When I approached Tara Kamiya — a 38-year-old housewife, mother of three biracial kids and self-professed workforce dodger — about being interviewed for this story, explaining to her the goal not only of this series (about black women and their Japanese guys) but of Black Eye as a whole, she was totally on board.
"That's awesome," she said excitedly, "because we need to let people know that there isn't just one black experience. We need to let the world know that some of us are nerds, some are 'hood, etc. I have a friend, he's a rocket scientist, and I'm like, 'I wish I could put you on a poster that says: Look! See, we do this, too!' "
When Tara, a New Yorker, was 32, she was hanging out one night with her friend in Lower Manhattan, doing the New York thing. The club she'd gone to turned out to have multiple floors, so she decided to explore the other levels. On one level she came upon a private party where most of the attendees were Asian. So, having ascertained they were Japanese, she decided to crash the party.