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Chihayafuru Creator Yuki Suetsugu Also Speaks Out in Support of Black Lives Matter Movement

Chihayafuru manga creator Yuki Suetsugu tweeted about her support for the Black Lives Matter movement on Thursday. She initially tweeted her general thoughts on racism before eventually using the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag.

Her first tweet is translated as follows: "I seriously hate them. 'Who do you hate?' you might ask, and the first thing I'll answer with is, 'Bigots.' I hate them so much I can't stay calm. Why does this kind of thing still exist in our world? Because humans are creatures that just love discriminating. Because they want to own slaves. Because they're pathetic creatures that say it's easier to judge people by group."

She went on: "There are protests in America where people are saying to stop the discrimination happening against Black people right now. Anyone who doesn't encourage the protesters is standing for bigotry. (Bandwagoning the movement to do looting is a separate matter.) We might not be directly involved, but it's very important even for people who aren't involved to raise their voices. It's a problem that affects all humans, after all."

Then she tweeted: "Oh?! I should have used a hashtag. Yeah, you can see I'm not being calm. Geez. #BlackLivesMatter #BlackLivesMatterJapan"

Finally, Suetsugu wrote a thread with the hashtag: "The history of racism, especially the racism against Black people, is long, but nevertheless humanity's values have taken baby steps towards the point where saying that humans are equal is the consensus. It's something that people say to look respectable without reflecting their true feelings, but that respectability is important nonetheless. 'Equality' is the ideal that we're supposed to be striving for, but lately we're seeing people everywhere say, 'I care nothing for equality.' People are able to say such vile things so openly because the President isn't Obama anymore, don't you think? If Obama were President right now, things wouldn't have gotten to such an awful state. This country that chose a Black man as President is regressing.

"I can see from the tragedies throughout history that humans are creatures that can't contain their dark desires to discriminate against other people. From learning about these problems, I've always tried to conduct my life in a way that isn't discriminatory, but that isn't enough. Make racism against Black people go away. Make it stop. It's in Japan as well, you know. If there's one Black child in a class, they stand out - stop looking at them strangely. They're not different from any of us. Every person has amazing or peculiar things about them. Get little kids used to them! Adults should rethink their attitudes! #BlackLivesMatter"

Since making that statement, Suetsugu has been retweeting information about the protests and supporting Black Lives Matter.

The manga artist is no stranger to using her platform to further causes that she believes in; earlier this year she established a fund to support the competitive karuta industry.

Other figures related to the anime and manga industry to make statements on Black Lives Matter include the voice actress and singer Pile, who plays Maki Nishikino in the Love Live! series. The singer participated in the #BlackOutTuesday hashtag on Instagram, and wrote about her wish that people could support and lift each other up regardless of differences in culture, language, art, and skin color.

The rapper Lotus Juice, who is best known for his work on the Persona series, and OLDCODEX vocalist Tatsuhisa Suzuki (Ta_2) have also made statements in support of Black Lives Matter, among other Japanese musicians and celebrities.

A number of companies, including Square Enix, The Pokémon Company, and Niantic have announced that they are donating money to support the Black Lives Matter movement. In addition, other companies such as CAPCOM, PC Gamer, and Sony have announced postponements of events in order to redirect focus on the Black Lives Matter movement and ongoing protests.

Protests have flared across multiple cities in the United States and across the world after the May 25 death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, as local police forcibly held him down with a knee against his neck in Minneapolis for nine minutes. Floyd died short thereafter and both the Hennepin County medical examiner and an independent examiner hired by Floyd's family determined his death was a homicide. The four officers involved in Floyd's death have all been arrested and charged. Officer Derek Chauvin is awaiting charges of second-degree murder and officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Video footage of Floyd's arrest where he is heard telling officers that he couldn't breathe quickly spread. The protests have also sparked sympathetic protests in other cities outside the United States, highlighting police discrimination and brutality in their own communities.

Thanks to Dragon_Kaiser for the tip

Sources: Yuki Suetsugu's Twitter account, Pile's Instagram account via @HanazonoCherry