There's an interesting story behind it.
Well, I thought that Japan is more open to differences.
Second, it seems if you are a little bit out of 'ordinary' or 'acceptable' appearance, you have problems.
It happens everywhere. Back in 1998., national beauty pageant in Croatia (Miss Croatia) was held and a girl called Lejla (Leila) Sehovic won and was crowned. Five days later, they've found some 'irregularities'
in the process and they've given the crown to another girl. Leila showed up at the press conference and said that they usurped her title and crown because of her nationality. And she was right.
You see, she was of Bosnian (and not Croatian descent) - but she was a Croatian citizen - and her name was Leila - which doesn't sound 'Croatian' enough. Soon after, the crown and the title was returned to her.
(She's happily married now but she says the whole thing left very unpleasant memories.)
Miss Croatia 1998, Leila Sehovic
Third 'case'. When John Lennon started dating Yoko Ono, they've also had problems.
John said that the British press even called her 'ugly' and added:
'She's not ugly - and even if she were - you shouldn't write that, you shouldn't be so mean in the papers.
I've never seen that being said about any woman or men before. The papers write about awful looking people that they are attractive just to be kind.'
Yoko Ono
The first ever mixed race Miss Japan has lifted the lid on some of the horrific racial abuse she has faced on her way to the top.
Ariana Miyamoto says it was often punishing growing up as the only black girl in her class in the port town of Sasebo near Nagasaki, where the US has a naval base and where her African-American father met her Japanese mother.
The 20-year-old was born and raised in Japan, speaks fluent Japanese, and was last month chosen to represent her country in the Miss Universe pageant.
'I was called a n****r by some of my peers. Some of them threw trash and even a blackboard duster at me.
'I'm Japanese through and through, but in Japan if you look "foreign" you are often not accepted as Japanese. But I am Japanese - 100 percent.
'Skin colour bears no relationship to what a person is. It's just one of the differences like wearing blue clothes or wearing red clothes.'
'I have no objections against the word 'hafu' and I accept myself as being hafu.
'With so little multi-culturalism in Japan the term is somehow understandable, although it has made me wonder who I am at times.'
Ariana has been inspired by American singer Mariah Carey's struggle to get to the top as a mixed race artist, exemplified in her film Glitter, in which she plays a young singer battling discrimination to make it to the top.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-father-African-American.html#ixzz3WeJjAVu2
Well, I thought that Japan is more open to differences.
Second, it seems if you are a little bit out of 'ordinary' or 'acceptable' appearance, you have problems.
It happens everywhere. Back in 1998., national beauty pageant in Croatia (Miss Croatia) was held and a girl called Lejla (Leila) Sehovic won and was crowned. Five days later, they've found some 'irregularities'
in the process and they've given the crown to another girl. Leila showed up at the press conference and said that they usurped her title and crown because of her nationality. And she was right.
You see, she was of Bosnian (and not Croatian descent) - but she was a Croatian citizen - and her name was Leila - which doesn't sound 'Croatian' enough. Soon after, the crown and the title was returned to her.
(She's happily married now but she says the whole thing left very unpleasant memories.)
Miss Croatia 1998, Leila Sehovic
Third 'case'. When John Lennon started dating Yoko Ono, they've also had problems.
John said that the British press even called her 'ugly' and added:
'She's not ugly - and even if she were - you shouldn't write that, you shouldn't be so mean in the papers.
I've never seen that being said about any woman or men before. The papers write about awful looking people that they are attractive just to be kind.'
Yoko Ono
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