Abstract
This study investigates African American women’s experiences in Japan as it pertains to the changing perceptions and utilizations of blackness. Through a look at historical constructions of blackness in Japan, contemporary popular culture, and through in-depth interviews with African American women about their experiences with their own identities as black women in Japan, it is revealed that blackness is continuously changing to fit the social and political agendas of each era and that there is a disconnect between American and Japanese conceptualizations of blackness. Blackness in contemporary Japan can be understood to be constructed in two ways: (1) to satisfy the social and political agenda of the time and (2) around African American perceptions of blackness.
Advisor
McConnell, David
Department
East Asian Studies
Recommended Citation
Hodges, Aki'a Damone Lashon, "Constructing Blackness: African American Women's Experiences in Japan: Constructing Blackness" (2015). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 6580.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/6580
Disciplines
Japanese Studies
Keywords
The College of Wooster, Senior IS, blackness, contemporary, African American, women’s experiences, Japan, popular culture
Publication Date
2015
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2015 Aki'a Damone Lashon Hodges