Hines Ward’s Korean Mother: ‘People Spat at Us’
The great “who is Korean?” conversation goes on. If South Korea doesn’t change the rules, after all, it didn’t win the Superbowl. Today, the Chosun Ilbo interviews half-Korean Johnny Westover, who did not win the Superbowl, but who has been active in fighting for the rights of mixed-race Koreans:
Active in a group of mixed-race Koreans, he told a meeting Friday he has never seen a half-Korean become a general in the army, or for that matter reach any position of authority in Korea, and asked if anyone else had. “In an era of globalization, where everything is becoming mixed together, Koreans know how to change the color of their hair to red, green or yellow, but it seems they still don’t know how to change the thoughts inside their heads,” he said.
. . . .
He suggests following the U.S. example and making it illegal to discriminate against people on the grounds of race.
The Korean National Human Rights Commission claims that it investigates complaints relating to race and national origin and has aired a few PSA’s about discrimination against mixed-race Koreans, but in practice, laws against racial and national discrimination are unenforced. A lack of political will may be to blame. Bigotry is increasingly bound up with Korea’s nationalist politics and its North Korea policy. Who can forget the violent anti-American demonstrations last September 11th, after which none of the violent protestors were punished, and after which a senior ruling party lawmaker (!) praised the protestors for their “deep ethnic purity.” The Marmot translated another press report quote from the same lawmaker on the same day:
Now is the time to focus our racial purity as energy to bring about intra-Korean
reconciliation and cooperation and peaceful reunification.
For several years now, Koreans have been holding up and putting up signs in restaurants and sporting events barring Americans from even entering (go to this post to see the history of my own fruitless complaints to South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission). In Korea, race, xenophobia, and politics are deeply interwoven. That’s why the ruling party isn’t really interested in prohibiting discrimination. I’ll go out on a long limb and predict the result from the traditionally conservative Grand Nationals, although for reasons that are more Confucian than nationalist.
Now, the headline story. Watch the Chosun Ilbo’s reporter absorb some well-earned humiliation for a predicatably dumb question:
What does Hines think about the Korean blood that runs though his veins?
“Since he was young, he always got along well with the other Korean and Vietnamese kids. It seems like he does have some pride in his Korean blood. But we’ve also been hurt as Koreans. When Hines was in high school, there was an inter-school friendship match for the Korean students. Since he was good at baseball, a school invited him to play. But after the game, when the kids went out to eat, the person who put together the event only took the Korean kids, leaving Hines behind (Ward is of mixed parentage, his father an African-American). After that I told Hines to never hang out with Korean kids. Yet when we went to Korea in ’98, even Korean people who looked educated spat when we walked by. Koreans judge others based on their appearance and their age. Those kinds of Koreans think that they are so special”¦”
This lovely vignette is a great example of how not to win friends and influence people. It’s also consistent with experiences I had, and which friends of mine had. I left Korea in 2002 and haven’t been back since. I have great reservations about going back, particularly with my half-Korean children. I’m sure plenty of corporate executives, diplomats, investors, scientists, teachers, and engineers have reached the same conclusion. With the exception of command-sponsored military, I’m guessing that most foreigners leave Korea when they have children. I could go on and on listing some extraordinarily talented people who should have been valued friends of Korea–and Korea now realizes how much it needs friends–but who instead feel hostility toward it because of its bigotry. Korea will be the hub of little else as long as its own attitudes deter people from forming lasting connections with the place.
Listening to Johnny Westover would be a good start.
I would be surprised that if you can find a people who are more racists than we Koreans are.
Come on, Let’s just admit that we ARE racists!.
Otherwise we can never change.
I had to hear “Korea is ONE RACE country” over and over at school
which somehow I was supposed to be very proud of.
and that conficts head on what Austrlia or America is supposed to be proud of…”MULTI CULTURAL SOCIETY”.
I hear many Koreans complaining about Australians being racisits and I agree that they are. However, I was never underpaid at work or had problems finding jobs because I am Korean.
Before I begin, in order to avoid sounding like a bigot myself, whenever I use a label, such as “Korean”, I am not talking about ALL members of a particular group or culture, but the majority.
Anyhow, It’s true Koreans are very racist and judgemental, but who isn’t. Every country, state, lifestyle, tribe, race, etc. has their phobias that stem into discrimination. Whether or not one is a discriminatory idiot is not divided into two clearly delineated sides; every individual on this planet is an idiot that fosters their own prejudices. Thus, the question is, “where does everyone rank on the idiot spectrum?”
Case in point, a very heterogeneous country such as the US vs. a very homogeneous country such as Korea (for all the idiots out there, homogeneous and heterogeneous is not talking about sexual orientation). It doesn’t matter if one is immersed in diverse cultures or not, the outcome is the same everywhere. If one is not immersed in various cultures, they will tend to develop some sort of xenophobia. If one is saturated with many different cultures and races, they will tend to find stereotypes and labels. Of course people will be ranked differently on the “idiot” spectrum depending on factors such as environmental pressures, but in general, these are the symptoms that plague all societies.
People tend to use weapons such as discrimination, racism, etc. as tools to make themselves feel superior and to show others that they are superior. This can be done internally or externally. What I am saying is, homo sapien sapiens inherently attach themselves to a group’s organizational hierarchy. A person will be a part of many groups during their life and this will have the biggest influence on the way they think. People in general need this structure to feel “safe”.
In addition, simple economics will tell you that all people are competing for limited resources which breeds envy, jealousy, and hatred amongst other things. So, when someone discriminates against people outside their group, they are subconsciously trying to up their group’s station within the hierarchy of many other groups in order to gain access to more resources.
It my sound very cliche, but it is clear that a stable education that promotes open and individual thinking with a loving/accepting family is the key to such problems stated above.
Based on that analytical framework, I’d rank you at 9 out of 10.
listen … im half korean and i was born in korea and went to korean school up until the age 7 … you wont believe some of the stuff i went through in korea … i speak both languages fluently … my dad who is a white guy in the u.s. military also speaks korean fluently … as a half breed going to korean school i can remember being pushed down the stairs because i was able to speak english .. me and my brother used to get harrassed because both of us were half white and all the girls used to like us .. heh which i didnt have a problem with .. anyways we moved to america for some time and one way or another my dad got stationed back to korea when i turned 17 .. so we ended up back in korea .. and i can tell youu, those college kids are the worse .. i remember getting jumped one time by abunch of college kids because i was speaking english over the phone .. and thats not an exxageration .. and to comment to ‘hypocritical nonsense’ on what you said about everyone being prejudice some way .. i can tell you right now from first hand experience .. not some scientific theory .. that koreans are alot more prejudice than the average american .. in fact .. korea is pretty darn prejudice .. i can remember another time when my friend james kim who is a full korean je mi kyopo from new york and i were hanging out outside of bar speaking english when a group of koreans walked by talking crap … which ended up into a little brawl .. then another time when two korean girls were ACCIDENTLY ran over by an american tank outside an army base in tong doo chon … i mean .. cmon now?? .. u see a tank comming and you continue to sit in the middle of the road .. anyways it was proven an accident … but yet two of my friends who were half black half korean and another who was full korean but a kyopo were jumped at the tong doo chon train station .. and for whattt??? .. for speaking english … now i do agree with what leemay says .. there is a possibility that hines didnt get invited because the korean guy felt more comfortable speaking korean .. i know how to think like an american and also think like a korean so i definitely imagine that happening as the way u said it leemay .. when i lived in korea i had my full korean friends then i had my half korean friends that i attended SAHS on yongsan base .. but ill admit .. i couldnt bring the two groups together if i wanted to .. koreans have a much different way of thinking .. the whole respect your elders, being big on giving .. you know what i mean .. alot of koreans would get offended by my half korean friends by the way they act .. so bottom line .. koreans are really prejudice pple .. wether its bush .. wether its the war in iraq .. wether its the military bases that are still set up in korea .. whatever the reasons are for koreans to hate americans .. iv been put in that category of a hated american plenty of times despite the fact that i speak korean and know the culture and know how to act in front of koreans .. but i will say tho .. iv gotten much play in korea just for being half korean .. but sadly to sayyy .. i have a harsh grudge against fobbed out korean pple in korea from my experiences there which i never really had before until i had moved back to korea when i was 17 ..
The majority of Korean people I know are very prejedious. They always think they are smarter and better than American, Japanese or Chinese or any other races. I had some college classmates in United States who are Korean. They acted like they are very smart, even though they are not. They will come to you to copy homework from you and say, “Oh, I trust you. That’s why I borrow your homework. and blah blah……….” When they ask for your help, instead of asking you when you are available to help them, they will set a particular time that convenient for them and will not care if it is convenient for you or not.
In the U.S.A, many other races will welcome you to their churches, but not Korean Churches.
I’m a retired US serviceman married to a Korean. During a one year tour to South Korea, I met the young lady who would become my wife. When I met her family as far as I knew everything was fine and they were very cordial to me. After returning to the US we exchanged letters and later decided to get married. That’s when all hell broke loose for her. With the exception of her mother, everyone in her family did everything in their power to dissuade her from marrying a wae-gook-saram , including beatings. Being quite willful, my fiancee tolerated all of this until she flew to the US where we were married. When she arrived, she had lost a good 20 pounds of weight and was gaunt and tired — she was so glad to get away from her family. Less than a year later, I was sent back to Korea and was able to take my wife with me since she was still a Korean national. During the next three years, I learned first hand of the deep seated hatred that many Koreans harbor for those who marry foreigners. I am of white european descent and yes, those who marry dark skinned foreigners suffer worse than people such as my wife, but the insults were still heaped on hot and heavy. While walking with me off post, my wife had all manner of insult hurled at her, was spat upon, and was told countless times, “You’re a beautiful woman, why are you with an American?” My wife is a wonderful, loving woman who is proud of her heritage, but fully understands the origins of the bigotry that abounds in Korea — she was taught this in school. Although I became furious, she simply ignored the insults and told me to do so as well. Two years ago, we visited Korea again, almost exactly 20 years after we had left Korea in 1988. The changes in the country were dramatic and sweeping. Foreigners were everywhere, and people did not stop and stare at me with my blonde hair and blue eyes as we walked down the streets of the small port city that my wife comes from. From what we saw and felt, things have gotten a lot better in Korea with regards to open bigotry, but like the US, much of it has simply moved underground. Our son is an adopted Korean boy and both he and my wife put up with no small mount of crap in the US as well. My son married a lovely girl from Wales. He has utterly no wish to every return to Korea where he knows he’ll be looked down upon for marrying a non-Korean. Incredibly, he has been ridiculed in the US by Korean-Americans for this! Yes, some Koreans takes their toxic attitudes about race with them wherever they go. Many will only lose their prejudices in death. Until Korean can produce a generation of people who have been specifically taught to not judge people by the color of their skin, religion, and ethnic origin, the bigotry will go on. Once learned in youth, such deep seated opinions are very difficult to unlearn. Americans need only look inward to understand this. Korea is changing at a phenomenal pace and with one of the most vibrant economies in Asia, will be faced with ever increasing multicultural challenges. They will be forced to deal with multi-ethnic citizens who will become increasingly unwilling to tolerate the “old ways.”