Date: Mar.5.1996 Title: Rape Fuels the wrong Debate
By: hrona Foreman sheppard
Original in: Ryukyu Shimmpo ( a okinawa locap paper )

---- The below is the third of the original essay.

That incident has outraged many people in the American community, particularly those who live and work among the Okinawan people. Many are concerned that the actions of the accused servicemen will, unfairly, cause Okinawans to view all Americans as violent. In addition, many black Americans - myself included - have a more personal reaction to the incident and the resultant firestorm. When, for example, I learned that the assailants were black men, I was jolted by that old, familiar pang - equal parts anger and shame - that afflicts many black Americans whenever one amongst us has earned distinction for some act of mayhem. So, I found, myself once again cloaked in that feeling of shared responsibility for an act I neither committed not controlled.

I became especially concerned for the thousands of law-abiding lack sailors, soldiers, airmen and Marines who would be faced with rude stares and unfair characterizations. One black Navy commander told me that he once considered Okinawa a racial paradise, but that this incident rekindled his anxiety over the color of his skin. " I could walk around here anytime of night without feeling that women feared I might harm them. I always had that tension in the States and now suddenly it's back," he said.

Back to Home Page