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. ~~
