It's 2021 and I'd like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. In keeping with the theme of good tidings, happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, too.

If I was going to put forth a New Year's resolution in this column, I'd have to say it would be to write more. The past year saw me devote more of my time to endeavors that were outside Black Eye, thanks to the spread of COVID-19 and then the spread of Black Lives Matter — both of which hit the shores of Japan.

Following the global broadcast of the lynching of George Floyd at the knee of the Minneapolis Police Department, the world — including Japan — was forced to reconsider its perspective on race relations in the United States. Prior to this, outsiders were often satisfied with any reasoning that a white American or ill-informed Japanese reporter had to say on the matter — a practice that wound up biting the Japanese media on its behind.