December 4, 2011
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits, physical, mental and cultural characteristics of human racial groups justify discrimination. That's the internet definition of racism. I know Koreans are proud of themselves and on what their country has achieved in the span of 50 years. And I guess they do have a lot to be proud of. I can't say for certain though if there is racism in Korea... or maybe those racism-like behaviors of some Koreans were just the result of their inability to communicate well in English. KBS, one of the biggest TV networks in Korea tried to do an experiment that pitted an Indonesian and an American against each other on who would get better treatments from Koreans.
So the two, separately, would be asking for directions on how to go to COEX Mall in Gangnam, Seoul's business and financial district. Check the video and decide for yourself.
Personally, I think there is, as in many countries, racism in Korea brought about by their too much regard for themselves. I guess we cannot really blame the Koreans for having such a high regard for those citizens that have similar income-per-capita than theirs and for ignoring those from poorer countries. I bet if the Philippines could fulfill its economic promise, many Filipinos would definitely get complaints for being mayabang (boastful) and matapobre (looking down on lower class people), just look at how the Filipino landlord elite would treat the peasants there.
Indonesians in Korea work as factory workers.They, along with other Southeast Asians, do the jobs that Koreans don't want to do. Despite that, the salary of a factory worker in Korea would already be the salary of a bank manager in Jakarta or Manila or Hanoi or even Kuala Lumpur. So I guess, the result of such a huge income disparity is something like racism. Not all Koreans are racist though. A lot of them are pretty open-minded and appreciate multiculturalism. But yeah, in a homogenous country like Korea, racism could be a little too obvious.
I don't know anything about racism based on skin color though so maybe my observations are not true for Africans. ~~
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I think those who say they have never experienced racism in Korea have 1) not been here long enough, 2) don't understand Korean language or culture, or 3) don't look different enough to stand out. I want to speak out of honesty here- from what I've seen, Korea is one of, if not the most racist of the developed nations.
In order to recognize racism, you have to view it from a cultural context. Racism can be subtle, but when you really think about how people treat foreigners compared to how they treat Koreans, you can see that they are usually very rude and condescending. They don't seem to perceive outsiders as entirely human. Regardless of age, which is a very important factor in their culture, they often speak to foreigners in the same way that they would address children.
This manifests also in the way that Koreans shout out to foreigners in English on the street. To most Westerners who first arrive here, it may not seem insulting when a group of high school students shout out to you from across the street, "Hi! What are you doing?" and giggle with each other. But if you think about this same situation involving a Korean, in their culture it would be extremely rude. Can you imagine these kids shouting at someone significantly older than themselves whom they don't know from across the street and in an informal manner like that? Basically, they think it's a joke to interact with foreigners, and they do it to make their friends laugh. They never once consider that this is a person who must be treated with respect. Sure, it's not a hostile form of racism, but it clearly shows that Koreans perceive foreigners as beneath their fellow Koreans.
Koreans generally have a very ethnocentric, "us versus them" view of the rest of the world. Racism is widespread in the news. When a foreigner commits even a minor crime, the news covers it extensively. They often don't even mention the specific country a person or group of people are from, but rather refer to them as "foreigners", lumping all of them together in a big group. I recently saw a news report about how foreigners have increasingly been seen intoxicated in public at night. They ran the same footage of some white guy who was moderately drunk over and over and talked about this "problem" with foreigners for like five minutes. Anyone who lives in Korea knows that on any given night you can find plenty of Korean men so drunk that they are crawling on the ground vomiting, or starting fights and slapping their women around in public, and no one seems to care. Incidents such as these would certainly never make the news, but the second a foreigner is seen drunk, the media declares it a national issue. This obviously differs greatly from most Western countries, where it is taboo and usually even against the law for reporters to describe someone according to their race. In these countries there would be public outrage if the media identified people by their race when it's irrelevant to the story, yet it happens every day in Korea.
I'm not writing this to criticize- I understand that Korea has been culturally isolated throughout most of its history, so it will take some time to overcome racism. But I don't agree with people who say that it isn't prevalent here, because I see it on a daily basis.
thanks
welcome always
from Turkey
i gave up my seat for an old man in the subway. i was even seated in the regular seats. i apologized for not seeing him right away. instead of saying thank you as the younger korean men around didn't have and usually don't have the balls to give up their seats, he instead bellowed at me "where are you from?" i said I was from the Philippines and he said "what are you doing here? go back to your country."
i was so shocked. i didn't even want to look around or see who were staring at me. i just moved to where my husband was standing as the car was full. my mind flew to the time my Mama told me that one of her uncles were sent here during the Korean war.. ah. sad.
that must have been so humiliating. Im glad that Filipinos are NOT that way.
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