Are Koreans, in general, racist and xenophobic?

[Silent Dob]

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/south-korea/100122/english-teachers-seoul-racism?page=0,1


This articles makes it seem that way.

I mean, you'd really think they'd think more highly of Americans, what with America being the birthplace of Star Craft.

[stsparky]

The over-forties can be, my cousin's kid Eric is teaching there.

[Silent Dob]

This article makes them out to be pretty batshit insane and mean.

I know another one talked about how racist North Korea is, and how they look down upon South Koreans as having become "impure" for "breeding" with the lesser races. From the looks of things it seems like a LOT of South Koreans seem to feel the same way.

[Fermented Yeast Paste]

Americans, in general, are racist and xenophobic.

I mean I could put together a short article reminiscent of a blog post with some statistics and quotes from people with political authority in the US and if you were an outsider without much knowledge of the US you'd wonder the same thing.

[stsparky]

Everyone is someone else's mud people.

I tell them hybrid vigor is the answer.

[Digital Masta]

Korea has some of the most ridiculous levels of nationalism...go from there.

This is the article it's referencing

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-korea-english31-2010jan31,0,123114,full.story


My friends currently teach in Korea (I went to visit them for winter break) and they've also spent time in Japan and my one friend commented on how he felt on the unwelcome side we he had arrived.

All of their friends are Koreans who have spent a significant amount of time abroad, often through their old university which has a lot of Korean exchange students and obviously these guys don't think this way but they said there are a lot of people who do.

My friend lives next to a psychotic nationalistic racist old fuck who screams and hollers at night time. One of his best comments were, "Screw you American sons of bitches!" when my friend had his gf call the cops for noise complaint reasons.

Apparently it was really, really bad in the 90s. One of the ALTs here was in the military back then and he was stationed in Korea. He said there were instances of G.I.s who (the non-idiots) were being kidnapped and beaten up/ to death.

There are quite a few places that have a no G.I. rule. For two reasons, for the Koreans sake and for the G.I.s sake. They don't want any Koreans getting upset over some GIs being there.

They've also commented on dating Korean women and how they (my friends and other foreigners) feel a little bit uncomfortable being seen with their gfs outside.

We were talking about this while I was in Korea and my friend's gf said that if her and my friend ever broke up she couldn't tell her next Korean bf that she dated a foreign guy.

I was talking with them and some of the Koreans I know here in Japan and they were saying that there are virtually no really big half-Korean entertainers. Quite the opposite if Japan. They were saying that it's changing but Korea is still not the greatest place for someone who is half-Korean. Especially if your other parent is black. Hell, if you're "noticeably" mixed in Korea and your a man you don't have to do military service. That has to piss off quite a few people. Hines Ward, the football player whose mother is Korean created the Hines Ward Helping Hands Foundation for biracial Korean youths living in Korea who are experiencing discrimination.


Granted...historically Korea hasn't been the biggest shinning light of Asia when compared to China or Japan. What I mean is that China was the center of the Asian world at one point, that was where you went to get educated and signs of that are still prevalent today. Japan came out as the dominate Asian power and started taking over everything it could get it's hands on. It lost it all and arose as the only truly first world nation in Asia and it's become a technology and pop culture hub.

Korea hasn't had any of that, has been occupied and it's country ended up split in two. That's gotta do a number on your national identity.

[Silent Dob]

You know what I say?

FUCK THE KOREANS.


We save them from being occupied and dominated by the Japanese and give them freedom. THEN we save them from becoming a fiefdom of the batshit insane kingdom of Kim Jong Il's nutty family. A war which was EXPENSIVE, AND which we lost- badly.


Then we spend billions building up their infrastructure and wasting money to protect their ungrateful asses from Lil' Kim.

THEN we invent the internet for them AND invent Star Craft AND...


and what do we get?

A big fucking flip of the middle finger from their ungrateful uppity asses.

FUCK KOREA. We should pull out there and let Kim Jong Il have his way with them. If he's "ronery" and hankering to rape South Korea, well, leave the ungrateful fuckers to their fate. I could understand them acting this way if this Vietnam or Iraq... but just, fuck.... If those assholes can't show America even the slightest respect then fuck those ungrateful pieces of shit.

They want us out? Fine, pay us for every cent we've wasted protecting their sorry asses and thank us for every wonderful thing we've ever done for them. Why the hell should we waste our soldiers and money protecting those motherfuckers? If not for us they'd still be taking it up the ass from Japan. Truth be told? That wouldn't bug me one bit given how assinine they're treating our country.


Clint Eastwood said it best in that movie- "GET OFF MY LAWN YOU GODDAMNED ZIPPERHEADS!"

[Fermented Yeast Paste]

Well that's certainly a racist/nationalist post you got there.

[Vic_Rattlehead]

and a tad revisionist to boot.

[stsparky]

I like Koreans for the record.

[Silent Dob]

How's it revisionist? We saved them from Japan AND North Korea AND we've protected them AND we've helped them advance greatly.

What do we get in return? A bunch of uppity, racist assholes targeting westerners for kidnapping, murder and stalking. They owe everything to us- without us they'd either be Japan's bitch or Kim Jong Il's bitch, or maybe Commie China's bitch. All of their independence and luxury they enjoy is built on the blood and money of America's Might- so fuck em, they don't deserve any of it for treating us like shit!

[whispering]

Trolling or not, Silent Dob, USA didn't protect Koreans. They tried to stop communism from spreading. Meddling if you will. The exact same thing China did, only with a different political ideology.

Also going by that anthology, US owes everything to France.

[Silent Dob]

"Meddling"? Do you really think the average South Korean today looks to North Korea and wishes they could be a part of that? As far as I'm concerned any anti-American South Korean should be parachuted there.

Also, we do owe France our thanks. But France didn't stay for 50-60 years after the war spending lots of money and troops on us to keep us safe from England. The thanks South Korea owes is far greater than what we owe France. And we're still over there and we're still hauling our asses to keep their ungrateful asses safe- which we shouldn't be doing AT ALL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX3XfCgF0kM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt8Mnvdp6S0

If you ask me someone need to put those fucking zipper ******* in their place.


They needed China to keep them safe from Japan when Japan first invaded- then they need us to save them from Japan. Then they needed us to save them from North Korean domination. Those small-penised bastards jealous of foreigners taking all their women need to be showing more respect to their elders.

[Digital Masta]

lol @ the fast decline of this thread.

[japanat]

Silent Dob or Stupid Dork?

When I went to Busan in '92, I was spit on by an old man right after I got off the boat (there had been anti-American riots until the day before). Needless to say, I thought things were going to go badly, but things after that were great.

When I was trying to figure out the subway system, a group of young ladies came up and helped me get situated, and even rode the train with me to my stop and made sure I got off OK (off the train, off the train!). Another middle-aged guy bought me drinks on the outdoor mall that evening. A young lady, college student, asked me to go to a cafe and talk so she could practice her English. When I was waiting in front of Busan's train station, lots of young men came up to me and talked, including a lot of men who were cycling into their mandatory military service. I went to a small basement cafe near the train station for breakfast, and they really dosed my egg ramen with cayenne. They were quite polite about it, but when I finished it, sweat streaming down my face and my hair wet like I'd just run 10K, they became much friendlier

I know people who've had great times in Korea, and others who've been dumped on big time. Mixed marriage is a sore issue for some people, and of my friends some marriages have lasted and some failed. To me that is more due to the fact that Korean mother-in-laws are notoriously difficult (more like evil) with their daughter-in-laws. As Digital Masta says, children of mixed marriages, especially black, have a lot of problems with bullying, future advancement, etc. But isn't that more due to the assumption that all black men are US servicemen?

Are there xenophobes? Of course. Actually, with the country's collective anger over the occupation, I would be severely surprised if there weren't.

[Sock Full of Boiled Dimes]

When did all the nationalist idiots find the internet?

[Digital Masta]

You know what's interesting. In Korea there are significantly more Korean men married to foreign women than Korean women married to foreign men.

[Silent Dob]

What are the statistics for interracial couples?

Ie, with ethnicities (Russian? American? Laotian? Black? African? Chinese?) are married in which numbers to each gender?

[Knife-Fingered Sue Sanderson]

I only went to Seoul for a three-day weekend, but I loved it there, and found the people really friendly.

My husband could pass for Korean, and maybe they even think differently about Korean men/foreign women couples than the other way around, but we never got stared at the way we did in Japan. We were lost on our way to the hotel, and while we were looking at a map a man came up, looked at the address, and walked with us there.

Later that day, we met up with my husband's co-worker's sister and her family (hubby worked at a Korean restaurant in Tokyo). His co-worker wanted us to give them some presents, and they took us out to dinner, paid for everything, gave us a tour of the city, bought us coffee, and asked us to stop by the cafe they ran for lunch the next day. We did, ordered some really delicious sandwiches, and they refused to let us pay! They asked us out to dinner again, took us to an awesome restaurant, and AGAIN paid! We could barely communicate, but I've never felt so welcome in Asia before. Even knowing how much some Koreans dislike the Japanese and Americans, we never felt anything like that.

Again, we were only there for three days, so I can't begin to presume that it's all rainbows and unicorns, but in my personal experience I loved Korea and the people and can't wait to have the opportunity to go back again someday.

P.S. Korean guys are hot...

[Digital Masta]

What are the statistics for interracial couples?

Ie, with ethnicities (Russian? American? Laotian? Black? African? Chinese?) are married in which numbers to each gender?

I don't know the exact stats but I believe they are mostly married to other foreigners of Asian descent.

[ミュー]

One thing's for sure, I don't understand Koreans.

Living in Japan, I have not had the best direct personal experiences. In Shin-Okubo (Tokyo's Koreatown), I get bad service and spoken to rudely at restaurants. For those unfamiliar, this is extremely insulting behavior in Japan.

This isn't the case at all with other Asian foreigners. Chinese, Thai, Filipino, pretty much everyone else is really nice in general.

Does anyone have an idea why this is? I don't think all Koreans are bad people, but seeing and experiencing this kind of stuff, who in their right mind would want to go to Korea? I'm certainly not wasting a dime on a plane ticket to a place where I am going to be discriminated against. If the kimchi wasn't go goddamn delicious, I'd probably skip out on Okubo too.

People bitch about Japan, but I've never gotten spit on. Nobody gives a damn about the race of my girlfriend, and racism isn't pronounced. Needless to say it exists and it sucks, but skimming that article makes Japanese right wingers sound like teddy bears.

[stsparky]

... In Shin-Okubo (Tokyo's Koreatown), I get bad service and spoken to rudely at restaurants. For those unfamiliar, this is extremely insulting behavior in Japan. ....
Weird. Is it from more than one place? Try making a connection with a server close to your age and establish yourself as a friendly customer. See if you get some smiles.

Xenophobia is always ugly.

[mikem]

Yes Japanese/Chinese/Koreans/Thai in general are racist and xenophobic. Any other questions?

[Matt W]

What I noticed from my time in Korea is that Koreans are heavily indoctrinated in school to hate Japan. The kids I taught would come to English school after their regular school all taking about how evil Japan is and thinking Dokdo Island (Takeshima) is extremely important. At the same time, they were wearing their Pokemon T-shirts and writing with their Hello Kitty pencils. I noticed a lot of adults with anti-Japanese attitudes as well, it was disheartening. I hope there is more cultural exchange so that they can have real life experience and realize what they are taught in school about Japanese people does not accurately portray the current generations of Japanese people.

[Digital Masta]

What I love about that island is that if u ask the average Japanese person about it they're like "Huh?"

[c-rex]

Simpy put, the Koreans are not racist, xenophobic or such in regards to Americans. The older generation simply remembers the American military government (and the police crackdowns from it), the Rhee administration (who is seen as retaining power due to American sponsorship) and American's pressure for Korea to send troops to places like Vietnam.

If you read up on the history of Korea, they had a functional government (or something ressembling it) that set up as the Japanese withdrew, Hoon-Hyung's Republic Korea. America though overthrew it and set up Rhee as a leader of the provisional government and many argue that this set the stage for Rhee to rig the vote and become the President when the 1st Republic was established. This doesn't even touch the part where America and USSR split their country in half, set the stage for the Korean War and the fact that half of Korea is locked in abject poverty under the rule of a nut job or the massive number of troops we keep on their soil.

A lot of older Koreans have a chip on their shoulder against America, and rightly so.

I've run in to a few grumpy old Koreans that aren't thrilled by my whiteness, but in general I've never had a problem with the younger crowd. American GIs are less popular, in part due to their history of getting drunk and causing trouble.

Oh and just because this "Citizens of Right Education" might come off as a bunch of pricks doesn't mean anything. Saying that because of the CRE, Koreans are all racist is like saying all Americans are racist because of the KKK.

[fa11en87]

My korean answer: Yes, in general it is true. Although there are exceptions.

[krizzex]

Simpy put, the Koreans are not racist, xenophobic or such in regards to Americans. The older generation simply remembers the American military government (and the police crackdowns from it), the Rhee administration (who is seen as retaining power due to American sponsorship) and American's pressure for Korea to send troops to places like Vietnam.

If you read up on the history of Korea, they had a functional government (or something ressembling it) that set up as the Japanese withdrew, Hoon-Hyung's Republic Korea. America though overthrew it and set up Rhee as a leader of the provisional government and many argue that this set the stage for Rhee to rig the vote and become the President when the 1st Republic was established. This doesn't even touch the part where America and USSR split their country in half, set the stage for the Korean War and the fact that half of Korea is locked in abject poverty under the rule of a nut job or the massive number of troops we keep on their soil.

A lot of older Koreans have a chip on their shoulder against America, and rightly so.

I've run in to a few grumpy old Koreans that aren't thrilled by my whiteness, but in general I've never had a problem with the younger crowd. American GIs are less popular, in part due to their history of getting drunk and causing trouble.

Oh and just because this "Citizens of Right Education" might come off as a bunch of pricks doesn't mean anything. Saying that because of the CRE, Koreans are all racist is like saying all Americans are racist because of the KKK.

You are mistaken,

http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2010/10/on-the-subject-of-subway-and-other-violence.html

http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2010/10/a-message-to-koreans-who-believe-this-media-bullshit.html

They are extremely racist. You probably don't even know what racism is or how to discern it from other acts with those statements. It has nothing in itself to do with their being in or from the military or even America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W46A2o8qoGU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqniGNWg9eA

[Kyletherealninja]

Reading all of this makes me... not particularly eager to go to Korea. Ever. In fact, I'd be happy if they could just manage to leave Japan out of it when North and South inevitably decide to blow each other up.

[SoulPlay]

I kind of want to go to korea now... just to see how shit would go down.

[Digital Masta]

My friend while living in Seoul lived next to an old man that would scream racist obscenities about Americans knowing fully well that my friend lived next door.

Business in Korea that don't allow GIs aren't necessarily doing it because the GIs causing problems but because of Koreans causing problems with GIs.