Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

Not to make light of people who feel Koreans are racist.. but realistically, how many would you say percentage-wise are racist?

I walk by 100s of Koreans almost every day I step out of my apartment and go to the store.. and nothing happens. In a course of a day I've probably walked within reach of a 1000 Koreans or significantly more.

Nothing ever happens.. seemingly for every 100,000,000 Koreans I walk by there is a possibility that if I'm with a Korean girl, someone might say something disapprovingly.. if even that. But for the most time almost zero happens.

Anyhow, thats not the point. Whats the percentage of Koreans do you personally find racist?

For the record, for me I'm voting for 'less than 1%' for this poll.. but I'd say significantly less in actuality.

[Zed]

What constitutes racism: Open hostility on the street, unseen decisions affecting certain people, a deeply held belief whether visibly manifest or not.
I can't vote here.

[stalinsdad]

Well I don't suppose staring is racist but it certainly makes me uncomfortable. I have been in Korea for 2 years now but today this old ajuma just stared and stared, I walked past her with my dog(he made a full recovery) and got into my girlfriends car. She just kept looking, I began shouting and jumping up and down in my seat wih indignation and she still kept staring. I wanted to kill her!!! I wanted to grab her scrawny neck and throttle the life out of this rude bitch. I am thankfully returning home for a holiday at the beginning of next year and I think I need it. So I suppose you never really get over it. I have been spat at, asked silly questions and other unpleasant things but this today had my blood pressure at dangerous levels.

[endofthewor1d]

they don't need to actually burn crosses on your lawn to be racist. i'm not going to vote, because i don't really have any clue as to what most of the natives here are thinking when they see me, but surely you've heard some koreans speak of their 'pure' blood, and how it makes them the master race and whatnot. that's racism. on a side note, a friend of mine's girlfriend informed a group of us that koreans are genetically predisposed to be smarter than everyone else on earth. that must be how they got the jump on us by being the first to discover fan death.
anyway... racism is rampant in this country. you can see it everywhere, from hiring practices (we prefer a caucasian female) to immigration laws (i'm referring mainly to the legality of kyopos with the proper visas to teach privates) to not being let into certain nightclubs. and that's just the downside of racism. a lot of the perks we get would fall into the category of racism too.
to say that less than one percent of people in korea are racist is rediculous. to say that significantly less than 'less than one percent' of people in korea is nonsensical, because what is significantly less than 'less than one percent'?
anyway... i challenge you to find any nation in the world whose people are less than one percent racist. hell, i'll further that. show me one square mile of area inhabited by human beings that is less than one percent racist, and i will be a very surprised man indeed.

[desultude]

I think that it is important to look at what is being called racism here as a much more complex phenomena. Nationalism plays a big part. Look at the history of Korea- the west has not been a loyal friend. As I have said before, the western men here have not always been so well behaved, especially in regards to women. Japan enslaved Korean women during a colonialism that was approved of by many in the west. U.S. soldiers did enjoy the "comfort women", if history books are to be believed.

The U.S. military men seem to behave worse here than they do in a lot of places (not all of them, but enough to warrant attention.) And, if the attidude I often see here is any indication, we do not always treat Koreans with full respect.

Any relationship is a dynamic that is renegotiated all of the time. Our relationship with Koreans is the same thing. How soldiers, or any men for that matter, behave themselves here, cannot be changed by me. I will, for my part, comport myself well here, because it is respectful, and because I want to do my part for the relationship. That being said, I seldom hesitate to speak with the Koreans I know about the irrationalities here, while acknowledging our own.

People who have Bush as a president, and a state like California with an action figure for a governor, don't have really high ground to stand on.

[matko]

36.75%

[YiSunSin]

This is a silly post. Don't you know 90% of all surveys are 99% inherently defective according to a survey of 80% of the world's surveys?

There seems to be more racist type discussion on here aimed at Koreans than I'm sure they would aim back.

We're all different. Our traditions and cultures are different. Isn't that why you are in Korea in the first place?

[Alias]

No more racist than rural New Brunswick.

[Kalhoun]

[BTM]

61.384% +/- a margin of error of 60%.

[William Beckerson]

[Tiger Beer]

Pride in your country doesn't mean you are racist in my opinion.. I know many proud Canadians who talk about how great Canada is.. but I wouldn't call any of them racist - far from it. They wouldn't either. So I don't think Koreans saying how much they like Korea implies that they are racist.

To me, the proper definition would be if they run around saying 'I hate ___ people'.. this is tough though, as once again I think some people (Koreans and otherwise) very openly run around saying they hate Americans.. so are ALL of them racist under that definition? Maybe so I don't know. But 'political' dislike and actually really hating the person are two different things. I know alot of Koreans and other people who don't literally hate me in particular solely because of my government's rather negative politics.

Hmm.. tough word to define.. but if define it.. you have to look deep down inside yourself and see if the word you descibe it also describes yourself and how you view the world as well.. and think about it carefully..

To those who clicked the 100% box, is your girlfriend racist and hate white people? Does the ajumma woman at the corner restaurant saying and thinking racist thoughts as she's serving you lunch? Can you describe how 100% of all Korean people every day do racist things to you 100% of the time?

To me, a racist, is someone who just can't tolerate your prescense.

[some waygug-in]

I can't say I know the answer to that one, but just look at how Canadians treat their own "native" populations to see examples of racism. I have been guilty of this myself, and it is difficult to grow up in rural Canada without being exposed to some degree of racism.

Just as I had to (and still have to) try and overcome my own prejudices, so do many Koreans have to try and overcome theirs. The shoe is on the other foot here as we discover "it ain't so great" to be stereotyped and lumped together by a bunch of biggoted attitudes.

Part of the problem is the language barrier, as we find it very difficult to trust people with whom we can't communicate. Part of the problem is maturity, (or lack thereof) and a whole lot of ignorance on both sides.

I don't think we have the right to tell Koreans how to act in their own society, but at the same time, they invited us here to learn about our culture and language. Perhaps they could realize that as foreigners we think differently, act differently and expect different things than Koreans do.

I remember a story a friend of mine told me after working here for a couple of years. He said anytime his Korean bosses would try to convince him that he "should" do something that he didn't want to do, (like teach on Saturday) they would start on about how it's customary for Koreans to work 6 days a week and that he "must" do the same. He simply replied, "I'm not Korean". They seemed to get the message and left him alone.

What has this to do with anything? Not much, except that I know that nothing said on this forum is going to solve anything anyway.

Have a good weekend.
Cheers

[matko]

Many Koreans hate Japanese, American, Chinese and a whole slew of other nationalities. I've yet to meet another country's people who have such open hostility towards as many other nationalities.

As has been stated before in other threads, the Koreans are more openly hostile than say the Japanese. That doesn't mean they are more racist or less I guess, just more open about it. So, how do we judge 'what percent' of a certain country's people are racist?

We must also take into consideration Bill's definition of Racism. If we accept that definition, then almost every single Korean that I have met is a racist because they stated that they would never get involved with a black person or allow their children to get involved with one. Less than half said the same about whites. As for other Asians, Koreans that I have spoken to all stated it depended on the country the person was from.

I have spoken to hundreds of Koreans about this aged 18 to 55 through one year of teaching Koreans in Korea and 3 years of teaching Koreans in Canada. Hardly scientific, but I have seen polls conducted using a smaller survey sample.

[Zed]