One of my favorite genres I enjoyed studying at OIT was industrial and organizational psychology, series of classes taught by Dr. Pohl. His lectures were fun to listen to. And he introduced plenty of examples in real organizational environment to support his lectures. The lectures were not only enjoyable to me but also a precious opportunity to me to learn what it is like in the work environment in the American firms.
One day in the Ind. Psych. class, he explained how to evaluate human resources. He mentioned that female executives were proven to have had higher job skills and better motivation than the male counterpart. The topic to be explored then was the evaluation method. He did not spend a long time for the example. However, what he accidentally explained was ultimately that women on the corporate ladders were discriminated. That was why they needed to show higher ability and morale than men did. The fact stuck to my mind.
Among the international students at OIT, the biggest racial group was Vietnamese. They studied very hard overall. They didn’t talk much. Some instructors occasionally asked them if they were following the lectures. But their academic performance was explicitly shown in their test scores and grades. Students around them acted somewhat indifferent. Looked like the students didn’t know how exactly they should get along with the South East Asian classmates. Carved on the walls of toilet rooms at OIT were cursing words to the Vietnamese. “Vietnamese lizards suck. Hunt them down and kill them all.”
There was a black student in the marketing class I took. The class taught by Mr. Ward was a tough class. Many flanked despite that it was a junior level class. Everyone around me was desperate not to let the GPA pulled down by the grade of this sole class. The black guy flanked. His term paper was not written well. He told Dean of the Students that his bad score was based on Mr. Ward’s racial discrimination. Most of the class participants knew that his assertion was ill founded. But the school took the case very seriously and nervously.
It seemed that the Japanese students, with their enormous amount of knowledge about daily life in the United States, might be the ones who most often ask for permission among the international students. The Japanese students including me and a few Japanese exchange students asked questions like “Is it okay to eat here?” or “Is it okay to sit here?” It was probably because the Japanese students were always aware of themselves that they were new comers to the society. And the Americans who were asked would say, “Of course, it’s okay for you to do so. It’s a free country.” Some further remarked, “Yes. It’s a free country. You can do anything or you can be anything as far as it is legal.”
As I came to know, there are many things in the society that you can not be. And there are many things legal in the society that you can not do. Maybe no society in the world can be an exception of this cruel reality. People look at you unfairly because you are black, female, or a Vietnamese. If you are raised by a single parent, you will be discriminated in Japan. If you are the descendants of the untouchable lowest class of people two hundred years ago, you will be discriminated in Japan. It’s the same.
Some people in the United States told me that the country is a free country called “Land of Opportunity.” The opportunity was said to be provided to those who wish it hard. And the winners will be rewarded by the prosperity and fame. Is it so? There may be just a small number of people who succeeded. But were they fairly evaluated?
It appeared to me that one of the sentences that American infants learn in their earliest stages might be “It is not fair.” Probably that is reflection of what the ideal society is like to most of the Americans. It is interesting to see that I did not hear anyone in the college except for straight-out-of-high-school freshman students using that common sentence. They may have grown old enough to know that the society is not fair. People proudly told me, a new-comer to the society, that their country was “Land of Opportunity.” But it is rarely so either deep in their mind or in the reality.
In Japan, people do not believe that the society is fair. So parents do not teach their kids that it is so. Mino-hodo-wo-shire. This Japanese sentence means, “Be aware of what you are.” My mother raised me after she divorced when I was two. She is a seamstress. When I performed well in the class, people around me were not quite happy. When I got a grade of B in music class, a student’s mother came claiming to the teacher that her daughter should deserve a grade higher than mine because the daughter was taking private piano lessons. People wondered how my mother obtained a ring with a tiny diamond on it, as they believe that single mother must have done something inappropriate to afford it. Some even came to ask me why. Even if they didn’t, rumors eventually let me know everything.
Without forming some serious psychological trauma, Japanese kids gradually learn that the world is not fair. They learn who they are. They learn what they are allowed to do. It’s not just a single parent case. The social restraints can be based on any trait that kids themselves have nothing to do with. For example, if there is any criminal record existent with someone in your family tree, you can not be a policeman and some other professions. Just check yourself. Is there a person who went to an asylum? Anyone from orphans? Anyone from a certain district? Anyone who subscribed communist party’s house organ? Anyone who rallied to a cult religion? Or say, anyone being a blue-collar worker. Anyone having graduated from a community college? You name it.
The reality is not fair. The inventory of opportunities is provided but the whole amount is limited. Whether or not the country is Land of Opportunity may be a matter of how strongly the citizens relate the ideal with the reality. If they determine that the reality is totally separate from the ideal, they would not call their country Land of Opportunity.