Japanese Caste System 想像力欠如と差別

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

"Race doesn't matter any more." This is a myth mentioned by a sociologist Jay Gabler in his book Sociology For Dummies. He says in the book that although amazing achievements have been made by civil rights activists and others, race still matters. The same is true of buraku min, i.e., an outcaste group at the bottom of the Japanese social order, and that the cause is ignorance and a lack of imagination.

Mom of Sachiko, a friend of mine, is in her 70s. She despises buraku min people particularly Korean buraku min women because, according to her, their way of sitting on a floor, tatehiza, i.e., sitting with one knee up, is inappropriate, rude and disgusting. I'm interested in how this view would change if this snobby woman learned that tatehiza sitting used to be a formal way of sitting for samurai.

Another example, although not directly about buraku min, is one of my former co-workers asking me if I knew which class a newly joining Indian executive belongs to. She is much younger than I am, but very interested in the caste system. I'm pretty sure that her attitude toward Japanese outcaste buraku min people is also very derogatory.

Someone discriminating against others doesn’t imagine that they may also be discriminated against at any time or place for an unforeseeable reason. Such lack of imagination and ignorance causes discrimination and the saddest thing is that we usually can't imagine how we are ignorant....

Sociology for Dummiesを読んでいたら「『人種差別はもうない』というのは嘘だ」という一節があった。著者のJay Gablerによると、社会学的にはまだまだ取組みが必要な問題だとのこと。これって部落問題にも当てはまると思う。そしてその原因は、無知と想像力の欠如にあると思う。例えば…

幸子さんの70代のお母様。部落民、特に部落出身の韓国女性にひどく差別的なのだが、その理由が立て膝。行儀が悪くて卑しいとひどくご立腹。でも立て膝って元々侍の座り方。そのこと知ったら、この俗物お母様の態度がどう変わるかには興味津々です。

もう一つは直接部落の話ではないのだが、昔の同僚の話。インド人役員が着任すると知って「カーストのどの階級か知ってる？」と聞いてきた。日本の部落民にどういう態度を取るかは推して知るべしだろう。

人を差別する人って、いつかどこかで自分も、思いもかけない理由で差別されるかもしれないってことを想像できていないと思う。そして幸子さんのママの場合は「無知」。ただ、自分が無知だってこと、いつか差別されるかもしれないってことにはなかなか気づけないんですよね。気を付けます｡｡｡