of whom look anything like me.

The majority lumping the minority into one category isn't a new experience for me. It's happened all my life, so why does it feel so much worse this time around?

I reflected on this all night and came to the conclusion that it's because, where I'm from, it's usually Asians who are on the receiving end of this kind of thing. So to hear it from a Japanese person feels almost like betrayal, in a way.

But it's nothing new. It's just that a group of people I'm used to seeing as a minority is the majority here.

When I first started teaching and was giving my self-introduction to my classes, I showed a picture of my boyfriend Garrett. One student asked, "Is that Andrew?" (Andrew as in my predecessor. Andrew as in their English teacher for the past two years.)

I guess all white guys look alike too.

Peace,
Britt