Korean Job Discussion Forums

kentucker4 · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Location: Georgia

Me and my Korean wife went to eat and drink at a local seafood restaurant here in Georgia two nights ago. It's only a few blocks away from where I live, so we decided to walk instead of drive because I knew we would be drinking. We don;t have any buses or anything here, except for school buses and taxis take at least 30 minutes to arrive. This is a small town, mind you, and boring as hell. Anyways, back to topic. We dined out and had a few pitchers of beer. She drank wine. Then we went to a pub across the street and left after about an hour because my wife is very sensitive to alcohol lately and was acting really drunk, falling down and stuff.

So we walked home and after about three minutes after walking, I noticed three black guys about 200 feet behind us or so. I was worried just by seeing their presence, because I read the police reports here every day for my job, and it's very common here for black guys to follow people at night and mug them or just beat the crap out of them.

The guys behind us started yelling at me and one of them said, "everything straight dog?" I replied by saying yes, or something to that extent and then told them to mind their own business. They started cussing at me and telling me they were coming. All of this while, my wife could barely stand up and walk. Should have called a taxi in the first place.

Well, then out of the blue, this Korean guy comes running down the street. I thought he was going to tackle me at first. He started yelling that the police were coming to deter the guys behind us. Sure enough, the black guys scrambled. Probably all on probation for something and carrying drugs. You wouldn't believe the criminal element in this small southern town.

Anyways, the Korean guy told me he owns a sushi restaurant near the the pub we were at that opens next Friday. He was in there drinking with some friends and saw my wife struggling to walk and me helping her. He said he went outside and saw the black guys and knew there was trouble. Said he also overheard the one of the black guys instructing the other to knock me out and take my wallet and to take my wife's pocket book. Anyways, I'm really thankful for that Korean sushi restaurant owner, he saved us from getting mugged, because those guys were closing on us fast. I knew the only reason he acted is because my wife is Korean, but still, I applaud his efforts. On a side note, Koreans here hate the black people here and that's not a generality. It's true with every Korean I have met here. The blacks don't like the Koreans as well. My dad is an insurance agent here, and one of his customers is a nice black lady who works at Kia. She said one of her Korean managers got frustrated when she made a mistake and called her a stupid monkey. Needless to say, she quit.

Well, back to the original story. A police patrol car did in fact arrive shortly later like the Korean guy said. The policeman was actually nice and we were very lucky not to get charged with public drunk. He chose to call a taxi for us instead of taking us int he station. My wife was very drunk acting in front of the officer. Scared the crap out of me. I have been arrested in this town on a public drunk charge for a lot less in the past.

Adventurer · Joined: 28 Jan 2006

Kentucker, I am glad you are safe. Why couldn't your wife walk well?
It's good that man came and helped you all. As far as the youth, even if you were a black male, you would be on your guard if a bunch of black males dressed in a certain way and walked in a certain were walking behind you. Of course, a person who is not black may stand out in a certain way, but there is plenty of black-on-black crime that you don't see.

As far as the Koreans, many of them opened convenient stores where black people live and naturally charged high prices, which convenient stores do, and black people resented that Koreans opened stores in their hood and charged a lot, but the US Government does what it can to provide moneys for minorities who want to open businesses, and only 20% of African Americans live in the ghetto, almost 50% are middle class, the African American middle class grew faster than the white one over the years, percentage wise, but the media doesn't talk about that.

I am not down with a Korean hating all black people because of a few bad apples, because there are good and bad people in all races and calling a hard-working African American woman a monkey is just horrible.
That sort of comment is rare, thankfully, when directed vis-a-vis African Americans.

It's hard to forget that in some parts of the US, it's just not safe to walk around at night.... That's one thing I don't miss...... However, in the neighborhood I lived in, that wasn't a problem.

kentucker4 · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Location: Georgia

For the most part, Koreans living in our town are scared of the black people here because there is a stereotype here about them. I hate to say it, but it is kind of deserved. I have nothing against black people based on their skin. It's just here, there are VERY few middle class ones and they make up a very large part of the crime here. Like I said, I read the police and sheriff's reports every day and they are usually the culprits 9 times out of 10....literally. You would be amazed. Of course, it's not just black on white or black on hispanic or Korean crimes. A criminal doesn't discriminate, they just see an opportunity for money or whatever they are trying to achieve when they see a potential victim or victims.

My wife could barely walk because she was so drunk. She only had five glasses of wine. She used to could drink like a fish.

The really crazy thing is, this wasn't in a bad part of town. It's was up near our town's square....a family type of atmosphere. On a side note, my friend here was also followed home by a black guy in the same location walking from the same bar a few months ago and was mugged. Our population here is only about 25,000 people. It's not like this is Los Angeles, Chicago or New York. This is just a little dot on the map. Ironically, two black men shot and killed my grandmother at her place of business on the square here about 27 years ago when she refused to give them her money. I never met her.

Ruraljuror · Joined: 08 Dec 2007

Would your gangster father-in-law have them killed had they harmed your wife?

The problem I have is that you are introducing race needlessly...you could just as easily have said "three young men tried to mug us" as "three black men tried to mug us". Their race ultimately has nothing to do with the story. I'm sure what happened to you was quite scary and traumatic, but would it have been preferable to you had your attempted muggers been white? The fact that they were black is about 0.000001% as important as the fact that they were trying to mug you.

Considering that we all think it is shoddy journalism when Korean papers flash nationalities when a foreigner does something wrong ("Canadian busted for pot") we shouldn't commit the same offense. Come to think of it...aren't you a journalist? Surely you must know that newspapers in America are prohibited from mentioning the race of criminal suspects?

Yesterday · Posted: Sun May 24, 2009 5:59 am Post subject:

Yes - the whole story sounds very racist...

racism breaches "Daves ESL Cafe forum" TORS...

the OP is in the US - so who cares.. and what do you expect..?

this has nothing to do with "living and working in Korea"

jkelly80 · Joined: 13 Jun 2007 Location: you boys like mexico?

YES!!!!

crescent · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Location: yes.

No buses, but there's a Sushi restaurant in hicksville?

kentucker4 · Joined: 03 Sep 2007 Location: Georgia

Ruraljuror · Joined: 08 Dec 2007

Ruraljuror · Joined: 08 Dec 2007

Cheonmunka · Joined: 04 Jun 2004

I have done in the past ascribe 'white trash head bangers' about a couple of guys who I witnessed mugging someone.

However, there was another incident in which white guys were the perps. I never mentioned it so never ascribed anything to them. But, those two times are hardly evident when compared to amounts violence I've seen by other groups.

I thnk the root cause is poverty. So, I mean if a 10% minority are caught for 60% of violent crimes, yet as well make up 60% of all people under the poverty mark, then there is a correlation.
You could look at education figures or any figures and likely find co-relationships like this.

I think you really have to look deeper. I mean, those drugs you talked about, they are available and in one's face in places like the projects. Kids grow up with it around them daily. It must be real hard to get away from growing up in that life. Wouldn't it be nearly impossible?

Adventurer · Joined: 28 Jan 2006

Forward Observer · Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Location: FOB Gloria

In the past, I've taken great pleasure in reading K4's wild and crazy posts about his wild and crazy life in Korea. This one is a little bit out there, but for some reason - I actually believe him. Actually, I have a story somewhat similar in nature myself. The only difference is that my wife had a cell phone and called the police herself.

The year was 1998, my wife and I had just been married after living in Korea for two and a half years. We only had one car at the time, and I was at work. Wife decided to take the bus to visit her Kgirlfriends that ran a sandwich shop in a so-so part of town. She got off the bus and had to walk about 1000 yards to the shop. About midway through the walk, a delivery truck pulled up and stopped in the road. All kinds of racial epithets were thrown at her, and they started propositioning her for sex. She ignored them, but she felt scared so she made two phone calls, one to the police and one to me. Turns out the guys worked at a nearby furniture store and they were out delivering. I had a nice talk with the manager of the store, and after threatening him with a lawsuit - he fired both of them in front of me. It could have been all for show though, I had no way of knowing if he was just doing it to avoid a civil lawsuit and I'm not even sure that what they did would even warrant a case. In any event, I was satisfied and the police showed up in a reasonable amount of time. My wife never took a public bus again. This was in Phoenix metro btw. Not exactly a small town. The guys weren't black, they were white and Mexican.

I guess they don't have cell phones in small village Georgia though.

djsmnc · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Dave's ESL Cafe

Adventurer · Joined: 28 Jan 2006

The majority of African Americans live in the South and there is more poverty in the South than in the North. One can expect that crime has risen in the U.S. due to the state of the economy, but too large of a portion of the prison population is African American. One cannot simply for the sake trying to seem open-minded ignore youths of a certain color coming up behind him or her, and that includes African Americans. You watch where you go, and who is behind you. Otherwise, you risk getting killed or raped. It's a reality. With that in mind, you don't label a whole people in a certain way since the majority are not that way, only a minority of them that are ignored.

I think in the US you have a glorification of violence, but that's somewhat decreasing, I hope. I mean the thug life, so to speak, was glorified.
I remember this girl I was interested in telling me she was interesting in this guy, because he was a "thug". It's unfortunate that that sub-culture was popularized by careless people in the music industry, but America likes to make money and there is the whole freedom of speech.

The whole thug life is tantalizing with the display of women, bling bling, and the nice rhythm. The soldiers in gangs make very little money.
It's the top dogs who make the big bucks, and they hope to get to that position. I think there is more of a realization of certain changes that need to be made. Crime is not about race, but societal cultural circumstances and history can encourage crime amongst people of a race living in a certain country.

People need to feel empowered, to understand the positive alternatives out there. There aren't many role models out there reaching out to people.