Korea and race

Brook was kind enough to send me this article from the NYT. Here are my thoughts:

The portrayal of race relations in Korea seems fairly accurate from what I know. The article is certainly correct in its characterization of the prevalent attitude towards whites being a mix of envy and loathing. However, that characterization leaves out a major component, which is bewilderment and fascination. I often feel like I am on display while in Korea, with children pointing and shouting to each other that there is a foreigner, while their parents--far from stopping this innocent but nonetheless rude behavior--stare right along with them. One of my former co-workers was actually yelled at in a subway for speaking in English. Ironically, she was on her way home from Korean class. We are also living status symbols: we are shown off as trophies ("look, I have foreigner friends") and studying with a native speaker is a requisite part of looking like you know English on a resume.

People with darker colored skins are treated in a truly negative way, unlike with whites whose treatment is mixed. I think that this is one area where the article missed an important component. It says that in Korea '...the words "skin color" and "peach" are synonymous..." This is simply not the case. Eliot sent me a great blog called Ask a Korean that intelligently addressed the issue of race in this post (I reccomend the whole thing: the Korean is far more eloquent and informed than I am). In it the Korean points out that skin color varies greatly in Korea and has traditionally corresponded to socioeconomic status. People who work in the fields are very tan while people who have government positions can remain smooth and white skinned.

The bias about the skin color spectrum was reinforced by meeting white Westerners who had greater technology than Korea at the time, and mostly interacting only with people with darker skin from Southeast Asia or the subcontinent who are usually poor uneducated refugees, immigrant laborers, or mail-order brides rather than the successful people who stay in their native countries. Also, Korea has had far less contact with black people than they have had with whites, so they are making judgments on the basis of a small sample--again, not from the best and brightest of black people--along with their perceptions of other people's opinions, especially Western movies and other media, where they are often portrayed in a mildly racist way. Part of Koreans emulating (white) Americans is adopting the mild racism that still persists in our society. Also, many Koreans hear from their relatives about crime committed by black people in the poor neighborhoods where recent immigrants often live. Since they don't know any black people themselves, the relatives in Korea will only know about this worst element and not about the wide spectrum of black people.

Another thing to keep in mind: Korea has spent approximately 10% of its long existence not fighting off foreign invasion. Outsiders are treated hostilely and with distrust because they have historically been part of an effort to subjugate the Korean people. In fact The Korean hypothesizes that this is a major factor in Korea's homogeneity; people who are different are the ones who aren't as nationalistic and not as close to the country, i.e. they are the people who the populace should kill first in the event of a foreign invasion that may have local sympathizers.

I had my chemical engineer students read the article for class and tried to get reactions out of them. This was an instance of another Korean trait which is far more prevalent than racial insensitivity, which is Koreans' avoidance of causing offense. Koreans will generally go to amusing lengths to avoid saying anything that someone else will disagree with since it could result in one or more of the parties losing face. Such topics are simple avoided. I theorize that this is one reason that the older men who--as the article said--are the worst offenders of racism in the country do not change their ways. No one pressures them to change because no one wants to offend these older men especially since they have higher status by virtue of their age and sex. Also, racism and racial insensitivity are not topics for polite discussion, and there is only polite discussion in Korea except maybe between the closest of friends who are exactly the same age.

The one woman in my Hanwha class agreed with the article that racial tension is greater in situations involving a foreign man and a Korean woman. She thinks that part of this is from English teachers who come over without any qualification besides a diploma and a pulse and without any screening to see if they are assholes (I may be paraphrasing a bit here). She says a lot of Korean women who date English teachers feel lead on by them and don't realize that they guy is just out to get laid. My reaction was that, while I agreed that this certainly happens, even perfectly nice guys might accidentally be a part of this problem due to the huge difference in ideas concerning dating between Western and Korean cultures. In Korea, dating means looking for a spouse, and if you have sex that means you are probably going to get married. English teachers, however, probably assume that it is obvious that the relationship, while sincere, is short term since they will only be in the country for a year.

The lone vocal Hanwha student also thought that the New York Times article was a bit negative towards Korea, especially with how it ends. I completely agree with her. Ending the article with a quote from a lunatic fringe racist protester makes him look like a representative of Korean thought. I would be appalled if the teabagger protesters were portrayed as representing America, or if the 9/11 truther idiots of the left were for that matter, so I think it was rather unprofessional of the NYT to end on that note. A much better ending would have been a simple addition of a sentence stating that it is unclear whether the reactionary forces represented by the the protester or the progressive ideas of those pushing for legislation to protect minorities will prevail.