Lets talk racism...
Let start by stating the city I live in, Hanam, has been great for the most part. The people are friendly, the scenery is beautiful. I have few complaints, but unfortunately everything I love about to Korea has been ruined for me by my experiences with racism in the country.
Racism is a problem in Korea and I’m sure many countries. It is such a problem it’s got it’s own wiki page. Hell, the US has certainly still tainted by this scourge, but we at least have some laws on the books that try and prevent it. However, Korea does not and the darker your skin is, the worse it gets, or so I’ve hear.
Guess what country still thinks blackface is appropriate.
It ranges from minor things such as Korean not believing black Americans that they are not from Africa, to banning all black people from entering a bar on the grounds of Ebola. This defiantly also means no black-Korean relations ships too.
Take for example Hines Ward of Steelers fame, who is now a national hero due to his Korean ancestry. Ironically, as a child visiting Korea, he was spat at for his mixed heritage. Upon his return in 2006, ward set up a fund to help mixed race children in Korea, who suffer from low graduation rates due to bullying, even from teachers.
As for my experiences, I have made a list:
Being assaulted for talking to Korean girls.
Taxi drives blatantly passing me in favor of Koreans.
Being screamed at for saying excuses me to walk up an escalator.
Got kicked out of a bar for being a foreigner.
People not believing I am from America (lots of Koreans seem to think I am Arab for some reason).
Admittedly, my profile picture is probably not helping.
These issues, besides getting attacked, are relatively minor and again, the majority of Koreans I have met have been very friendly, but they frankly make me feel very unwelcome. I have traveled to many different countries, Morocco, Spain, Mexico, France, etc. but I have never experienced any of these problems before.
If you’re wondering why I didn’t go to the police after I was attacked for talking to a Korean girl (mind you I have a girl friend and this was just friendly banter), it’s because I would likely have been arrested. You read that right, I would have been arrested for getting punched in the face.
I will recount one tale from a blog I found about someone who was relentlessly harassed. For those of you who don’t want to read it, I will give you a quick summary. A man and his wife were walking up an escalator, as you are able to do here. A Korean man was standing in the walking area. They asked for him to move and he freaked out (similar to my incident). He followed them and continually harassed them until the Korean gentleman in question took a swing at the man’s wife, who responded just like any husband would. The police came, only listened to the Korean man and had them arrested. Fast forward a bit, they eventually had to pay the Korean man a bribe of several thousand dollars all because he (the Korean man) had harassed them.
I lack the words to describe my disgust.
Where exactly does this attitude come from? Well, there are many underlying reasons, but the biggest one is about blood. Essentially, many Koreans believe that their national identity is tied to their race of pure blood Koreans. In fact, you couldn’t serve in Korea’s military if you were of mixed race until 2010. If all this sounds vaguely naziesque it’s because it is. Why exactly do Koreans have this idea? Well their history of being isolated, colonized and attacked hasn't’ helped, but at this point I don’t care. Maybe this is slated to change in the near future, but as of now I don’t feel terribly welcome.
Let’s end on a hopeful note: Hanam city, where I live has a number of foreign teachers who are black. I have read that jobs will openly discriminate against you based on your skin color. So that's good news and hope to see that trend continue.