Third eye opened
Posted Jul 18 2007
Ron’s interview is nice because he is talking about the good and bad experiences he had. If I were to visit Japan, first I think I would like to learn Japanese since he is saying that it would have been easier for him to move around from place to place. He said how he got treated better around other people than he did with his own. That’s what people tend to do. Sometimes people who are not even from your culture or not even people who speak your language treat you better. Or they treat you as if you were like them. That’s not the way it should be. Well that is a good thing but its also bad one because your own people should help you around and sometimes they just hurt us or don’t care what you are doing or if you are having a bad time. All of us should help each other because we are all from one race.
In Mexico as well there are many things like in the U.S. There are McDonalds and Wal-Marts and other fast food places. Also, in the U.S there are Mexican restaurants and so on. If I were to visit Japan I would be uncomfortable if I didn’t have a car because I'm not even going to know how to travel from place to place and I think it would be easier if people have cars.
In the U.S. Latinos mostly have a different treatment because of the color of our skin. If a police officer sees you driving he will instantly stop you because he will think that we are immigrants and that we don’t have a license and that's racist.-Karina V.
Ron talks about his experiences in Japan. He was surprised the most by how U.S. culture has shaped the daily life of the Japanese. I wasn’t surprised he got pulled over by the police. In the U.S. it happens all the time. Most people can recognize a criminal from a tourist. But in places where your skin color and the way you look is different from the others they tend to keep a good eye on you. Because there aren’t that many African Americans in Tokyo their intentions could be misunderstood. They only see what they believe is American culture. When they see a tall black man their first question could be "are you a basketball player?" But in fact because music and T.V. are a big impact on every day life they intend to isolate themselves into what they believe is right. When they turn on their T.V. they will turn the channels and see M.T.V., BET, and commercials they tend to copy. "I see a rapper drinking a Sprite, now that’s cool. I'll buy one too." In conclusion both U.S. and Japan have there own perspective on each others culture when they should look into their own.-Gorgonio E.
Ron's interview was very interesting to me. It was interesting how he would relate many things to the U.S. and how he was impressed in the great art that they have over there. One thing that he says that is very surprising to him is that there’s alot of things from the U.S. there. He is impressed on how you would see KFCs and 711s out there just like out here. Ron had an incident because of his skin color. He says that he was followed by the police but once they knew that he didn’t speak Japanese they let him go because they knew he was a tourist. I think that it’s kind of racist on how they would stop someone only because of their skin color. Even though he said it ws understandable because of the Nigerian situation. Another very interesting fact that Ron mentions is how he feels safer in Japan that in St. Louis. After hearing so much about how safe he felt in Japan I would like to experience it myself.
One thing that Ron wished he knew before going to Japan was a little more Japanese. When you go to a place and you don’t know the language there, that’s when you realize how hard it is for any immigrant that comes to the U.S. and doesn’t know English. Many people are very racist toward people who don’t know the language of the country but after they experience not knowing a language in a different country that’s when they understand people that are tourists or immigrants. Ron says that he will take all the positive things about Japan so that he can use them as visual reference for when he’s doing his painting. I think that people should always use what they see as an example that they can use to connect to their daily living.-Maricela C.
The most interesting thing about this article was when Ron said that he was surprised by how much of a Western influence there was, particularly from the United States. He also said that they are not respecting their culture. I think that just because there are McDonalds and KFC’s in Tokyo like in the U.S that does not mean that they are not respecting their culture. In most places now they have all kinds of fast foods not only in the United States. I think that is good that they have McDonalds and KFCs because people can try out different kinds of food. But it's also bad that they have fast food because people have health problems. It's also interesting how in Tokyo there are not that many violent incidents and people get treated nice even though they are not from there.-Eva A.
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