South Koreans Struggle with "race".

[kuno_thunder]

I thought this was an interesting article, in light of all the Jaebum/JYP/2pm stuff that's going on, and among stuff that has happened in the past with people not having a very open mind.  See for yourselves.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/world/asia/02race.html?_r=2&em
Comments anyone?

[Slack]

“If they keep flooding in, who can guarantee our country won’t be torn apart by ethnic war as in Sri Lanka?”

As opposed to having your country torn apart by civil war 60 years ago by the same ethnic group, right?  I can't have been the only one who found this particularly ironic.

But this brings up an interesting point.  In a place that's been invaded enough times for some to call it "the Poland of Asia", xenophobia is kind of expected, no?  Even when the outside forces are the same ethnicity, the threat of being invaded and/or nuked out of existence is still enough of an excuse to sow fear and resentment.

Using the idea of racial purity just doesn't fly.  In my mind, being "racially pure" has always been equated with being "inbred".  Fear on the other hand makes more sense to me, and if there is a historical basis for societal-level racism I can't blame the individual completely for being racist.  Acting uncivil however is another story.

I personally believe that everyone's at least a little bit racist.  For example, even I am susceptible to cross-race identification bias, and ironically, toward Koreans.  (Kind of odd, since I'm Asian myself.)  I suppose it doesn't help that there seems to be something of a national obsession to look a certain way, since Korea is the plastic surgery capital of Asia.  Even so, I try to treat everyone with the civility every human being deserves; doing otherwise devalues humanity as a whole and makes you a complete ass.

Not directly relevant to the topic, but somewhat related:
I just want to say that most Korean girls I've known have been at least a little crazy/messed up in the head.  For example, my friend fears for his life (only half-jokingly) because he has a possessive and possibly bipolar Korean girl stalking him.

[kuno_thunder]

Ping knows how much I love the phrase "The myth of race vs the reality of racism."  I think I said that to him a zillion times this year, lol.  Great point you bring up Slack about the whole thing about the civil war.  They're still at war technically, if I'm not mistaken.  How are the guys up in the North "racially" different than those in the South?  One side enjoys democracy (somewhat) and the other is well, they don't really REALLY know how fucked they are up there.  Yet some ignorant people tend to still make jokes about the odd South Asian, Pacific Islander, Caucasian, African, or whoever else they see as different.  Growing up in a multicultural mosaic that is Canada has made me pretty sensitive to just about all other ethnicities (not races, since we're all of the same race) and its made me realize how small this world really can be.  However closing your mind to others and their cultural beliefs and whathaveyou, well thats just gonna get you into trouble.

Unless we're talking about those fuckin' Romulans, they can all go back where they fuckin' came from.  Get on your little raft and sail away to your shithole, you fuckin' dirty Romulans.

[kuro808]

From a place that is a melting pot, I am quite amused and yet not surprised about this.  IMO the purity fact comes from Confucian thinking where you cannot taint the process for time.  I think S. Korea has not caught up to the world to racial equality they are still 50-60 years behind on it.  From personal conversations with someone from there, she was actually fearful of anyone knowing she had a bf who was non-Korean and it eventually her to stay in America because of the comments that she has heard from other korean mix couples. 

Honestly, S. Korea is great but the potential to get them out of that mindset will be challenging

[kuno_thunder]

Word, kuro.  A guy like Hines Ward comes to mind, who has overcome a bunch of that racism ... but most would argue that SK only started to accept him once he made an amazing achievement like being a major part of a Super Bowl winning team.  Before that, I'm sure the tolerance level wasn't as high.  Similar to the concept of being a fairweather fan, when a city cheers for the sports team ONLY when they're winning.  SK's going to have to catch up to the rest of the modernized world if they want Seoul to be seen as a TRUE global city, like New York, London, or Tokyo.

[kuro808]

KT the thing is also I have people I know who were driven out like Hines Ward, so I understand it from a personal POV they said that its harder to be pure again when something like history comes in the way.  I mean I wish SK could put up some stronger regulations on that issue.

[THUNDERDUCK]

From living there, there are a lot of foreigners there.  It's not as ultra-conservative as you may think.  They have a mixed marriage family show on TV.  Usually the foreigner husband and his Korean wife and their children.  The talk show where all the foreign female students talk about how much Korea is screwed up (their opinions about life in Korea) on MBC.  They regard Hines Ward as a national hero, too.  That article was old news for me.  Lots of girls have foreigner boyfriends which seems to be a cool thing to have.  Korea is just like Japan when it comes to this issue.  As part of gaining UN acceptance as a developed country they must accept more foreigners.  This presents the problem of having new immigrants having to assimilate to their new host country.  For example should a family that has emigrated from Somalia (where many asylum seekers come from) be forced to put their children in the Korean public school system, get jobs, so forth in a alien environment.  Like in the US immigrant children go to public schools and so forth (with a certain amount of assimilation needed).  Another issue raised is does this make non-ethnic Korean males exempt from Compulsory Military Service.

[kuno_thunder]

Are they exempt from compulsory military service? And why wouldn't the children of Somalians now living in Korea NOT go to a Korean school?  I don't think they'd make a school specifically for immigrant children, and they certainly wouldn't give up on school completely.  I don't know how racist the majority of people are in Korea, but I'm there there are a bunch of oldschool dicks there, just as there are around the rest of the world.  Regarding Hines Ward, I wonder how the media thought of him BEFORE the Steelers won that first SuperBowl.  And what about the guys?  Is it accepted for the Korean dudes to have foreigner girlfriends as much as it is the other way around?  Man, I'm full of questions.

[THUNDERDUCK]

I know that they repealed the exemption for mixed kids doing military service.  Most foreigners there are going to be adults, so you don't have a problem with children. Those that do bring children (non-citizens, that don't intend to be citizens) send the kids to the international school. You will hardly see a guy dating a foreigner girl.  I don't think anyone knew about Hines Ward, until the Super Bowl win.  The guy got honorary citizenship a few years ago.  I think in most Asian cultures the girl can marry anyone, but the guys are expected to marry the same race.  It definitely seems that way in the Viet community here.