In honor of Black Awareness Day, or Conciência Negra, which Brazil observes on November 20, our school invited a cultural group from the Japanese consulate to do a presentation for the students.
Did you know, for example, that Japanese people enjoy hot baths? Or Japan has really fast trains?
Then some people dressed in face masks and robes hit each other with long sticks.
Then there was a dance performance, but I snuck out before that, so I have no pictures of it.
Now you're probably asking yourself, what does all this have to do with Black Awareness?
4 comments:
LOL! That is awesome/ful.... I am guessing, of course, but could it be that anything other than white (like, say Japenese) counts as black????
apropos your unrelated article on gringoes.com:
"But it seems unlikely to me that in the U.S., personal and professional connections would play such a significant and explicit role a high school student‘s future plans."
Why would that be unlikely?
Power, connections and networking works the same the world over, and the USA, especially in the upper class tiers, works like this more than is average in many/most societies around the world. I believe that it is likely less of a factor only in more socialist countries. When people are free to promote others largely based on preference alone, then networking will always rule.
My reference point is having gone to an elite private high school in the states.
I think the disbelief that it works like this in the states comes from some sort of the false sense of an existence of better than average egalitarianism/meritocracy in the states. This is common. For the most part, it doesn't exist for anyone beyond the very average middle class workforce. Just my opinion.
Thanks for your comment, Janice. You can see further discussion under said post: http://www.thegoldenpapaya.com/2009/08/who-cap-fit.html
I am in no way saying I think the U.S. is some kind of utopian meritocracy. But I do think that 1) the idea of connections is less _explicitly_ accepted there, and 2) despite a very unlevel playing field, it is _more_ possible in the U.S. to transcend the socioeconomic position one is born to.
This was really funny. I love these moments of disorientation in another country. They're what great stories are made of :-)
Happy Thanksgiving! I miss you guys very much.
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