When I first read the article, I had an impression that the way people see Tiger woods is quite different from the way we do in Japan. In our country, people were excited with his legendary skill, especially his swing. I was an elementary school student and still strongly remember that we all imitated his way of swing at school. On TV, many comedians mimicked him. They didn’t talk about his race or blackness. It was out of our interest. However, in the article, he described how people in the States treated him, focusing on his race or blackness. In the class, we learned the concept of visibility. Visibility is a starting point where controls or regulations come from. However, in my opinion, visibility can’t cause regulations or control over them by itself. There are other factors regarding to receivers to create that dominance. Through this blog, I am going to examine this tricky concept of visibility deeply.

Visibility is necessary when we categorize something because once we can find differences, we become able to name or understand particular groups. In this sense, visibility is where control or regulations come from. However, visibility doesn’t necessarily lead to regulations. There needs to be other factors regarding to people who receive the visible differences. For example, in Japan, of course we can tell the difference of skin colour between Tiger Woods and other players. At this point, the difference is visible. But they don’t pay attention to it because for us Asians, neither white nor black, the skin colour doesn’t have a big meaning and is out of our interest. In this sense, as we don’t use it as a representer, it is not a signifier. Learning from this experience, it is obvious that other factors at receivers’ side are necessary in order that visibility functions as a starting point toward regulations. To take an easiest example, as is often said, white people needed to represent clearly the difference between black and white people to conquer them. Here, one question comes out. Visibility is the existing thing? Or does someone create it, in other words, do people make it visible intentionally? If so, visibility itself is totally arbitrary. After all, everything can be visible, can’t it?

In this blog, I tackle on the concept of visibility starting from the difference I feel between the two societies, reflecting my experiences. As I examine this concept, it becomes more and more tricky. However, in this trickiness, there are significant things which structure the whole society and from which we can get a hint to improve the world. I want to continue to study this issue more deeply.