Korean Job Discussion Forums

[atwood]

[EZE]

I don't think there's more racism in Korea than there is in the West. I just think Koreans are more candid about it.

I think this episode of the Twilight Zone captures the Western mentality toward racist language pretty well, when the black guy tells the obnoxiously racist white guy, "Look, I don't care what you gentlemen think, as long as we don't have to listen to it."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5tItxKucwQ

The things Koreans say aren't worse than what many Westerners think to ourselves or say around our relatives, but I think the way many Koreans openly make racist remarks about us to our faces shocks us because in the West we're used to most racist ideas usually being unspoken, or at least spoken in whispers, around the group being denegrated. In the West, we tend to look around the room to make certain nobody of the group we're badmouthing is around or within earshot. Koreans will just say it, and they're even more likely to say it if they're actually speaking with a person of the race they're badmouthing. It's just a 180 degree difference of what we're used to.

[atwood]

[EZE]

[atwood]

[Steelrails]

[Captain Corea]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[T-J]

[Shinawi]

I'm not aware of any murders against non-Koreans in South Korea. There hasn't been any media coverage about that, and I never heard any minorities mention it.

The mid-1980s were a very different time. Korea was still leaving the developing nation status. The gap between the wealthy and the poor was wide, the wealthy and the middle class being very few, and the poor being very poor. I remember watching the news about crimes being done at the wealthy Koreans as late as the early 1990s. The older Koreans would remember one example - Jijonpa (http://blog.naver.com/octagonman?Redirect=Log&logNo=20131412955). So I wouldn't be surprised if the minorities were harassed during that era as anti-Americanism was beginning to rise and most of the Koreans considered any Caucasian in Korea as Americans. My Canadian supplier told me that during the 80s, a taxi driver in Korea took him to an isolated area and demanded a lot of money.

Although the U.S. had a dark past with racism, the long history with immigrants and minorities have made Americans aware and they improved the situation significantly. The U.S. is very experienced with minorities when compared to South Korea. There are certain U.S. regions where racism is still severe, but those regions are where there are few minorities. And the racism is actually done by the few in those regions. Unfortunately, just one racism can ruin a person's day. Many Koreans in Korea are good people, but a lot of them lack experience with other cultures. Some of them offend people from other countries without realizing it.

[le-paul]

to be honest, im not aware of anything that happens here.
my news comes from mostly heresay. while im not saying there are numerous hate crimes toward foreigners, a combination of the police not doing their job (therefore statistics being misleading), people feeling the police are unapproachable/prejudice and true crime going unreported by korean media (as it paints the country in a bad light). Also the majority of minority groups in korea are from asian countries such as china, philipines, thailand etc., in short, this doesnt show a realistic picture of what goes on here.
imo, its really impossible to see the truth other than from personal experience.

[atwood]

[atwood]

Not exactly racism, maybe more properly labeled nationalism. but I think the case of Jeong H. Kim is instructive. He went to the U.S. at the age of 14, became a citizen there, was educated there, became incredibly successful there, but now that he's decided to retire, he wants to give back to...Korea.

The ties that bind.

[Shinawi]

[atwood]