The President, the Professor, and the Wide Receiver

NFL player Hines Ward meets South Korean Prime Minister Han Myung-Sook.

This week, U.S. President Barack Obama, the son of a black father and white mother, is making his landmark visit to Asia, including a Wednesday stop in Seoul, where South Korea is in the midst of a racial reckoning. His visit could have positive repercussions for years to come. Race is a thorny issue in the country, and biracial persons especially so. Both North and South Koreans embrace pure bloodlines, untainted by non-Korean DNA. Biracial children are broadly considered unadoptable, and children and adults of mixed race endure ostracism and bullying. But in the past few years, a number of events and people have made South Koreans reconsider racism and persons of mixed race.

Last July, Bonojit Hussain, an Indian research professor at Seoul's Sungkonghoe University, was on a bus with a female friend when a 31-year old Korean man went on a 10-minute foul-mouthed tirade, calling him a "stinking bastard" and an "Arab," and his companion a "whore."

Hussain and his friend went to a nearby police station to report the matter. The police did not believe that Hussain really was a professor and spoke to him in what Koreans call banmal, a register used when speaking to an insolent brat or a disobedient dog. The verbal assailant was at the police station also, and continued to hurl racist insults at him in front of the officers there, who did nothing to stop him.

(Maybe it's something about buses that bring out the best and worst in people. In 1955, Alabama's Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white person on a segregated bus. She said she was "tired of giving in" and was arrested -- but her actions became a turning point in the U.S. civil rights movement. It might be so for Korea, too.)

This wasn't the first time Hussain had experienced racial abuse, and he was tired of it. With the police unwilling to do anything, he filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission. When his story appeared in the Korean media, prosecutors arrested his harasser for "criminal insult" -- the first time the charge has been used for racial hate speech. His case is still in court. In the meantime, the Korean legislature is putting together the country's first detailed anti-discrimination laws. This would be a landmark victory for the thousands of migrant laborers from Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, and other Asian countries who are typically treated as South Korea's second class citizens.

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A KOREAN PASSER BY

9:04 AM ET

November 18, 2009

correction re "banmal"

The author states that "banmal" is "a register used when speaking to an insolent brat or a disobedient dog". I don't know whom he got that from, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

There are two forms of grammars in the Korean language: jonndaedmal and banmal, where the former is used when you're speaking to someone older than yourself, or as a gesture of respect towards the person you're speaking with. "Banmal", on the other hand, is the opposite, meaning it's used when you're speaking with someone who's either the same age as yourself or younger, or if you're trying to be rude to the other person.

It's obvious that the author did not check his facts properly. Nor did the fact checker, nor the EDITOR.

FREETRADER

10:34 PM ET

It sounds to me...

Like you have simply confirmed the writer's intepretation of the police officers' intention in using "banmal" -- they were speaking to a citizen (who they were sworn to assist) in an intentionally rude and dismissive manner. Sounds pretty accurate to me.

KYUKIM

10:58 AM ET

November 19, 2009

'Banmal' and context

The author's generalization that banmal is a tone you would use when talking to an "insolent brat or a disobedient dog" is completely misleading. My Korean friends and I always speak in banmal, and we obviously don't consider each other insolent brats or disobedient dogs.

However, I do agree with FREETRADER in that the author used the generalization to show the disrepect the police officer was showing. I'm not sure how much Korean Hussain knows nor what the officer interpreted of it, but it COULD be possible that the officer was using the informal tense in an attempt (albeit misguided) to make it easier for Hussain to understand. This is probably unlikely, but the author should have placed the anecdote in more context.

CHEKOV

9:52 AM ET

I'm sure that you're more than merely a Korean passerby but are actually someone who spends a lot of free time, scouring the internet for any negative viewpoints on Korea or Korean society. Why have you and your friends got this insatiable urge to prove to the world that Korea is infallible? Do you really think that a slightly different explanation of banmal renders the entire piece incorrect? You yourself say that banmal is used when trying to be rude to another person, isn't that what the author conveys in the article? You can't force arguments to prove that Korea is what it isn't, spend your time more wisely, playing online RPG games perhaps?

F1FAN

4:21 PM ET

Is Asia Racist?

Well, that seems like a stupid question. Are people racist? Yes, yes they are.

LIQUID_PORCUPINE

9:56 AM ET

Racism in Korea

The Headline "Is Asia Racist?" was no doubt put in by FP to get readers' attention. The reader who points out anti-Asian racism in Hollywood has a good point. But highlighting the structural racism existent in one aspect of American society does not mean that racism is as pervasive in the United States as it is in many other countries. Yes, many Americans are racist, but are people from different backgrounds allowed to have positions of authority or significance within the polity? Yes--just look at the president. Are non-Koreans in Korea allowed positions of authority or significance? No, they are not--just look at the roles they are given in Korean society. This is a matter of kind and degree.

James Card should know. He lived in Korea for a long time. Check out his website if you think he practices shoddy journalism. In Korea, it doesn't matter what your skin color is. As long as you are not Korean, you will never feel like you belong in the country--no matter who you are, what you've done, or what you do. Koreans have a great many qualities and one can learn a lot from them, but this article points out an uncomfortable reality that Koreans might never be able to come to terms with. The whole idea of being Korean - uri minjok - was constructed by intellectuals at the beginning of the 20th century to clearly separate Koreans from Japanese colonizers. Unfortunately, this identity of shared bloodlines - ethnic nationalism - has outlasted other forms of nationalism and is stronger now in Korea than it has ever been.

One other point--though the brute who harassed the Indian professor represents the bad guy in the story, it is helpful to put ourselves in his shoes--as many men in their 40s and 50s in Korea are maybe the most racist to foreigners. They represent the generation of men who were born to big families on farms back when Korea was very poor and before industrialization began. They came of age in a hyper-masculine and militarized culture where men were expected to sacrifice everything for their country because of the security threat from the north and the need to develop. Every aspect of their lives was heavily regimented and marked by chauvinism. Today, many of them are the drunks on the streets who stare and have manners that wouldn't fit in most countries with a first-rate economy. The effects of authoritarianism and military dictatorship on Korean society are still ubiquitous, and a problem fading more slowly than quickly.

BTW, check out the Korean movie Peppermint Candy if you found this post interesting.

SENSIBLE

10:37 PM ET

December 4, 2009

Why are people racist?

I'm looking for answers

NOKSEKNAMOO

8:25 PM ET

oblivious rascism

I'm an English teacher in Korea, and I can tell you that Korea is the most blatantly racist anti pc country I've ever been in, and most of the time the people here are kind of oblivious about why something is racist or really offensive. Being in Korea is kind of like being in a time warp to what I imagine 1950’s America to be like. The stuff I've heard my students say and the stuff I've seen printed in textbooks is simply unbelievable. For example one of the textbooks had a lesson that used a Jeopardy quiz show as an example. The accompanying photo has three contestants behind a podium with a buzzer and their names written in on the podium. The book asked "Who do you think will win?" The three contestants are a black man, a Korean man, and a mentally handicapped man with the word "retard" scribbled where his name should be, the answer is assumed to be obvious. In another text book, I was supposed to teach what each person looked like. Under a picture of a woman with pants and flat shoes I was supposed to teach my students that "She looked like a man." When I point these things out to my co-teachers they were at a loss as to why this wasn't okay. Most Koreans are well intentioned and not belligerent like than man on the bus, but there is certain backwardness towards race in this country that goes beyond anything you’d find in western countries.

10:43 PM ET

The response to NOKSEKNAMOO,

who correctly pointed out the somewhat oblivious racism prevalent in Korea (and actually, throughout Asia), misses the point. Just because one occassionally encounters rude, obnoxious, and even racist people in the US does not make the US more racist than, say, South Korea. Neither does the lack of Asian American movie stars. I think it is pretty obvious statement to make that most Amercans would be mortified if they were thought by someone else to be racist -- whatever people are thinking on the inside, the need to prove that one is open minded and won't judge another based on race is pretty ingrained behavior in polite society. In Korea, and most of Asia, having an 'untainted' bloodline is still important to most people. For all its faults and potential phoneyness, I certainly greatly prefer the American approach, which is, theoretically and usually practically, to judge you on who you are, not who your parents were.

CHIAMATTT

11:51 PM ET

I've lived in South Korea for

I've lived in South Korea for a number of years now, and I still think the vast majority of the people I've met here are more friendly and less racist than my "western" father.

If you're a teacher, start teaching your kids why your books are racist, what racism is, and why it's wrong to be racist. Then again, it's easier to just harp on a few instances than try and change anything, right?

1:49 AM ET

The Koreans I’ve met have

The Koreans I’ve met have been nothing but gracious to me too, but I am a light skinned woman. The experience of a fellow teacher of Indian descent is very different than my own. Also, simply because people are nice to you doesn’t mean they’re not racist. Most people will be civil as long as you don’t marry their daughter or begin to ask for rights. I bring up the textbooks, because I think that they are indicative of a society’s view. A caricature of a black person in a textbook isn’t just some random anecdotal instance of racism. It’s what a society chooses to teach its children, and I think it says volumes about a society’s values. And yes, as a teacher I try to teach my children that darker people are not dirty, that not all black people are criminals, that not all white women are whores, that Japanese people aren’t evil, and the like, but you know sometimes it’s like paddling against a tidal wave.

AAMAN

2:13 AM ET

White people are racist against Asian Americans so shut up

As an Asian American, I have faced racism, both implicit and explicit, expecially growing up in the late 90s and early 2000s. It's gotten somewhat better now, but most of the structural racism against Asian Americans, especially Asian American men, still exists. The poster who mentioned Hollywood BS racism against Asian Americans and pecasting is correct. Indeed, several documentaries about Yellow perilism and racist Hollywood typecasting have been made, as well as newly minted schoalrly material, I highly reocmmend the documentary "The Slanted Screen," to learn more about White America's history of racist attacks against the Asian man, both in America and elsewhere.

Alot of the time, anti-Asian racism has been ignored, because historically, Asians have been able to at least defened themselves a bit better then their African, Latino and Arab counterparts, but it still exists and has very real negative effects.

The fact, that the author of this article asked whether a continent that holds 4/6 of the world is racist is acceptable is evidence of raicsm itself in America against Asians. The threshold of what is racist against Asians is much lower then with African or any other minority Americans. If an article was made whose statement was "Are Africans stupid?" or "Are Africans brutes" were made , there would be outcry, but painting the Yellow Peril in broad strokes is perfectly ok. LOL.

Then again, this is from Samuel Huntington's rag, a man whose ability to think was certainly suspect, and was rightfully ousted from joining the National Academy of Sciences by renowned Yale Mathematicain Serge Lang. It looks like what Huntington created, is just as absurd as teh rest of his legacy, which isn't much.... I noticed Foreign Policy has had several anti-Asian articles and covers in the past few months.... are the white men editing this rag that scarred of us?

CRAIGSLISP

8:29 PM ET

I would be embarrassed to make a conclusion about 4 billion diverse people (Asia) based on a handful of anecdotal stories centering on South Korea. It's like asking are North Americans clean (?), and then telling three anecdotes about people who clean their garages everyday in California. What would such anecdotes prove?

Most societies have some amount of racism in them. F1FAN is correct. It's a silly question at best, and an opportunity for stereotyping Asians at worst. Is James Card a racist?

(Sorry James, I couldn't resist.)

BURNINGCHROME

11:28 PM ET

Anti Racism seems to be the New Racism

How does any educated person come to the conclusion that Chinese, Korean and Japanese are separate races?

All of the above are nationalities or ethnic groups not race. It is all the more ridiculous when many of the countries further mentioned are Multi-Ethnic or what the writer would wrongly label multi-racial. China for a start has many minorities, Nepal and Pakistan which were also referred to are not homogeneous societies. He also referred to S.E. Asia which is made up of countries that are Multi-Ethnic or again in the incorrect parlance of the writer multi-racial.

The idea they are all the same race only serves to validate and re-enforce a view that the differences between the peoples are biological and not cultural!!!

This idea that people are biologically different and then somehow given to certain impulses and predetermined behaviour is the core essence of Racism.

5:10 AM ET

The original title ...

Please note that the original title of this article currently titled:

The President, the Professor, and the Wide Receiver

... was this blissfully broad brushed question:

(nice to see some changes fellas)

BOBCHEN

9:21 AM ET

Is Asia racist?

The answer is no. Asia is not racist.

Asia is in the throes of Ethno-nationalism.

Asia today is Europe pre-1945.

RORY00

9:35 PM ET

December 3, 2009

I find this entire article

I find this entire article and what happened in korea absolutely INFURIATING!

I'M NOT INFURIATED FOR THE REASON EVERYONE IS ASSUMING. KEEP READING!

i have lived in america all my life and have faced horrendous abuse and racism from school to employment and just in general society. as an asian in america, unless you live in asian predominant areas, you will face racial discrimination either passive aggressive or overt.

america's label of multiculuralism or melting pot has no bearing on the reality of human nature and how people are racist in their hearts or have bigotry. that is the biggest farce and lie that americans are not as racist as others. as a matter of fact, they are usually even cruder and more cruel when they are being racist.

even today as i was outside a store waiting for someone in a predominantly white area, two white men looked at me and one made a mocking bristling to imply that i was "ugly" and he made some jeering comment to his friend and the other said 'that's why i don't go to oriental restaurants'. it was very jeering and taunting in a way that they enjoy denigrating so that is a difference i notice from others which makes americans even more sneakily guilty. asians are more xenophobic and they really are honest about not wanting you around but american racists enjoy denigrating which is even more perverted and evil.

the other day i was sitting on the bus and women behind me were talking about asian people in very racist ways and using every negative or exaggerated stereotype.

racism in america is a usual experience for asians especially. IT ABSOLUTELY INFURIATES ME THAT AMERICANS TRY TO POINT FINGERS AT OTHER COUNTRIES AND PRETEND THEIR AREN'T A BUNCH OF FILTHY NASTY RACISTS AND MEAN PEOPLE IN AMERICA AND THERE ARE LOTS, LOTS AND LOTS OF THEM!!!!

IT'S ALSO SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE TO BE RACIST TOWARD ASIANS AND AMERICA IS A SNEAKY AND HYPOCRITICAL COUNTRY BECAUSE IT TRIES TO PRETEND IT ISN'T OR ADVERTISE ITSELF TO STROKE IT'S EGO AS IF THEY ARE CLEAN AND THEY ARE SO RACIST.

americans are so racist, i used to wonder why americans let in any foreigners since they are so racist. i used to scratch my head puzzling at this!!!

no one in america is raving against the racial hate groups, blogs and sites prevalent in america or all the garbage and racist crap people spew either among like company or those who do it openly every day!!!

HOW DARE THEY POINT FINGERS AT AMERICA. AMERICA DESERVES TO SO GO DOWN YOU POMPOUS, CRUEL, ARROGANT ASSHOLES!! MY GOD AMERICANS ARE SO NASTY, IT'S LIKE A DIRTY SECRET I WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW AND THEY ARE NOT SOME GLITZY HOLLYWOOD PEOPLE ASSUME!

9:44 PM ET

americans pretending they

americans pretending they aren't as racist is the pot calling the kettle black.

the racism i faced from both whites and african-americans would even make the devil blush from school all the way up. americans ABUSE AND HAVE ABUSED THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH TO A GREAT EXTENT.

also the general aggression and bullying behavior is not as bad in asia as it is in america. americans remind me of extremely arrogant and self-entitled people who believe they should be able to do or say anything with impunity because they are 'americans' and therefore special.

americans are the most loathesome and obnoxious racist people on the planet as well as masters of passive-aggressive racism they've got down to a T living in a mulitcutural country. RACISM IS VERY ALIVE AND WELL IN AMERICA. it just angers me that americans are trying to dupe everyone else into believing they aren't as if they are great examples. they haven't lived in america to know the difference!!! it's like this japanese girl i knew who had stars in her eyes about america until she actually lived here awhile and experienced it!! she found out real quick it's not the ideal she was fed all her life!! that's an damn understatement!!

The President, the Professor, and the Wide Receiver

When the biracial U.S. President Barack Obama visits South Korea tomorrow, he will be visiting a country grappling with its prejudices about race.

BY JAMES CARD | NOVEMBER 17, 2009

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