so it looks really hypocritical for you to marry a white guy, have a half-white baby and pretend you care about Korean culture and hanbok. Do Korea a favor and move to the U.S. with your white husband.
Thanks for your opinionālaid out in four additional messages I see no reason to reply toāand giving me something to chuckle about.Ā Iāll just say that correcting assumptions can be embarrassing to the person who assumes them and I am gracious enough to to leave it at that.One of your comments, however, was interesting and accurate in some ways.āI donāt know if you know any half-white Koreans but sometimes their mom desperately tried to keep SOME Korean in them, so they give them Korean middle names but it doesnāt really matter. They will mostly be white inside and disconnected from being Korean. You will have a hard time preventing this. Assimilation, acculturation and erasure is a scary thing. Wearing hanbok wonāt matter. The damage done will not be prevented by wearing hanbok.āPerhaps I am a good example of what youāre trying to illustrate, only my mother never forced anything on me. Iām ethnically Korean and culturally Canadian. I cared little about my ethnic heritage until a few years ago. I was (am?) as you say, āwhiteā on the inside. Visiting and living there for a year, gave me the opportunity to appreciate part of my identity I previously ignored. Culturally, I am not Korean-born and aesthetically, I might stand out in a dominantlyĀ āwhiteā Canadian community. I have, however, the unique privilege of spanning both cultures.
You say thatĀ āAssimilation, acculturation and erasure is a scary thing.ā This can be true; forced cultural assimilation, cultural appropriation and the like are wrong and happen. We may roll our eyes at the spread of American culture, but even those influences, we must admit, can have positive impacts and are not necessarily āevilā as some may claim them to be. Just ask somebody who grew up, say, in Soviet Russia.Ā
You must also realize that, we live in the 21st century where borders are porous, the Internet and social networking redefine the meaning of culture, and mixed race marriages are quite acceptableāin most countries. We canāt isolate ourselves in cultural enclaves in hopes that it remains āpure,ā thatās when racism and xenophobia take root. Rather, the best way to celebrate and ensure a culture doesnāt become āerasedā is to share and teach cultural appreciation.
Iām not going to force my daughter to take interest in Korean, or Russian culture if she doesnāt want toājust as my parents gave me an option. My daughter, like many in her generation, will grow up in a mixed racial family and interact with other mixed race children. They, like I, will have an opportunity to delve into their parentsā heritage and culture, or not. More exciting and beautiful, I think, will be the interweaving of cultural traditions and values.Thanks for providing the food for thought today. :)
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