Finding Comfort in Your Minority Advantage | Natsumi Funabiki | TEDxTIUWomen
[Applause] hi nice to meet you i'm nat hi nice to meet you i'm natsumi now this is basically the same introduction but you might be surprised by the amount of reactions the first one can cause let me reenact what can happen when i introduce myself as nat in english hi nice to meet you i'm nat sorry nat that's not an asian name you look japanese is that right oh yeah it's a it's a nickname a lot of people call me nat my full name is natsumi see i knew you were japanese why are you hiding away from your culture you shouldn't westernize yourself to fit in you should be proudly representing japan more i love japanese anime my ex-girlfriend was japanese i know at this point i haven't actually actively said anything personal about my background but some people want to make all these comments to share their knowledge and experience with japan and japanese people all because of an introduction with a shortened version of my name this made me wonder would people feel like they want to say that to stephen when they introduce themselves as steve my two cents i'd say that would be quite unlikely so why is my name my race my identity such a hot topic to people i've never met when i'm speaking english isn't in a western environment my background does tend to put me in the minority a lot of people like to bring that up as a first talking point why is that see actually this makes a lot of sense as humans we always have a desire for compartmentalization you want to put things in buckets and groups and what we don't know our brain makes active assumptions and decisions instinctively things that we don't know can scare us so naturally we want to be able to put a label on things which is why when they see me and i introduce myself as just that there's not enough clues to put me in a bucket especially in terms of my race and my gender and people start wanting to create those clues or form those answers by themselves if you want a bit of a laugh watch it's part on saturday night live it's a perfect example of how this can happen this all really stems from our survival instinct our brain needs to create patterns and shortcuts to quickly choose what to focus on to mitigate risk and we make quick decisions based on cultural structural and visual information that's been stored in our brains this comes out as our unconscious bias which we can never get rid of but we can learn to be aware of and to control how we react or act with these biases so i've been very fortunate to have lived in the uk in a few different countries when i was young which has built me up to be quite adaptable in different and diverse situations as younger children though we didn't care too much about each other's differences our nationalities agenda mostly only talked about what games you wanted to play today you know what snack we were having for break time but fast forward to spending most of my teenage years in japan and then going back to the uk for university at age 18. the first thing that really hit me was how much my first impression and my identity were framed by my gender and my race hence the questions that come along with the self-introduction as just not this made me feel really uncomfortable at first that i wasn't accepted and that i didn't belong but this was actually when i realized i have the responsibility and the agency to be able to speak my story fight for my representation and build up awareness and consideration around diversity in our conversations no one can do that out of the blue for me especially my story that is quite often in the minority and quite unique this led me to take some gender studies classes and lead the women in politics society at university and really get into that field and that discussion now i say this but what i also realized quickly was that the world is and always has been built for the majority for the powerful the ones that have already taken up and are owning the space and have the privilege to do so it's very difficult to bridge that gap that has years of systemic structural cultural barriers built up and ingrained into our systems and brains my own ability to speak up and realize these issues come from the privilege that i own as well which i need to actively understand further but even more so make sure i use my own voice to encourage others to listen more as well these issues around representation and diversity are very intersectional we can have many layers of challenges that overlap and there's never an easy solution more than ever this lit up a fire in me to fight and start to challenge the status quo after my studies in the uk and having years of debating around gender issues cultural integration and identity i came back to japan where race wise i was now in the majority but going into the corporate world what i realized where i was a minority in was in being a woman population gender slip lies in japan it's quite equal but in politics in leadership positions in any sort of decision-making space where were the women in japan now i'm sure this isn't news to you japan is quite famous for consistently ranking very low on the gender equality scale from the world economic forum year after year what i wanted to touch on today was the change that we can create and the importance of learning to thrive with your minority advantage and why we need this more than ever especially for women in japan to not make female representation the minority anymore so why do we need change now in japan we've built up a society where those boxes i talked about earlier the ones that we grow in our brain to gather perceptions and biases they're very strong for gender roles representation and relevance is so powerful so female in japan you don't get to see that in leadership positions in decision making in any sort of space that can raise their voice i work in the diversity equity and inclusion area and specifically around gender diversity and seeing more women more female leaders what i've seen it isn't actually that there's a big education gap in gender in japan that causes this imbalance the key reason such powerful intelligent women in japan don't put their hand up for that next opportunity it's their lack of confidence lack of confidence to succeed lack of confidence to balance their work with the family responsibilities and lack of confidence to feel like they can belong there because we're so used to being in the minority we feel like we don't belong but in the same way that i was made to feel this way when moving back to the uk it isn't anything to do with ourselves that doesn't make us belong it's society the status quo that creates that alienation it's a system it's not our incapability or our differences that's the most important thing to always remind yourself that lack of confidence you feel it's nothing on you it's on the system it's interesting to see how this is not only built up in our society now but especially with regards to gender and gender roles it's said that the way our society is now can leave a epigenetic imprint on our brain what does that mean that means that the environments we put ourselves in now can have a genetic impact on for future generations and the current society we we live in is based off of what's trickled down from generations ago it's not a quick battle it's a battle that needs action kick started as soon as possible to make sure we can create change for future being a minority means there are less voices less representation it can feel quite isolating and bring on many more hurdles in life but flipping that around your minority advantage means that you have the views the experiences and the stories that aren't taught enough and only you can tell and bring those to the forefront i can't speak for all aspects and experiences of minorities which is more so the reason why as every individual there is value in sharing your story like i'm sharing my story here today there's resonance new understandings and power that can come from everyone's stories this may be through standing up and sharing yourself this may be through joining or supporting a movement or maybe something that you can't take action right away but you have a fire in you to keep pushing for your voice the big change that we can make from today is to understand the power that we can have in our unique challenges and stories and that we can have the mindset to thrive and be in the minority and embrace our uniqueness and for the things that we don't understand to really listen and gain that information directly to create change in any kind of area for diversity representation we need all hands on deck we need the majority to realize our privilege and majority status and to be able to hear the minority and be allies as for my current focus around creating change for women in japan we need to thrive in our minority advantage to feel the comfort in ourselves create a space to share our experiences have our voices heard and not the other way around where the system the majority creates it and acts based on it any sort of change comes through raising our voices the best way that we can do this is to create a community of people who can resonate relate and fight lay your ground and start sharing your voice and you'll find the people who will be part of that movement and support you it doesn't have to be a lone battle nor should it be there is such power and opportunity and diversity there's of course a lot of hurdles to break through for systemic change but start by voicing your message to one person and for that person to share and fight for that cause as well and we can start creating a movement for awareness for acknowledgement and to kick-start action the first step for us women in japan is to claim our space we belong and we have so much to offer thank you so much you