ABSTRACT
Even if you aren’t an avid sports enthusiast, you may have heard of professional tennis player, Naomi Osaka, or 大坂なお. She is a four-time Grand Slam champion, former #1 ranked tennis player, and one of the first Asian players to hold the top global ranking in tennis singles. Osaka grew up in California, but represents Japan at tournaments; her mother is Japanese, her father is Haitian, and she is what’s considered in Japan “Hafu,” a word that derives from the English word “half” (meaning that the person is ethnically half Japanese). When not on the court, Osaka is an avid social media content creator and often posts videos of herself social dancing. These videos are important “moves” in breaking down stigmas associated with being Hafu. By showcasing her Blackness, Japaneseness, and Americanness in her dancing, she exhibits a progressive Polyculturalism, which deconstructs the traditional, rigid, and static definition of Hafuness by challenging its relationship to whiteness. Osaka reimagines what it means to be Japanese today, revealing that for her, there is no stepping in and out of her different cultures. Instead, she simultaneously exists in all three cultural identities.
