Well, somewhat. In my previous post from earlier today, I was angry, and so I ranted about Korean racism. Riding the bus back to Suwon, I had an insight: maybe Koreans are no more racist than Americans. Which is to say, I would guess that there are probably just as many racist Americans as a percentage of total population as there are racist Koreans. Not a majority, but probably a scarily large subset of the total population.
The difference is more subtle. Americans who happen to be racist are raised, nearly from birth, to be circumspect about their racist attitudes. They come to understand that there are real consequences for openly expressing their feelings, from ridicule to lawsuits to criminal prosecution. So they learn to be circumspect. Koreans, who live in a largely homogeneous culture, have little reason to be circumspect about such attitudes. “Good” race or “bad” race, it’s all the same, mostly: just a bunch of foreigners – so openly expressing one’s positive or negative opinions about them is no big deal. So racist Americans are stealth-racists, while racist Koreans are in-your-face racists. Maybe there’s actually something positive in that, as there is in any kind of transparency. Certainly, at the least, it’s clear whom to avoid.
That doesn’t change my feeling that it bothers me. A lot. But I need to be careful about what I allow to annoy me about Korean culture, lest I fall into a trap of hypocrisy. So… nevermind about the rant – at least on the charge of racism. The other comments can stand, for now. But I’m over being mad about it, I think. Sorry.
i sent you an e-mail the same exact time you posted this. and i basically said the same thing. you know, joe’s parents say that it’s our generations’ fault that obama is president, and i don’t think they’re referring to just his liberal policies.
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This is a weird comment (above) to put on this blog post. I almost think it’s probably just spam – especially given the Islamabad URL attached to it. But… if it’s spam, it’s an oddly flavorless variety. The “Sociology Dissertation” appears to be the spam/phishing nugget – so don’t click it. But I’m curious about what it is. Are spammers now advertising master’s dissertations? Seems like a peculiar target demo.