Yet Another Koreans/Racism Article

This time it's in Foreign Policy. There's nothing new or particularly insightful here, still, it's interesting to read another "outsider's" view of Koreans and racism. Both the maligned Bucheon bus riding professor and Superbowl MVP/Korean hero Hines Ward are mentioned.

I found this part of the article to be the most noteworthy (quoting Ward's mother, who is Korean):

"Kim described in stark terms the discrimination she experienced before she immigrated to the United States. "What do you think would have become of us if I had kept living here with Hines? He would probably never have been able to be anything but a beggar. Do you think I would even have been able to get work cleaning houses?" she said while visiting the Pearl S. Buck Foundation in Seoul. "Koreans of the same skin color are even more racist among themselves. It doesn't make sense. If everybody hates our children so much because their skin is a different color, then why do Koreans run around dying their hair blond and red?""

Internal Dialogue While Riding the Subway Home From an Interview

Good Angel: Well, that was ok.

Bad Angel: Fuck, you blew it.

Good Angel: No, no, it went fine. She made polite small talk with you afterward, laughed a few times, spoke as if you already had the job...it went fine.

Bad Angel: Nope, you fuckin blew it. Did you see the size of the booger in your nose in the elevator mirror post-interview?

Good Angel: First of all, that wasn't a booger, it was a piece of dry skin, and second of all, it wasn't that big.

Bad Angel: It looked like something a 49er would've used as down payment on a California mansion. And I don't even want to talk about your voice.

Good Angel: I have a cold. And it's 0 fucking degrees outside. So it croaked a little.

Bad Angel: A little? You sounded positively pubescent.

Good Angel: Well that shouldn't have any effect on how she judged me.

Bad Angel: No, but your flubbed answers about dealing with classes with varying levels will.

Good Angel: I gave an ok answer...

Bad Angel: You gave an incomplete answer. You totally forgot to mention your best idea.

Good Angel: You're paranoid. I got into this program 9 months ago...I'll get in again.

Bad Angel: Yeah, and you just had to bring up how you turned them down, didn't you? I'm sure they'll look kindly on that.

Good Angel: Yeah...maybe shouldn't've mentioned that....I'm fucked, aren't I?

Bad Angel: Yup.

Racism In Korea

This is an interesting article about how "South Koreans struggle with race." It's an international story in part inspired by the incident on the bus in Bucheon from a few months back, which I linked to in a previous post. I don't have much to add other than to affirm that it is indeed true that many Koreans have despicable views concerning other races but that it's also unsurprising that they do considering their history and language.