Scribblings of the Metropolitician

Racism Roundup and the Politics of Apologetics

Japan Probe's got the skinny on some interesting videos of the offensive kind on Japanese TV. Here's the main vid, though for a better breakdown, you should go to to their site.

And back home – Rosie?

Damn, dude. I get the point of what you're trying to say, and it wasn't exactly Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's – that character ruins what is otherwise a timeless classic, since the politics of race at the time was so specific and vulgar – but still.

Damn, Rosie. You done fucked up. People's got a right to be mad.

I mean, after Michael Richards, you should have been more careful. Does Rosie strike me as racist? Given her overall record of what she stands for and what she actually does with her power and money, no. Is that schtick offensive? Hell, yes. Contradiction? I don't think so.

I had the same thing happen to me when a good friend of mine from back home had me over for dinner with a family I'd know since I was a kid. His mom's asked me how New Year's is celebrated in Korea, and she cheerily followed up with the question, "Do they sing like this – ching chong, ching chong...?"

I wasn't nearly as mortified as the rest of the family, who were also all white and whom I knew well. Dead silence, New Year's dinner in danger, awwwwkward – I could feel all the younger peeps at the table sending me mental messages of "Dude, I'm soooo sorry" – I could feel it. And I loved this woman, whose family had hosted and supported and especially – fed – me since before I had pimples. I knew and loved this family, I knew what they stood for, I knew my friend.

She got the message right there and then, and I'm sure someone read her the riot act after all was said and done. I know my back's covered with them, from my knowledge of them.

I think the same about Rosie. She's got a track record and her heart (and wallet) seems to be in the right place. But she is still a public figure, and she should have been more careful post-Michael Richards, on top of the fact that it wasn't an inpromptu outburst that got recorded on someone's camera phone, since the show was recorded and they mixed in that "gong" sound for when it went out.

That's the most disappointing thing.

You were trying to illustrate how the "foreign Asian language" sounds to you, then when you hear the only word you know – "Danny Devito" and "drunk" – you realize what is being talked about. Still – the history of the "ching chong" thing is sensitive, and you should know that it has always been used to mock and degrade Asian people in the US. Similar sounds are made in Japanese and Korean to put down Chinese people specifically, where there have also been anti-Chinese movements and sentiments related to those countries geo-political relationship with China (although the motivations were somewhat different, as part of an effort to break China's traditional intellectual and suzerain dominance and re-center the home nation). And I don't think Rosie had in her mind any geo-political relationships, the phantom specter of Chinese coolies, or fears from Japanese imports. I think she was trying to illustrate a point along the lines of "dig a hole all the way to China" and it came out in a really offensive way.

Anyway – I buy her apology. Does she "get it?" Well, maybe not on a level that highly-educated Asian American activists (a group of which I consider myself a member) might like, but she tells it straight, she dishes our accents and funny jabs at all comers, and she at least convinced me that a) she really didn't know, and b) that she actually cares a little bit about finding out. Whether or not I agree with the two Asian fangirls sitting in the audience the day of her apology about whether it was "funny", I do think that this is a case of comedy that pushed the wrong buttons and stepped over a line that Rosie didn't quite know about.

She replayed the clip in question, apologized, albeit in the context of comedy, which is what comedian do.

It's not Michael Richards yelling at the top of his lungs, talking about "this is what happens when you interrupt the white man" and "50 years ago we'd have upside down with a fucking fork stuck up your ass" and continuing to ridicule black members of the audience who were leaving and clearly expressing their disgust.

See, there was no "joke" as context. Richards' was just a racist rant. I agree with Paul Mooney (see this post and I apologize for reposting the video, but you can just scroll past it, you know) when he says that the biggest thing is the context – Richards, crucially, wasn't "joking."

And then he apologizes through clenched teeth (again, sorry for the repost of vid below, but you can skip or go to the original post).

In the end, the reason people reacted to Richards the way they did is because a) used threw a cultural H-bomb with the "N-word", which I like to just say "nigger", because I don't like euphemism nor obfuscation, b) he went far above the call of the word "nigger" itself and was talking about white male power, lynching, and his right to dominate other, and c) he wasn't being a comedian at that point.

And I think the nervous laughing you see in the video isn't people thinking he was funny – it was the last, hopeful titters of people who were praying that this was part of some act, that at some point they would be left off the hook. When one woman say "Oh, my God," that's about the point when people were realizing that indeed, he wasn't kidding.

Not that intent is everything – otherwise I wouldn't be asking people to sign the petition against racist imagery and buffoonery on Korean TV – but whether or not you knew better (which I think both Richards or KBS did) or apologized afterwards (which O'Donnell and even Richards did), is the point.

And context is crucial. Given what I know about my friend's parents, relatives, and friends, I can forgive a verbal overstep easily, because racist domination or stereotyped animosity is not what they're about. I have a context against which to compare the act, which in itself isn't egregious and goes against the grain of what that context tells me.

But in the Korean case, the context of stereotypical and racist representations – many of which result in the vast number of non-reported incidents of mental and physical violence against foreigners as the diect result of misinformation and misreporting on the part of the Korean media over real incidents, such as the middle school girls' deaths or the Shinchon stabbing incident, as well as the ongoing pattern of racist representations I've seen in Korean entertainment of all types of foreigners, from some biracial black/Korean singer named something like "Mambuggi" or some such back in the 90's, or pretty much any ad with a black person as a savage (which is pretty much any ad with a black person), the Bubble Sisters' blackface bullshit, and up to now – the context of Koreans' views of other races is positively arrogant, condescending, stereotypical, and absolutely used to justify action or treatment in the real world.

Rosie mentioned that she didn't know that Asian kids on the playground were teased with just those words. She expressed that she didn't know about the historical context. I'll take her at her word.

But we all know the context here, and the "we have never had a history of interaction with foreigners" line is old – as old as many of the mostly black and brown foreign laborers who've been working in Korea for quite a long time, some of them for more than 15-20 years.

They are here, but such images continue to otherize and psychologically exclude them, which is why elementary school principals don't admit brown kids to their schools ("it'd be too hard on the kids"), hagwons don't like to hire black people ("it's not us, it's the moms"), or why foreign guys are sometimes assaulted without any provocation ("that asshole is taking our innocent women").

That's all racism. That's how it works.

Ideology masks the working of structure and keep the smart foreigners who speak Korean out of the public eye except as dancing, singing clowns or as the expected English teachers. Is it really any surprise then, that Koreans always seem consistently surprised that I speak Korean and I don't do any of those things?

It's not that Korean innocently "hasn't come into contact with foreigners and don't know what to do" but rather that such images and stereotypes dehumanize and objectify foreigners in a way that keeps them at arms' length, that keeps them foreign.

Hello?! Koreans interact with and see foreigners every day, everywhere they go – in the now. Today. In schools, hagwons, on the streets, in the subways, on the bus, in the sauna, etc. Every day, everywhere you go.

Ideology is what drives the wedge between us, is what makes a pattern that no individual Korean sees, but what I know as reality. Here's one:

On any form of public transportation, Korean girls never sit next to me. Ever. Even if there's a clearly open seat and she's the only one standing in the car, she prefers to stand. Beyond how that makes me feel – I'm sooo over that, trust me, I've been living here for 7 years so I'm not shedding tears here – I bring this up to ask the questions: What is she afraid of? Where did she get the ideas that are obviously going through her head? Yes, there are other things going on there as well, especially as they related to gender and propriety in general, but the fact remains – only ajumma and men sit next to me.

I've heard, especially in the countryside, women pass me by and whisper, "Scary."

I've been on dates with women who say, while sitting there eating dinner, "I'm not fast like American women. You have to understand that cultural difference." What? Was I gonna jump her after the appetizer?

When I press her on what she's talking about, one woman answers, "Well, I see how people act on Friends, Sex and the City, and I've seen My Best Friend's Wedding." Grrr. You'd be surprised at how common such statements are.

Before you laugh away what you see as trivialities, remember that these are the easy, superficial stereotypes – not the ones that cause irritation and anger when none should be present. That's why I tell my friends to not mention my race when they refer me for a job – I just tell them to let me handle it.

Yeah, a lot of it started with the American media. But my point is that it didn't end there, and Korean televisions stations and producer do know better. They simply do.

These people are not average viewers. They assiduously keep up with the media produced in their field. A Korean friend who works in a major media company told me of TV producer friends who travel to Japan for a week and hole up in the hotel and just watch and make notes on the shows there the entire time. They just check in, order in, and take in. They study. They prepare.

(And they've made it into the "Blackface Database." Cool! Dae~han minguk!")

Like the Bubble Sisters. In order to even reproduce the pickininnies and jigaboos they nearly perfectly replicated, with the hairstyles, makeup, and even the infantialized image of them in baby pajamas, they had to do the research. Those PD's went online, they found all the pictures – shit, I probably know the pictures they likely looked at – but they ignored the context. They actively ignored it.

Pickininnies.

You cannot go online and find pictures of blackface and miss the fact that this was a racist representation from America's racist past and that it is universally condemned as an embarrassing cultural curio that even Bugs Bunny and Warner Bros. doesn't want released in its archival sets of cartoons. You can't miss that shit. But you can ignore it when you want to make a buck.

Al Jolson, 1927.

Lew Dockstader, 1902.

And producers on that show could not have missed having heard about the Bubble Sisters' debacle, even if the general Korean viewer doesn't have a clue. That's because they know. They can't not know and still know what the hell's going on in their industry.

The point is that we need to hold these Korean producers and stations up to a higher degree of scrutiny because they know and need to be held accountable for their actions. Note that KBS didn't even try the "we didn't know approach" but the "oh, come on, it's funny" one.

And remember – so far, they're not even sorry. Rosie and even Richards are technically "sorry."

Which is why, from an outsider's point of view, Korea and Japan are the same when it comes to treatment of and representation of foreigners. But at least Japan has an excuse – they were an imperialist power and that particular ideology and its remaining strands didn't/doesn't apologize for it. Both countries are facing a change in national identity, especially in relation to low birth rates, an undeniable need for foreign labor, and actually relatively high rates of international/interracial marriage.

And the recent reactions are taking shape not along the lines of "we didn't know" but rather "we don't like foreigners."

It seems that now, on another level besides that of seeming addiction to the sex industry, extreme ethnic nationalism, and question of war crimes (Vietnam for South Korea, Korea for Japan), Japan was a far more effective colonial master than Koreans would like to believe.

Here's another one where a lot of foreigners tend to go, Shinchon. My friend took me to visit there, where he is well-known for his "No foreigners" policy – when I asked him in Korean if the sign was really true, he was rude and dismissive, and told me to "Mind my manners." I snapped his picture and told him to stop being a racist. Nyah!

All this, over some darts. Well, it'd be silly of me to start a petition to "Demand an Apology from the Dart Game Guy Who Illegally Runs a Business Without a Permit in front of the Hyeon Woo Pharmacy behind the Lotte Department Store Parking Lot", so I'll just leave it to you to directly take up any request for grievances. I'm sure he'd love the additional attention.

I'm sure the Korean people would like to know how much even a single such "cultural ambassador" can do for foreigners' impressions of Korea, especially in such a public area? Hmm. Millions of dollars spend on empty world cup slogans, "smile campaigns", and propagandistic commercials...or...a smart slap in the face when you want to do something as harmless as play some darts? All that good will and investment gets canceled in an instant when you feel stupid xenophobia or discrimination hit you in the face.

And people wonder why many foreigners leave with not so good an impression of Korea. Whether you have a perceived or actual slight – you hate the US military or a foreign dude gave you a dirty look – it doesn't give you carte blanche to hate entire people's and discriminate against them. It's really just an excuse that enables a pre-existing disposition – let's get real. Are all Japanese right now responsible for the Pacific War? Are all Korean people responsible for the actions of their president? How would Koreans feel if Vietnamese started calling in grudges? Korean tourists getting attacked on the streets for the sins of their fathers. I'm sure somebody would walk around pointing out – rightly – that this is a bit unfair.

Even the legitimate gripes can't turn into mere excuses to be ignorant, violent, or just plain nasty. That's just being fucked up, except with an excuse.

Anyway, I know there are a lot of people who ain't like this guy in Shinchon, or the owner of Zeno's in the CIty Hall subway stop (who incidentally, I noticed, allowed 60 Minutes to conduct an interview in there while they did a story ON anti-Americanism, which seems pretty hypocritical to me, dog) but you get enough little slaps in the face like this, and it does wonders for your country's image – especially in an area so heavily traveled by young foreign exchange students and other people in general.

Somehow, I don't expect an apology from the dart guy, the owner of Zeno's, or of the sauna (?) motel (?) in the Yonhap picture above. They seem to know exactly what they're saying, the context they're saying it in, and whom they don't like.

Is that just "ignorance?" Or is it something else?

KBS better get with and apologize, or join the ranks of Korean racists who just don't care what foreigners think, or what we feel.

Is that how it's gonna be?

Apologize already.

Don't make me walk down there.

Undercover cops? Drug tests? It's COMedy, not COMmunism

This recent attempt to catch foreigners doing something horribly wrong – "degrading Korean culture" (see below) – has failed, but that doesn't stop the Korean media, nor does it erase the damage done.

"The investigation comes following an undercover operation in which police officers, who had been observing members of the comedy troupe for some time, attended Babo-palooza! at Neoreun Small Theater, Gwangalli Beach, Busan."

So the Korean police actually paid people to conduct an "undercover operation" on...on...comedians? They had been "observing members of the comedy troupe for some time"? What? In case a Columbian comedy "mule" tried to pull a joke stuffed in a condom out of his ass and tried to sell it? Or maybe before one of them ran onto a subway car in a trenchcoat and suddenly ripped it open to find not a bomb, but a clown suit? Or maybe in case they were secretly sending funny communiqués to North Korea in order to raise the morale of nuclear scientists disappointed after the reportedly lower-than-expected yield of the recent bomb tests?

This begs an obvious question: Don't the Korean police have anything better to do?

And then an additional followup: Why aren't the police busting all the "illegal performances" going on all over Seoul, especially those kids doing pitiful pantomiming in Daehakno, haggard hip-hop on random street stands, and badass breakdancing (pretty nice, kids!) whereever kids get a chance on weekends? And they all do it in the same place, all the time.

In the end, the guys who got in trouble were right – this is politically motivated, selectively targeted. The fact is that this isn't some common visa violation such as illegal teaching, nor is this something small-time or independent Korean artists don't do all the time. But this comes at a peculiarly convenient time, now, doesn't it?

It works like this: the Korean print media picks up a story somewhere (usually something blown way out of proportion or factually inaccurate) and then reports it. The broadcast media then links it to some pre-existing sentiment or generalized stereotype of foreigners – the brown ones are taking all the jobs (not true) or the white ones have lower sexual mores than us or are (a normative statement, but one I consider to be, natch, untrue – ahem, "Republic of Prostitution") – then it gets picked up by the broadcast media as if it were reality or even fact. Now, it's already in the minds of most Koreans that said event actually happened in this way, and adds to the fodder of "facts" that support pre-existing stereotypes of most foreigners:

• That "we" are all white.
• That "we" are any more sexually loose or free than Koreans (can we say yugwan rooms, pay by the hour?).
• That foreigners are all unqualified bail-jumpers (actually, I think the pool has been getting better and better since 10-12 years ago, when this was actually kind of scarily true, but no one Korean and in charge seemed to care).

Need examples? Let me go in reverse chronological order of the ones that stick out in my mind:

SCANDAL CREATION ATTEMPT (SCAT, a.k.a. "bullshit"): English teachers sexually Korean children at the ill-conceived English Village in Paju and exposes Korean children to foreigners' low sexual mores, according to the Kyeonggi-do branch of the Korean Teachers' Union. WRONG: It was two Korean nationals who were accused of inappropriately touching two kids. No major corrections that there was misreporting, and the KTU refused to retract it's statement. ANGRY JAB: To that inability to look reality in the face and eat crow, I say "fuck you, KTU" – show me even a single, documented example of any pattern of foreigners engaging in illegal sexual improprieties with their minor students (illegal and immoral) at all, or with adult students (legal, unethical, and usually completely hearsay) on anywhere near the scale that Korean professors do.

SCAT: After the "English Spectrum-gate" broke, Korean newspapers scrambled to showcase examples of skanky foreign types, e.g. the picture of a Korean woman posing with two white men at a wet T-shirt contest in a Hongdae club, or the idiot white boy some television station got to go on television and brag about all the Korean women he slept with. WRONG: No matter what extreme examples you can dig up, at least these were all consenting adults, and that young lady's right to privacy was seriously violated in the name of protecting "our" women from being "degraded." ANGRY JAB: If that's the concern, then perhaps the Korean men who made an online promise to assault any white man they saw with a Korean woman (hey, what about me!? – *SNIFF*) should do the same to Korean men in the red light districts, business clubs, room salons, barber shops, saunas, "mi-in" clubs, "sexy" bars, handjob places, and even prostitiution van delivery services. There's a van full of 5-6 scantly clad women picking up a couple women from my officetel every night in front if the 7-11 to drive them to who-knows-where. I got pictures to prooooove it! Shall I invite them over to stake out my place as well?

SCAT: "English Spectrum-gate" showed how immoral foreigners were and how yes, they really were trying to sleep with their students. Look! Some guy wrote a manual about it! WRONG: So every foreigner is held up to the standard of one seriously fucked up netizen? Don't even get me started on what Korean netizens say about different races, places, and faces every day. Again, show me the money. Where are the reported or documented cases of teachers – at the elementary, middle, high school, and college levels – sexually harassing, raping, or even running a sex ring with their students out of a major university? ANGRY JAB: Oops! That's right – those were all Korean "educators" I read about in the newspapers getting caught in 원죠교재, raping their own middle school students in a noraebang, or even one professor at Waedae, where I lecture, who actually says in class that "the shorter the skirt, the higher the grade." He's a legendary figure on campus and all the students know who he is and about that policy. Please – if there had been any serious, substantiated – real – accusation of sexual improprieties involving a foreigner, it would be front-page, Chosun-to-OhMy, headline, eyewitness news team, stop-the-presses news, dude. Korean media just mad 'cuz they can't find nuttin.' Based on the actual cases and examples of sexual harrassment, assault, and all manner of sexual improprieties, I'd have to conclude that it was actually Korean teachers and professors who had no low sexual mores and no sense of professional decency. 근데 그렇게 얘기하면 기분 나쁘겠지? Well, try the shoe on the other foot, then.

I could go on. Perhaps my readers would like to add to the list? SCAT, WRONG, ANGRY JAB. Let it all out, people.

But before I go, I'll just say that it's awfully convenient that the media is bringing up this trumped-up case of "foreigners insulting Koreans", and the police went to an awful lot of trouble in the recent case to dig up some dirt. Undercover cops? Drug tests? It's a comedy show, not a Communist rally. This ain't Miami Vice, and I ain't seen no Koreans named Crockett and Tubbs.

Undercover? Drug tests? Does this constitute a "Babo-gate?"

Hardly.

But I coined the term.

I got first!

As If Foreigners Get Any Fair Coverage, Anyway

Sorry to be on a bit of a negative streak – who, me?! – but after having gotten burned by that rag of a "newspaper" the Kyunghyang Shinmun myself, in an article that spun half-truths and misrepresented information into a completely false picture – all in the name of anti-American, anti-Japanese, and anti-foreigner sentiment – I can't say I put too much stock into their accusations of "degrading Korean culture" in the case of the Pusan parody performance that has become the suspiciously convenient story of the hour.

My "scandal" arose when it was implied that I was teaching some pro-Japanese/anti-Korean curriculum in my history class at Yongin Foreign Language High School, because page 945 of the textbook referred to the "Sea of Japan" in a diagram mapping troop movements in the Korean War in the Cold War chapter.

As if educational publisher Longman USA gives a rat's ass.

For those of you who've heard this rant before, bear with me. There is a point here, above my continuing personal bitterness about the matter. Here's the picture they published with story:

Do I look white or female? Did they present the context that nothing went on in that class that isn't standard procedure in every Korean school across the country (sticking the one hour of a useless class onto the one they're taking the big test for to give students extra time, that is)?

And that's the point here – context. Foreigners "degrading Korean culture" in a clearly artistic venue is the complaint? And people are asking me to "calm down" and "don't misunderstand" the Minyeodeului Suda Incident, which was clearly out-of-bounds and on national TV?

That's rich.

Anyway – my little textbook incident was a railroading and a political attack, using the fact that it was a foreigner teaching a sensitive subject (using The American People textbook, written by respected American historian Gary Nash, who also happens to the most well-known textbook critic in America, having even won a lawsuit against the State of Mississippi that went to that state's Supreme Court).

Well, after that, the Ministry passed a law outlawing foreign teachers from teaching anything other than English conversation during normal school hours. So a Harvard-educated economist come to teach for the Econ AP (as if that would happen, but just stick with me here on the hypothetical) would have to teach conversation. Great policy.

So even as the Korean media continues to whip up a lather about the phantom menace of the the "underqualified, oversexed foreign English teacher" – it prevents any actually qualified ones from teaching in their schools.

Smaaaaaaaart.

Anyway, Korean journalism doesn't adhere to very high ethical standards, being full of cash bribes, kickbacks, and favors, on top of it being standard practice to repose pictures, submit stories on events the reporter never attended, and quote people without having even recorded the interview or having had taken notes.

Am I anti-Korean? No. Do I think the state of journalism in Korea is abysmal. Abso-fucking-lutely.

I've been misquoted in the Kyunghyang Shinmun in an article that misspelled everything except my name, as well as got all my basic information wrong. No surprise, since they conducted an extensive interview with no notes and attributed long, detailed quotes to me saying things I wouldn't have even known how to say in Korean back in 2003.

Anyway, I do know one thing for sure. From what I've seen, the Korean press is totally unprofessional and barely adheres to ethical standards of journalism, is totally caught up in anti-foreigner sentiment to sell newspapers, and the Kyunghyang Shinmun is a worthless rag I wouldn't use to wipe my cat's ass with.

Oh no! Is this going to get me sent to the Visa Nazis? I've made $20.76 from Google Adsense since I signed up two months ago. I live in Korea. Each month, I've made enough scrilla to buy myself 5/6 of a dried squid anju at my local bar. I must be one of them foreign companies making big bucks off of Korea completely legally and stuff. And I surely must lead life of wine and wimmin'. Because that's what all foreigners do.

Do foreigners' very existence constitute an insult to or the "degrading" of "Korean culture?" And God help us if we actually fight back, if we actually say anything. We might get booked for it!

I wonder if the Kyunghyang Shinmun's editor is going to call up her best friend's next door neighbor's second cousin who is dour immigration officer out in Mokdong to stamp me for "special treatment" next time around. Maybe I'll make the newspapers as having "slandered Korea's national honor in criticizing the state of journalism" – that'd be a pretty typical move.

So come get me, immigration! I've made money in Korea through scathing criticism of this society!

"Bad boys! Whatcha gonna do? When they, when they come for you?"

(If you see me on TV being jumped by Korean cops outside my officetel, with my belly flopping out of my T-shirt as I struggle to git 'em off me, be sure to crack a 40 open for me and pour some out in my honor. I'll throw my cellphone at the camera and curse for ya to show my appreciation).

This is so stupid.

I'm gonna watch out for cops tonight – and if I see 'em, I'm gonna do the ole "banana in the tailpipe" trick. Hehe.

(What was that? A drug reference? A homosexual allusion? Another sign of the "low morals" of foreigners?)

Stop the presses! Scandal!

Instead of responding to the smallest perceived slight against "Korean culture" and continuing to distort the image of foreign peoples in the press, perhaps if most Koreans recognized just how distorted their view of US was, they'd have less to say – 할말이 없을 걸.

Sheesh.

Podcast #27 – The Korean Education System

Join Michael Hurt and friend Grace for an informed look at the Korean education system through the experience of having taught in its most elite institutions. It's also a refreshingly different point-of-view from the hagwon (private institute) experience, laced with a little history, anthopology, and social theory along the way. Just a little. There's actually more rum and coke than academic theory in this one, but just wait until the next episode.

The podcast is available in the menu to the left, or by clicking on the white iPod icon, for those of you with iTunes on your computer.

Running Time: 1:09:14
File Size: 23.8 MB
File Info: 48 kbps (mono) at 44.1 kHz, MPEG-2, layer 3 (MP3)

"Minyeodeului Suda" Clip on YouTube

Thanks to faithful reader Bulgasari for going the final leg to get this on YouTube, and to Nova for ripping the video from the KBS site.

It's almost anti-climactic at this point. Read here for an explanation of what's going on here and the story as it originally broke, and click here to sign the online petition.

Read here for more fun discriminating against foreigners!

Grrr. Globalization, indeed.

Don't Even Ask How This Is Legal

Hey – remember I was talking about Battlestar Galactica being the perfect show for Koreans to watch? And how I told all you who've been missing it to go watch it?

Well, you can watch them all, in pretty good quality on this site. Dude – I don't know how this is legal, either, ok?

And here's a link to just about every other show you can think of. Is it legal? Illegal? I don't even know. All I know is that I suggest you get your watch on with a quickness!

Oh, It Gets Better

The irony continues.

Just got word of some foreigners who put on a little comedy show and it pretty much seem that they are being harassed because they poked fun at public officials. Listen to their story straight from their blog. They were actually dragged down to the "International Crimes Division" of City Hall and made to do pee tests and "confess your crimes" kind of listing names of "co-conspirators."

This, as foreigners are made fun of based upon racial characteristics on national television.

Riiiiiiight.

Like I said, foreign types trying to express yourselves or fight the powers that be – make sure you dot the I's and cross the T's, and make damn sure you aren't doing anything (even totally unrelated) out extralegal. I'm sorry to say it, but I'm darn glad and lucky to have an F-4 visa. Geez.

Demand for an Official Apology from KBS

한국친구들! 밑에 영어 많이 나오는데 주우우욱 내려가시면 Update의 얘기 무시하시고 편지 나오고 맨 밑에 comments들이 직접나옵니다. 맨 밑에 서명하시면 됩니다. 만약에 comments들이 안보이시면 : "1xx Comments" 링크를 클릭들하세요.

UPDATE #1: If you are wondering what this about, please read the post on The Marmot's Hole that reported it first, then read my previous post "또! 깜둥이 대접!" as a bit of explanation.

UPDATE #2: Also, here is the URL (Episode 3, Broadcast 2006-12-10, around the 32:00 mark (Thanks, Sungwon!) Can anyone access this (I have a Mac) and even better yet, upload this to YouTube?

UPDATE #3: Korean translation added! Thanks, SKFK – this is saving me a LOT of trouble and potential misunderstanding, while allowing this petition to reach a much wider audience. Coming home and seeing this comment and translation waiting was a great gift to discover. This displays the true power of the Internet.

한국인 독자분 - 밑에 편지하고 동의하시면 사인해주시기바랍니다. 이 편지가 한글로 나오니까 편하게 읽으실 수 있으 겁니다.

UPDATE #4: Shanti한테 - 고마워요! 한글 감수를 해줘서! Thanks to Shanti for editing the Korean translation.

UPDATE #5: As the result of suggestions from my friend Albert H., who drafted the initial text that I integrated into the end of this letter, I've included a more inclusive statement that adds a more inclusive statement from where the end of my letter naturally broadens out to include other "voices" of the many out there who agree with me. It includes more official "demand for redress" kind of language. and will be marked in purple until translated (Shanti?!). [It's been translated.] We made sure not to add any new conditions or stipulations that weren't included in the initial letter, which many of you have already signed.

Also, I plan to walk this down to KBS myself if they don't offer an apology by next week. I'd like to print it up, with all signatures attached, and present it to someone who would have to officially accept such a letter from me.

I am also very grateful to the supportive community of signers our there. Blogs are certainly powerful tools around which real communities form, and I'm glad we have a chance – as Koreans and non – to come together and demand something better, to make a real change.

Please keep this letter going! Pass it on!

UPDATE #6: We've gotten a lot of support from Korean friends at a Daum online petition, which has included this letter's demand for an apology with their own demands. If you have a Daum ID (foreigners can indeed register and they have a handy callback service that gives you an ID over your phone line, since that is usually registered in your name – smart!), simply sign in and leave a message of thanks to our many Korean national supporters, who say they're also sick of such embarrassing displays on major broadcast networks – and which also acts as a signature. (Thanks, Nova!)

UPDATE #7: New part to the letter translated! (Thanks, Junyoung!)

UPDATE #8: The scene on YouTube – uploaded by Bulgasari! Thanks!

EXPLANATION
This is a letter I have written to demand an apology to the foreign community from KBS, on behalf of both myself and those who want to virtually "sign" a petition as a comment to this post. Korean blogosphere, it's time to use our connections to actually do something, and I consider this post to be the most important one I've ever written. I finally feel like I/we have a chance to make our voices heard, and not just amongst ourselves.

Please link back to this post and encourage your site's readers as well as offline acquaintances to sign it, if they agree with its sentiments and specific demands.

It's time for foreigners, who have very little voice here in Korea, to finally do something to change one of the things that we always are blogging and complaining about. Isn't getting our voice out there the main reason we blog in the first place?

Since I am at work, want to get this document out in a timely fashion, and have Korean skills under par to the task of translating this demand for an official apology to the level of releasing to the public – I humbly request the help of bilingual Korean friends in translating this letter into high-quality Korean.

Even translating a single paragraph and including both the original and the translated version as a comment below this post would be greatly helpful.

For linkers, please don't link to just the blog, but the permalink:

http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2006/12/demand_of_an_of.html

Please submit any signatures and translations as a comment at the bottom of this post. Thank you.

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THE LETTER

I, as a black person and foreign national living in Korea, continue to be shocked and offended at the Korean media's continued racist and sexist stereotyping of foreign people.

대한민국에서 거주하는 흑인이자 외국인으로써 나는 한국 언론이 여전히 외국인을 인종차별적이고 성차별적으로 형식화하는 것에 대해 경악과 불쾌감을 느끼지 않을 수 없습니다.

From the Bubble Sisters to now, the excuse has always been "we didn't know" or "the intention wasn't to offend" – but is that really an excuse? Many of your general viewers and citizens' organizations seem to know. Why doesn't a national television station?

버블 시스터즈에서 오늘날에 이르기까지 언제나 "우린 그걸 몰랐다"거나 "감정을 상하게 하려는 의도가 아니었다"라는 변명을 늘어놓았지만, 그것이 진정한 변명이 된다고 생각하십니까? 수많은 일반시청자들과 시민단체들은 다 아는것으로 보이는데, 왜 국립 TV방송국만 모른다는 것입니까?

I am one foreign national who works in Korea, pays taxes, rent, utilities, and otherwise participates in the economy here. I have done good work here that has benefited the Korean economy as well as the countless Korean students, researchers, professors, and other working professionals I have come into contact with, as much as I have benefitted from working with them.

나는 한국에서 일하고, 세금, 집세, 공공요금을 내고, 기타 다른 방법으로 한국경제에 참여하고 있는 외국인입니다. 나는 한국경제에 이득을 주고, 내가 만난 수많은 한국인 학생, 연구원, 교수, 기타 전문직업인들과 함께 일하면서 그들로부터 내가 얻은 이득만큼 그들에게 이득을 주는 좋은 일을 하고 있습니다.

I am tired of seeing overtly crude representations of foreign workers as supposedly being unable to speak proper Korean (most foreign migrant workers here speak Korean very well, actually), or hearing the "ching chong" parodies of supposedly Chinese speech, ridiculing Japanese for the wooden footwear they rarely even wear any more than Korean wear traditional rubber shoes, or the constant efforts of the Korean media or the Kyeonggido chapter of the Korean Teachers' Union implying or outright saying that foreigners have "low sexual morals" when in fact no scandal involving foreign teachers and student minors has ever been reported, even against the context of a media that constantly reports about incidents involving Korean teachers and students, as well as "wonjo kyojae", a set concept that doesn't even exist in American culture, are regularly reported as major social problems.

나는 외국인 노동자들이 한국어를 제대로 못한다는 노골적인 저속한 묘사를 보고 (사실 대부분의 외국인 노동자들은 한국어를 상당히 잘 합니다), 중국어를 풍자하는 "쏼라쏼라" 소리를 듣고, 한국인들이 전통적인 고무신을 자주 신지 않는 것처럼 일본인들이 더이상 신지도 않는 게다에 대해 일본인들을 조롱하고, 언론에서 한국인 교사와 학생간에 일어나는 불미스러운 사건들이 지속적으로 보도되고 미국문화에서는 개념조차 존재하지 않는 "원조교제"가 중요한 사회적 문제로서 정기적으로 보도되는 가운데에서도, 외국인 교사와 미성년자 학생간에 스캔들이 신고된 적이 전혀 없음에도 불구하고 한국언론과 한국교원노조 경기도지부가 외국인들이 "저속한 성모럴"을 가지고 있다고 암시하거나 대놓고 말하는 것을 더 이상 참을 수가 없습니다.

This distorted view of foreigners is merely on example of the simplistic stereotypes through which foreigners are seen in Korea.

외국인에 대한 이같은 뒤틀린 시각은, 한국 사회가 외국인들을 바라보는 단순한 형식화의 한 예에 불과합니다.

Frankly, television shows that showcase non-Korean people merely performing Korean songs, dancing around in hanboks, or playing Korean grammar games solely to amuse a sense of nationalist Korean pride are patently offensive and have always turned my stomach.

솔직히 말해서, 오직 국수주의적인 한국인의 긍지를 높여주기 위해 외국인들이 한국 노래를 부르고, 한복을 입고 춤을 추고, 한국어 문법 놀이를 하는 것만을 보여주는 TV 프로그램은 분명히 모욕적이며, 그런 프로그램들은 언제나 나를 불쾌하게 만들었습니다.

I have been approached by several "PD's" during my stay in Korea to go on television and do things such as dance on stage clucking like a chicken does "in my language" and other ridiculous, humiliating antics. I have always refused, but they always come back, attracted by my ability to speak Korean and stroke a sense of simplistic nationalist pride at watching the foreigner "try to act Korean" (but fail).

내가 한국에 사는 동안 여러명의 PD들이 나에게 접근해서, TV에 출연해 "내 모국어로" 닭우는 소리를 내며 무대에서 춤을 추라는 등의 터무니없고 굴욕적인 짓을 하라는 제의를 받았습니다. 나는 언제나 거부했지만, 내가 한국어를 할 줄 안다는 사실때문에 PD들은 계속해서 나에게 와서, 외국인이 "한국인처럼 행동하려고 하지만 실패하는것"을 보면서 유치한 국수주의적 긍지를 자극하는 프로그램에 출연할 것을 제의했습니다.

Where are the shows that include foreigners as guest to discuss serious issues? Where are the shows that include foriegners as fully-formed human beings and not just comic fodder for the Korean masses. Blacks in America were once made to dance, sing, and act silly for the white masses, as foreign nationals are made to do now.

외국인들을 게스트로 초청해서 심각한 이슈를 토론하는 프로그램은 어디에 있습니까? 외국인들을 그저 한국인 대중들을 위한 웃음거리로 삼지 않고 완전한 인격체로써 포용하는 프로그램은 어디에 있습니까? 옛날 미국에서는 한때 흑인들을 백인 대중들을 위해서 춤추고, 노래하고, 바보처럼 행동하게 만들었고, 오늘날 한국에서 외국인들은 그와 똑같은 취급을 받고 있습니다.

And it is time for it to stop.

이제 이런 일은 없어져야 합니다.

I, as a foreign national who has been subject to this kind of offensive imagery and representation for far too long, demand a formal, written, and publicized apology from KBS, the producers of the "미녀들의 수다" show, as well as from Cheon Myung-hun.

너무나 오랫동안 이처럼 터무니없는 이미지와 묘사의 대상이 되어왔던 외국인으로서, 나는 KBS와, "미녀들의 수다" 제작진과, 천명훈씨가 공식적인 서면상의 사과문을 발표할것을 요구합니다.

The woman ridiculed one the show, Leslie Benfield, was lauded as Seoul's first foriegn civil servant, and this is how she is treated?

"미녀들의 수다"에서 조롱의 대상이 되었던 레슬리 벤필드씨는 서울시 외국인 공무원 1호로써 칭송을 받았는데, 이런 대접을 받아도 옳다는 말입니까?

The excuse of having "no intention" to offend will no longer hold water, especially because of the fact that even after many people spoke out against the show, the studio refused to apologize, truly adding insult to injury. So an official apology, as a symbol of both KBS and the Korean media's contrition, is in order.

"감정을 상하게 하려는 의도가 아니었다"라는 변명은 더이상 통하지 않습니다. 특히 많은 시청자들의 항의에도 불구하고 KBS측은 사과하기를 거부함으로써 엎친데 덮친격이라는 사실을 보면 더욱 그렇습니다. 그러므로 KBS와 한국 언론 양자의 참회의 표시로써 공식적인 사과가 있어야 마땅합니다.

This is the "post-Hines Ward" era, so Korean society can no longer hide behind the excuse that it "didn't know." South Korea represents itself as a "globalized" society, takes pride in being the 11th largest economy in the world, and at having developed the most advanced broadband, cellphone, and semi-conductor sectors in the world, yet it still hides behind a shameful veneer of "innocent ignorance as a developing, pre-modern country" when issues such as these come up.

"하인즈 워드" 신드롬이 거쳐간 오늘날의 한국사회는 더이상 "그걸 몰랐다"는 변명뒤에 숨을수 없습니다. 대한민국은 스스로를 "세계화"된 사회로 내세우고, 세계 11위 규모의 경제를 자랑스러워하고, 전세계에서 가장 발달된 고속인터넷, 무선전화, 반도체 산업을 개발한 것을 자랑하지만, 이같은 문제가 생기면 "현대화되지 않은 개발도상국으로써 순수한 무지때문에"는 수치스럽고 얄팍한 변명 뒤에 숨으려고 합니다.

This is, frankly, hard to swallow. Korean society now "knows." It is time to for the media to behave responsibly. Media images have power, and they lead to stereotyping, which leads to discriminative behavior. In the end, they are dehumanizing.

단도직입적으로 말해서, 그런 변명은 받아들이기 어렵습니다. 한국사회는 이제 더이상 "몰랐다"라고 할수 없습니다. 언론의 책임감있는 행동이 필요한 때입니다. 언론에서 보여주는 이미지에는 강력한 힘이 있고, 그것은 고정관념화로 이어지고, 차별적인 행동으로 이어집니다. 결국은 인간성을 말살하는 것입니다.

One voice among the many foreigners living, working, and paying taxes in Korea, along with others signed below in this virtual document, has spoken.

대한민국에 거주하고, 열심히 일하고, 제대로 세금 내고 살아가는 많은 외국인들 중 한명의 목소리로써, 나는 이 가상문서에 서명한 다른 사람들과 함께 이같이 선언합니다.

We, the undersigned, demand a public and formal apology from KBS, the producers of the show “미녀들의 수다” and from Cheon Myung-hoon for this latest debacle.

아래에 사인한 바와 같이 우리는 최근의 이러한 사태에 대해 천명훈씨와 "미녀들의 수다"의 제작진과 KBS에 공개적이고 공식적인 사과를 요구합니다.

We, the undersigned, share a common outrage with the Korean media’s crude and irresponsible depiction of foreigners, as well as its passing off the lowest and crudest possible forms of so-called "comedy" as "entertainment for the masses." Incident after incident has proven that this pattern of petty pandering to the lowest common denominator, typified by unchecked displays of racism and sexism as displayed on the show in question, will not cease on its own.

아래에 사인한 바와 같이 우리는 한국 미디어의 외국인에 대한 노골적이고 무책임한 묘사와 "대중을 위한 오락"으로 "코메디"라는 이름을 빌려 저급하고 노골적인 프로그램을 방영하는 것에 대해 분노를 느낍니다. 이런 저속한 패턴의 프로그램이 끊임없이 방송되는 것은 앞으로도 이런 인종차별적이고 성차별적인 프로그램이 자체적으로 사라지지 않을 것임을 보여줍니다.

We, the undersigned, can no longer sit by and watch as the country of our birth, of our homes, of our workplaces, and of beloved friends and colleagues, continues to allow and even celebrate such displays of ignorance, for in today’s globalized era, they are seen not only by Korean viewers, but by the entire world.

전세계 시청자들이 함께 TV를 보는 오늘날과 같은 국제화시대에, 우리는 아래에 사인한 바와 같이 우리의 일터와 집 그리고 우리가 태어난 나라에서 이런 프로그램이 방영되는 것을 사랑하는 친구들 그리고 동료들과 더 이상 볼 수가 없습니다.

PLEASE SIGN BELOW!

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Please sign this virtual document in the comments section. Any abusive comments will be deleted.

또 깜둥이 대접!

It was just too quiet 'round here to be true, I guess.

(한국인 친구들이 이 링크들을 잦아보세요:

"한국 영어사전은 인종편견 전시장?"

"혼혈인 내가 '워드신드롬'에 짜증나는 이유")

I couldn't blog about the show that is the present subject in question – the "Global Talk Show" or the somewhat literal translation of the Korean title "The Chatting of Female Beauties" – since I don't own a television and therefore wouldn't have anything intelligent to say about this Korean television show that's founded on pretty shaky premises.

From the site:

Roughly translated: "Foreign women from around the world look at Korean culture, Korean men, as well as the present situation of the Korean people."

Yeah. In naughty poses.

Look at all them perty foreign wimmins!

Grrrrrrr.

I've been through the web site and found it pretty questionable – if the goal's bridging international understanding, then why's the show full of young, single, attractive girls? Why are most of the questions seemingly about Korean men's sexual attraction to these women? Anyway, it's barely worth wasting any breath on that crap.

This show is resting atop a hotbed of racist, sexist assumptions, and as it has manifested as such, is itself racist, sexist claptrap for gendered, nationalist penis stroking.

Should I make that clearer? Is that too vague?

This show makes the humiliating antics found through foreigners made to dance and sing Korean folk songs in hanboks to give Koreans a laugh and a boost of pride in "우리 나라" positively pale in the levels of sheer Uncle Tomfoolery. And I ain't saying this because I ain't had a chance to go on Korean television.

This Metropolitician was approached by several major Korean network show "PD's" – who are amongst the lowest forms of life on God's green planet – to go on several Korean comedy shows back when I was young and less fat. I refused, simply because I have a sense of self-pride enough to not go on Korean television and dance around like a chicken ("Make the sound that chickens make in your country!" was the topic of the Sunday-afternoon comedy show I would have been on) or humiliate myself in front of millions of viewers.

"Cause that's not the vision my mom had for me when she popped this Metropolitician out. That's why I didn't go on.

It's not like questionably raced and gendered representation of foreign women is anything new for Korea, or is anything other than completely commonplace:

Oh, let me count the ways this is problematic.

Oh, I could go on, but it's really not worth it. Korean television is not exactly hard to criticize, since it requires few brain cells to watch. But another blackface incident? (Hat tip to the Marmot, obviously).

Look and feel familiar?

Before going any further, you might want to read my previous posts about the matter of blackface and black people in Korea:

"Black Culture, Not Black People"
An opinionated overview of why Korea still doesn't like black people, just black pop culture. Hmm. That sounds familiar...

"Niggers! Savages! It's Just Japaneasy!"
An exploration of some of the ways foreigners are represented visually, on top of gendered representations. This lame-ass show ain't the first place race and gender come together in questionable ways in Korean visual culture.

"Where Do Koreans' Ideas of Race Come From?" (여기는 할글로 번역된 버전이 있어요)
Hmm. I wonder if the fact that school textbooks represented blacks as savages with bones in their noses might have had an influence on any of this.

"Korean Folks Don't Like Black People"
Before you go ballistic over the bombastic title, read it, please.

Shit ain't funny. Let me repeat it for any person reading this who still doesn't get it: THIS SHIT AIN'T FUNNY TO ANYONE BUT IGNORANT PEOPLE. If you actually had international experience, black friends, or even any empathy in your soul, you would be able to understand why THIS IS OFFENSIVE, EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T "INTEND" IT TO BE.

Is anyone really surprised? The "international understanding" cover is a thinly-veiled cover for sexually ogling female foreign bodies – why are they all scantily-clad again? The entire enterprise is offensive – so why would anyone really be surprised when a comedian comes out in blackface and starts dancing with the one African-American woman on stage?

And Leslie, Leslie. I remember secretly rooting for you when I saw that you had become Korea's first official civil servant – my friend who works out of Jesse Jackson's office in Chicago chatted me up on AOL with the news, actually. We was proud of you.

"American Becomes 1st Seoul Civil Servant"

And frankly, as a fellow black person, I was a little disappointed to see you on that show. I liked that image better, of the strong, intelligent Black woman. You certainly didn't deserve that asshole's treatment – but I really can't be surprised, given the racist assumptions of many in this place. I can only say that I hope he has at least apologized in person, even if KBS2 won't do it in public.

Your present line of work is your own choice to make, but given what you surely know about this place, the way you were seen on that show – can we really say we were surprised?

And KBS2 – you can kiss my fat, brown ass.

"It wasn't meant to offend."

SO?! Hello?! It did. It does. It will, if done again. Same lame excuse the Bubble Sisters made. And to all those who followed that line – "Oh, we didn't know" or "we didn't mean it" – so when does one know?

Fellow Korean viewers seemed to be able to figure it out. Koreans, as a group, "know." So why doesn't a fucking television network know? And what kind of incident would it have to take to make it clear to studio execs? Maybe they should try that shit when Hines Ward comes back into town.

Yes, things have gotten a lot better since His Highness cried on Korean TV, met the president, and sat with the Amerasian chillens on TV.

Is KBS 2 sorry? No.

They need to take Cheong Myeong-hun's stank ass off the show as a sign of apology.

Oh – I know – how about they make one in the first place?

I know I just made that podcast with Regina basically saying that Korea's an OK place for black folks – with qualifications – but the Dark Side calleth...man. Gotta keep the blood pressure down...down...

Cat Abuse

Well, no – I didn't abuse my cats. I actually just washed them. But from my cat's perspective, it was a case inhumane treatment, plain and simple.

You all have heard tales of the main cat – Orenji – but most of you have seen neither hide nor hair of my black cat, Ebony, whom I more often address as "Blackie" in Korea, because it's cuter and somehow more snarky-sounding coming from a "black" man. Well, in her case, it's apropos, because she's dark as midnight, while I am more accurately described as a shade of brown, as are most American "black" people, anyway.

See, Ebony's a hider. Orenji was raised in a box by Namdaemun ajussis – like many superheroes were, in fact – and is quite social, albeit downright princessy and picky, despite being, technically, a boy. He's an "Oriental" breed of tabby, so sayeth the vet downstairs. They have a particular kind of face shape – and Ebony is the same breed, apparently.

And also, that Ebony – she dark. Seriously – like I have trouble finding her under the couch and stuff, because you can't see her unless she moves or opens her eyes; I gotta draw on all my Jurassic Park T-Rex instincts just to find her. All keying offa movement and whatnot.

I never bought that scene, by the way. Hmm – the greatest predator that ever lived, and he couldn't smell nearly 300 pounds of quivering man-flesh pissing itself right in front of his nose? I ain't no paleonologist, but with that huge frickin' beak of his, with the 6-inch long teeth and huge nasal cavity, the T-Rex only keys offa moving objects, like cats? Man, even my cats go conniptive when I crack the plastic on some dried squid. Surely living, shivering flesh is gonna register somewhere?

That's why the vet, when she came across Ebony, offered her to me. Man, she's a little 'fraidy cat, always scrambling to hide under the couch every time I get up to get a glass of water. Actually, she's come a long way from hiding under the couch for 3 days to now being quite social, despite not wanting to be touched. She likes to actually follow me from room to room, especially when I go sit in the bathroom. Smart cat that she is, she knows I can't grab her when I'm sitting on that toilet, so she sits right in front of me and mews. But when I get up, she backs off to maintain her requisite 2-meter space bubble from all humans.

Her and Orenji are quite close, when she's not whopping him upside the head. See, despite being the 'fraidy cat, she actually doesn't take much crap offa Orenji. But she is quite the pussy – ahem – when it comes to humans wanting "to hug her and kiss her and mmm, mmm, mmm, mmmmmmm!"

When it came to wash day, she was quite suspicious. And Orenji had gotten it first.

Ebony was smart. She heard Orenji's desperate mewing while in the humans' torture chamber and was predictably suspicious.

But she was, after much ado and drama, caught. And washed. Hehe. It wasn't abuse, but I certainly did have a bit too much fun, took a little too much glee, in her washing.

Hahahahahahaha. That has got to be the ugliest sight since...wait...no...

That's ugly, people. I love that darn cat, and she looks pretty good most of the time...but whew! Washed. Wow.