Whatever, YTN

Got this from The Marmot – you can watch the video, even if you can't read the Korean, of these guys basically singing their own inpromptu offensive lyrics on the subway and a few shots of them being silly outside a Hooters.

Hmm.

Given the history of YTN specifically, and the rest of the Korean media in general, and the race and "protecting Korean women" trope in the media, the fact that some extra-stupid foreigners actually were special-stupid enough to actually upload their frat antics to YouTube doesn't strike me as news.

It isn't contextualized, and it's the only thing you ever see foreigners ever getting the spotlight for, so I just see it as more race-baiting for the readership – except this time, it wasn't totally unfounded, like the "Hongdae Mad Max" bullshit story that YTN basically just made up last time.

I'd love to see any of the Korean media do a story typical of many foreign experiences, which is that many of us are harassed so much – partially provided with the emotional ammunition by white-and-black-baiting stories like these – that I, for one, don't even take the subway anymore because or both verbal and physical harassment.

The way I see it is this:

– Is this typical of foreigners' behavior in Korea?

– If not, and by definition, is it particularly newsworthy?

So if I see a story in the news US about the behavior of black folks, such as "1 in 10 Black Men In Prison", I feel bad about the situation, but it's newsworthy and socially relevant. But a headline such as "Black Man Assaults White Woman on Train" doesn't fly if there's not, for some godawful reason, a pattern of black men assaulting women on trains.

If that had suddenly become a social problem, in that black men were singling out white women on trains and it had become some weird point of racial tension, then it's newsworthy. But if it's in a news environment in which the society is hostile to blacks and that particular behavior isn't common at all, then I say it's cheap race/nationalism-baiting.

Let's face it:

– This isn't typical behavior on Seoul subways; I've seen foreigners be rowdy and stupid, but they generally keep it to Itaewon/Hongdae if you see it at all, and in the bar, and aren't dumb enough to YouTube themselves. They just made themselves an easy target on a slow news day.

– And the newsworthiness? Was anyone assaulted? Was the stupidity characteristic of some aspect of foreigners' life here? And was it something that could be negatively compared to the behavior of a group of Korean ajussis in Chongno on a Saturday night?

Basically, like all these stories, they play to the stereotypes Koreans already have of foreigners, and the incidents themselves aren't even newsworthy. Would I hang out with these guys? No? Do they deserve to be on national news? Also, a no, even if they were being lewd.

I've got UCC up on YouTube of all kinds of topics. We walk around Seoul tasting shit, talking to folks, interviewing people, all kinds of stuff, speaking Korean, being respectful, etc.

This isn't even typical of the stuff on Korea on YouTube – and there's lotsa crazy shit on YouTube. But most of the stuff about Korea is quite positive to harmless.

Why ain't my black ass on the fucking national news?

Well, we know that's a rhetorical question; we know why. Maybe I should make a UCC about my insatiable sexual appetite and how exotic and talented the Korean ladies are, especially in groups of three or more; I'm sure that piece of balderdash would have me on Korean news, if I made a UCC about it, video diary style.

In a hot minute. Even though, again – it's not newsworthy. But it plays to Korean sense of race and gender lines being broken pretty well. That's why shots of these guys in a Hooters is there as well – it doesn't matter that this particular gendered/raced interaction is actually not inappropriate – it just matters that there are rowdy foreign men in the same frame with scantily-clad Korean women.

Note how the pictures play together: foreigners being assholes, by themselves; foreigners in a Hooters; foreigners (blacks, specifically) outside the Hooters acting "crazy". What, besides being a nuisance on a subway, is really worthy of national news coverage? And the lyrics to their little soliloquy, while offensive, were only so in translation, and pulled off their site, given to the Korean American intern there at YTN for the summer, which left the producer of the story rubbing his/her hands together in glee.

So basically, foreigners act a fool on the subway and tape it and upload it; it's found out after the fact, not in some altercation in which the police are even called; it's put up on the news with the subtext that "this is how foreigners are acting in our country."

When foreigners do something really worthy of confirming the stereotype, please let me know; until then, I'm just going to continue to ignore YTN's lowest-common-denominator newscasts and continue to not take the subway, since regularly being called "nigger" and told to "go back to America" or even being pushed by some drunk idiot isn't something I like to experience once or twice a month.

I dare YTN to do that story. Which is more common? Foreigners acting a fool and messing with innocent civvies in the city? Or foreigners – especially men, and God help them if they're with a Korean woman – getting verbally and physically assaulted by (usually drunk) Korean men?

And don't even get me started about watching my back on Korean streets in late 2002/early 2003. I didn't even go near the subways in the winter unless I absolutely had to. I got fucked with every day, and saw many other foreigners getting fucked with, and anecdotally heard just about every foreign man under the age of 40 having a story of getting fucked with; I even had a Korean American female student get blindsided, whacked and attacked by someone in Hongdae for, as far as she could tell, speaking English – she never saw her attacker, and only realized she had been struck in the face after she came to her senses after being knocked to the ground and her friend she was with told her what happened; or a couple new Fulbright ETA's on TWO occasions within weeks of each other being sent to the hospital, one after having a metal folding chair bashed over his head, as we were walking and minding our own business as we walked into a bar in Shinchon.

Need I go on? I could, you know. A guy friend I knew who got slapped for no reason in subways, another nerdy Fulbright scholar who got in a fight with an ajussi who called his Korean wife – right in front of him – all kinds of names even I don't want to repeat here, my friends on the intercity bus to the countryside who got the taste slapped out of her mouth by an ajussi who told her she "was Korean and shouldn't speak English", or a friend's friend last month who was the only foreigner to even lift a finger to stop a drunk ajussi who had inexplicably starting beating the holy crap out of a young woman who was a complete stranger to him – when the other Koreans in the subway car did NOTHING to stop this man who had simply gotten on a subway car and started pummeling this hapless Korean woman – he was the only one who followed the guy off, called the police, convinced them to come with his halting Korean after continuing to chase this guy for an HOUR, and then finally, when he convinced a random Korean guy to talk to the police on his behalf, when they finally came out:

They wanted to arrest HIM.

Niiiiiiice. They thought he must have done something. He's like, "I'm the one who CALLED you." Niiiice. Like I said in other posts – if the police are called and there's no video tape, the FOREIGNER is going to jail, no matter what.

I'm not defending these idiots on YTN, but I do question the motives for putting them on, even if they aren't the types to bring home to mama. It's about context and relevance, and YTN has continued to fail both of those tests with me. And since I think the other story is far, far more typical – foreign men getting to be the whipping boy for whatever political/personal beef happens to cross some drunk ajussi's mind at a particular moment, while I'm in a tailored suit standing facing the subway door watching Battlestar Galactica – YTN can kiss my uncouth, black, foreign ass.

I'm gonna keep my new little camera around and YouTube that.

Comments

[BK]

I agree that the coverage was unfair, but could it be that stories like this get covered b/c there is a pattern of foreigners behaving like idiots in the country?

[PK]

You mean like Cho killing all those people at VT?

[Hugh]

BK, there is a pattern of foreigners behaving badly now and again in every western country, and in all but the most horrific crime cases there is a responsibility exercised by the media, an understanding of the unfairness and viciousness of targetting visible minorities.

The Met is absolutely right: public insults, aggression and even assaults happens to foreigners on a daily basis. The real purpose of periodic stories like this are to let Koreans know that foreigners may be treated like dogs ( a fact they have all known since middle school) and to salve any trace of conscience : "yeah, I was an arsehole back there, but they say worse about us"

Why are we surprised when they vilify us?

[pm]

I've observed that visitors to any country just tend to act out. Even if they stay as long as a year or two working or studying or some such, they are on leave from their "normal" lives and will have fewer inhibitions. Exchange students, foreign tourists, etc. in any country tend to be disproportionately obnoxious and annoying to the natives.

Seems to me that the Korean media doesn't seem to have a mature enough view of human behavior to differentiate between the common gaucherie and obnoxiousness of many international visitors and the individual--and I would guess infrequent--cases of foreigners who commit actual criminal acts while in the country.

They also don't seem to be able to differentiate between short-term visitors, who don't have a lot invested in fitting in to the host society, and foreigners who are in Korea for the long haul, building lives for themselves there and trying to integrate. Add a nasty overlay of racism, and such sensationalistic media coverage can fan some dangerous flames.

Not to excuse bad behavior, but rude visitors are a fact of life for any country that wishes to be an international destination. The Korean media needs to adopt a more cosmopolitan attitude about visitors and grow a thicker skin.

[BK]

'You mean like Cho killing all those people at VT?'

Like I said I think the coverage by YTN was unfair, but I think these stories get reported b/c there is a pattern of foreigners acting like jerks in the country.

If there was a pattern of Korean-American mass murderers like Cho, then, yes I think it's fair for the media to raise the issue of why so many Korean-Americans become mass murderers.

[Alex]

As always, the big hurt is right. I think the race baiting in the K-media is getting tiresome. The nation seems to vocally call to be seen as legitimate and respect worthy, but so many aspects of it seem downright bootleg, including YTN. It's a shame. Hopefully when i come back in 2010 it'll be a little better.

-Alex

[Daddy]

You know, someone should put together with their Korean friends a similar video that they 'leak' to the media. A week later, leak the second video, a 'making-of' of sorts that was taken from a second camera, unedited, to show that the first one had been staged. It could be your manifesto against socially irresponsible practices of the Korean media.

[Alex]

Somehow I don't think the second one would be considered newsworthy.

[Aaronm]

M,

Whilst I concur with you on pretty much everything you have written here, I take umbrage to some extent at the repeated stereotype of adjoshis perpetuating this kind of thing. This is not to say that men of that age group are guilty of such things, but consider the number of hot-headed, nationalistic young men here who take the presence of foreigners as an affront. You mention Hongdae, and the media aside, the main perpetrators of such nonsense in that area are younger males.

Recently I talked to a non-Korean friend here who has studied at a major Seoul university and is active in leftist politics here. He wholeheartedly agreed with me, evil libertarian that I am, that the left here is seriously bigoted and pushes nationalism as an answer to all its problems. It seems to me it is these same people who are the ones to be wary of.

Maybe it's the fact I am outside Seoul. Maybe it's because I seldom have anything to do with young Korean blokes, teaching them aside, and maybe because I have friends and acquaintances I would call adjoshis (and am probably one myself, being married with a kid and all), but I find the anti-foreigner static to be much worse from younger men here. But whatever way you look at it, the crap that foreign residents face here on a daily basis makes that crap on youtube look trite.

[Sonagi]

"Whilst I concur with you on pretty much everything you have written here, I take umbrage to some extent at the repeated stereotype of adjoshis perpetuating this kind of thing. This is not to say that men of that age group are guilty of such things, but consider the number of hot-headed, nationalistic young men here who take the presence of foreigners as an affront. You mention Hongdae, and the media aside, the main perpetrators of such nonsense in that area are younger males. "

Regarding Korean verbal and physical harassment of and violence against foreign nationals, there are no statistics, only anecdotal evidence. I was targeted a number of times, mostly by men, but on two occasions by women. I suspect ajoshis are more prone to harassing because ageist bullying makes it harder for younger victims to stand up for themselves. I've seen surly and often intoxicated ajoshis pick on younger Koreans, too, for petty reasons. The ajoshi bullies I witnessed appeared to be blue-collar workers not salarymen. In my interactions with blue-collar workers in the workplace and at my residence, I found ajummas to be very pleasant, like doting aunties, while ajoshis grunted at me in caveman banmal. I was a university lecturer in my thirties, BTW, not some exchange student, and two of the grunting banmal ajoshis appeared to be around my age. These same ajoshis would speak respectfully to Korean university staff members.

[John]

Be nice to the foreigner World Cup month was 5 years ago now.How time flies.

Many things hold Korea back.The media is a prime culprit.Schools aren't much better.Large blots against Korea's progress.

Ugh.Election year.Hope it blows over quickly.

[MigukNamja]

Based upon my conversations and experiences with Koreans, they seem to have some wild misconceptions against anybody with skin darker than them, which includes almost all people(s) of African descent.

In other words : Koreans as a whole are very racist against dark-skinned foreigners. I have no doubt if I was a foreigner with dark skin, life in Korea would suck, to say the least.

As for the idiots in the video, I am indeed surprised they made it out without an altercation. Also, what in the heck was going through their minds with posting that on YouTube ?

Does anyone know if they have received any form of punishment from their military superiors for being so disrespectful in their host country ?

At the same time, as Michael pointed out, their behavior was not exactly news-worthy. However, we all know it was because they were foreigner and black that they made the news. Korean media is just itching for news stories that show foreigners with dark skinned in bad light.

There's a saying : "if you look hard enough for anything, you will find it" and its inverse "you won't find what you're not looking for". In other words, you can always find "evidence" to support prejudicial bias and conveniently ignore evidence to the contrary to maintain that same prejudicial bias.

As for YTN, they seem like an even more racist/xenophobic version of Fox News in the U.S.. Korean media in general seems to lack the objectivity that I have somewhat taken for granted as a journalistic standard to at least aim towards.

Korean media as a whole is not aiming for objectivity nor is it aiming for the "high ground" with a straight face. Rather, they seem to be trying to outdo each to pander to the lowest common denominator to generate eyeballs. This strategy, by the way, is the same one Fox News used when it broke into the U.S. market and the same one the other major media sources started to head down.

R.I.P. objective news.
Hail the rise of the tabloids.

[Max Watson]

In reference to the police, I opened up a taxi door today and a split second later a motorcycle crashed into it. Not too bad of a crash, the guy got bruised, the door didn't want to close, and I assume the bike was a little banged up too. I always look in the side mirror before I open up a left front door to avoid coming cars/bikes, but who the hell expects a motorcycle to pass on the right at a stoplight when he's got the other lane? I know it's a free-for-all on the streets out here, but that passing move is illegal in California and stoooooopid. Anyway, I said I was sorry, left my name and number with the taxi driver in case he needed a witness and then walked away. I had an appointment and was already a few minutes late. If I'd waited around, which I've been assured by a friend that I didn't need to do as a taxi passenger, who knows what kind of crap blame they would have tried to pin on me. Bike was at fault.

[Paul]

I'd agree that you have a legitimate beef with the actions of YTN in this instance. My Korean's not good enough to remotely follow what is being said in the clip, so I'll accept your version of events.

Having said that, I notice that you seem to be guilty of the same kind of tactics - describing the sensational, perhaps untypical actions of the agressive adjosshi - and made 'him'a stereotyped character for your audience.

I guess you've been around for a while, but I haven't heard of the level of abuse you describe here. It's difficult to quantify anecdotal evidence, I understand, but to me it follows a disturbing pattern set by YTN and the trash TV news shows of the west.

What do you think?

Paul

[MigukNamja]

Paul,

Re: "I guess you've been around for a while, but I haven't heard of the level of abuse you describe here."

So, you think Michael is making this up ? You realize you sound like an apologist for racism (via the "it doesn't exist" argument), right ? Finally, you're white, right ?

If so, it's understandable you haven't heard of it much, since you've likely experienced very little discrimination yourself.

However, based upon my life experiences and what a very large percentage (vast majority) of the sample of Korean people I've met think about those with skin darker than them, it's not hard to believe life is for more, *ahem* interesting, to put it mildly, for those of dark complexion living in Korea, especially blacks.

[Paul]

To MigukNamja,

Well, to answer your question, my father's black, my mother white, so I guess you could call me coffee. I'm teaching at a university, and spend time with a mix of nationalities, including Africans, and Nepalese. None have expressed this sort of complaint to me, but as you say - it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. In any case I didn't take what was written as being a 'black' experience, since it was presented as a foreigner vs Korean dynamic.

My point was more to suggest that there were some similarities between the response and the complaint.

[gordsellar]

Interesting. Paul.

(Required PC diaclaimer: I'm white. So maybe half the readers here are free to skip what I say from now on.)

I think both sides are correct. There IS a trend of foreigners acting like idiots, but to this extreme, it's a marginal one that's blown up to get ratings/sell papers.

There IS a trend of older men behaving in atrocious ways, drunk or not, which, while it's also likely a minority, forms a stereotype in the minds of lots of foreigners in Korea.

Why ajeosshis? Probably because the frequency and distribution of their drunkenness, the degree of their hierarchical privilege, and the likeliness of them being more extreme in their racism makes people get the short end of the ajeosshi's temper more often than the short end of the college-boy's, or middle-aged woman's, or whoever.

Having never experienced any violence at the hands of a stranger of any kind in Korea, I can say that the majority of the rude, racist, pushy, or otherwise badly-behaved people people I've encountered in the subway or out and about have been older men, followed by teenaged boys. And a striking similarity in behaviour it is! I've never seen black foreigners behave in any way except politely on a subway.

Oh, and as a tangential note of interest: my fiancee reports different degrees of rudeness from different groups based on context. If she's out with me, the majority of rudeness comes from young women; if she's working, it's from older males and peer males; among strangers, it seems to be generally distributed evenly between the sexes and older vs. younger.

I note this because this isn't solely a foreigner's experience. If you ask them, Koreans can tell you about gut-wrenching rudeness from other Koreans. Meaning that these instances of rudeness are taking place in a society where rude behaviour is, unfortunately, just more tolerated in general. Sexism is, racism is, and plain old callous, ignorant rudeness to strangers is, too.

(Well, at least until it's posted to Youtube or Flickr or Naver, then it's attacked with the fury of a battalion battling against evil.)

Which is not to say Michael has no reason to be pissed. It's just saying, yeah, Koreans experience this to differing degrees too. It's part of a bigger cultural dynamic, and one that is sadly not likely to change quickly.

[MJF]

Michael, I wonder if perhaps Korean media went for this story because these guys are US soldiers. They are not supposed to behave like that. There is a big debate in Korea about US bases and I suspect there is a motive that you may have overlooked. So, it is not "Black folks" that is the issue, and maybe not even "foreigners". Then again, I could be totally mistaken (happens all the time)

[wasaski]

I came across your blog by accident today and I find it interesting. Is there anyway I can subscribe through e-mail to be notified when you post?