Sam Okyere, a Ghanaian celebrity in South Korea, recently recounted some of his racist experiences whilst being in the country on the TV program "As You Say."
He was called names, dubbed "Black Brother," reviled and verbally accosted by passengers on public transportation, amongst other examples. Perhaps the saddest part was when Okyere said he wished when Koreans said "we," they meant all of humanity, not just other Koreans.
For as long as I can remember, there's been a discussion, online and off, on the state of race relations in Korea.
The foreign populationin South Korea has swelled well past one million people, and as such, these conversations can aid in the better integration of foreign people in Korean society.
One such conversation was on a Youtube video between a white man and woman about Okyere's talk. The gentlemen in said video asserted that though racism exists in Korea, some Koreans' racism and xenophobia needs to be mediated through a global lens. Further, he said whites also experience racism in Korea (as if this point mitigates Okyere's experiences).
Plenty of people commented on this video, and some with disapproval.
My take?I think the angst commenters had with this video, of white people discussing a black person's experiences with racism, is what happens all too often with discussions of race where whites are involved. There is a constant, conscious and unconscious effort by (some) white folks to discount the very real trauma people of color experience on a daily basis. They do not, cannot, or most sinisterly, will not understand that the psychic, and sometimes physical, damage attendant to being colored is omnipresent, painful, and destructive.
Indeed, whiteness is at once invisible and seen.
Whiteness, forged through centuries of brutality, genocide, cruelty, malice, land theft, slavery, war, and yes, legislation, affords those of this group to navigate the world unaware of the privileges it entails.
In America, like many Western democracies, laws were fashioned channeling resources to whites at the expense of all others. The G.I. Bill, low-interest business loans and mortgages, tying educational funding to property taxes, redlining — the list is quite extensive, allowed some with opportunities to accrue wealth while steadily denying these same opportunities to others. This is why the average black family has 6% ($7,113) the wealth of the average white one ($111,146); Latinos, just 8% ($8,348).
As a majority, being white affords other intangible powers as well:
As I wrote before, while we see Caucasians in all facets of life, and represented as such in TV and movies (in other words, as humans with interiority and complexity), we often see people of color portrayed in stiff, two-dimensional stereotypes: the black man is aggressive and criminal; the black woman is angry and sexually pliant;the Asian man is asexual, weak, nerdy, and ineffectual, for example.Some people in Asian countries consuming all of this then uncritically synthesize these depictions as accurate.
Even so, this is Korea, not America.
There are clubs and other venues where no non-Korean can enter. This is also true in Japan. Further, a lot of Asian countries, like most nations in general, have racist and xenophobic undertones. And as I often like to remind people: we should remember racism is racial prejudice plus power. In this way, certainly whites can be discriminated against, like any other non-Korean in Korea, and are, for I have seen it.
A white person can experience true racism in Korea (just ask white folks who intermarry with Koreans; some of their stories, particularly the treatment they and their children receive from their in-laws, are horrific).
Yet, we must note that people of color are judged through the prism of white supremacy (something the two in the video about Mr. Okyere'sTV appearance failed to mention), and thus are considered less educated and desirable. We can look no further than the hagwon system and its hiring practices to see this is often the case, even when involving Americans, et al, of Korean descent.
There were some parts of the video discussion I agreed with. Americans are ignorant about Africa (and geography in general). This is not a uniquely Korean phenomenon. As with all countries except America, Koreans are more aware of the world around them.
Butlet us give credit where credit is due. The Korean government has spent time, money, and thought into making foreigners' stay here more convenient and humane.
Sadly, these efforts do not ameliorate what happened to Mr. Okyere. No government action can. To see other humans as human is an effort of the head and heart, one Korea, and certainly my native country, has a long, long way to go in ever making a reality.
Deauwand Myers holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul. He can be reached at deauwand@hotmail.com.