Why were Japanese People viewed as "Champions of the Darker Races"?

On occasion, I still get asked this question: Of what value is a column dedicated exclusively to black issues — particularly here in Japan? Generally the query comes from the kind of people who, upon

On occasion, I still get asked this question: Of what value is a column dedicated exclusively to black issues — particularly here in Japan? Generally, the query comes from the kind of people who, upon hearing the phrase "Black Lives Matter" proclaimed, answered, "All Lives Matter," people optimistic enough to think that we are headed steadfastly toward a global recognition of human equality or perhaps cynical enough to believe that inequality and discrimination persist because all human beings are not created equal.

I hear these people out, of course. I try to keep my mind open, to be ready to question even my most fundamental premises and assumptions. The impetus to do this is my drive to live outside my sphere of comfort, a gift that living in Japan just keeps on giving. But nothing I've heard to date has made me question the notion that breathed life into my column for the Japan Times, Black Eye, in the first place: that the more available knowledge about the diversity of blackness …