Erasable and Negatable

Abstract This article explores invisible and erasable forms of racialization hidden from view in the campaign against racial discrimination surrounding the case of Ku Sujin, a naturalized marriage migrant woman from Uzbekistan. Ku was rejected from entering the public sauna because of her foreign appearance, and her experience made national headlines in 2011. The article considers the racialization(s) of two groups of migrant women that are relevant but made invisible in her case: marriage migrants who are expected to reproduce “indistinguishable” biracial children and migrant entertainment workers in the area where the sauna was located. This article argues that the campaign for Ku's case was a misrepresentation of racism because of the invisibility of these two groups and the historical connections they underscore. By placing gender at the center of analysis, the author investigates the significance of blood lineage in the conceptualization of race and women's bodies by reviewing historical connections to Japanese colonialism and American militarism. The article argues that the imaginations of marriage migrants and migrant entertainment workers are constructed at the intersection of racialization and sexualization. In doing so, it provides an alternative view of racialization that, owing to a complicated history of colonization, goes beyond the politics of color and is interactive, plural, and relational.