If the UN says so . . .

The UN has told Korea it ought to drop its cherished self-identification as a pure-blooded race.

Meeting in Geneva from July 30 until Aug. 17, the 71st UNCERD reviewed national reports on Costa Rica, New Zealand, Mozambique, Indonesia, and South Korea and released recommendations for them. On Aug. 9-10, it looked into reports submitted by the South Korean government. In the recommendations, UNCERD expressed discomfort about a prevalent notion in Korean culture of "pure-bloodedness," saying, "The whole concept came very close to ideas of racial superiority."

This is, of course, one of these stupid old ideas created for nationalist purposes that people in Korea carry on without thinking about whether or not they make any sense. While many Koreans do believe this to be true, most of the smart people I know know it to be ridiculous, and I have often heard the opposite "Korea is a rich purée of other groups that has simply had the lumps blended out" view, citing ancient immigrantion from countries as far afield as India and Vietnam, and of course Mongolia, whence Korean babies are said to get their famed 'Mongol spot'.

Which many Koreans will tell you only occurs in Mongolians and their close cousins, the Koreans, although this is patently false.
Anyway, yeah, can the pure-bloodedness fairytale, Korea.

Update: The Marmot has a detailed breakdown of exactly the information I have heard about immigrants throughout Korea's history

From the horse's mouth: Ajummas don't hate blacks

So we're having a bit of trouble finding a replacement for my at my school, in large part because my boss has decided that complete inaction on her part is the kind of motivation that my wife and I need to do a job that isn't ours to begin with. I finally spoke to a good candidate this evening, who is an African American. You may recall that in December I was being asked to turn away applicants for a job at our school because of the color of their skin, on the belief of my boss that "Parents don't like black teachers, only white teachers." My wife was also sure that, while she didn't care, the parents would never accept a black teacher for their children. For my part, I was more concerned that we have a teacher from an English speaking country with a four-year degree.
Well times change and my boss still seems to be displeased about the prospects of an African-American teacher. I broached the topic with her today and she asked "How black? Like, really really black?" This seems to matter because in Korea it's not about race and culture, but literally about how black you are. People often refuse to believe, for example, that Beyonce is black. I've heard that this stems from the agrarian history of Korea, in which darkness of skin was directly related to the amount of manual labor you had to do.
Anyway, I just had a meeting with three of our most concerned mothers and my wife. I said that we had a potential teacher and my wife added sheepishly that she may be somewhat black. "Oh that doesn't matter at all." the three mothers all said in unison. "As long as she's American, that's the important thing."
I have never been prouder. I always suspected that this prejudice among English school owners against blacks was based on a misconception, and know I know it's true.
That said, last week I was in a taxi and the driver started asking me about America. "Are there a lot of niggers (in Korean ggeomdungi or 껌둥이) where you come from?" I said not many. He held out his arm and made a pained face, and explained with great flourish "I hate their black skin, it's black, like the night, it's dark, it's blacky black black." It had never occurred to me that some people would hate black people literally because they were black.

Magical Black Man

There's an interesting list over at The Onion AV Club of "13 Movies featuring magical black men". You know the type: benevolent Christ-figures who give their all to an undeserving white person, teaching them how to dance and do kungfu (think Morpheus), never asking anything in return.
When I went to Rocky Point High School in New York, I remember reading a preponderance of books that were basically high-minded variations on this theme. In Walkabout, an Australian aborigine teenager helps two white kids to survive in the outback, and when the girl rejects his affections (in the mildest way possible) he loses the will to live and fades into death as mild as a lamb. I guess he had to pay the ultimate price, as it seems most magical black people do, in his case for having any desires of his own.
I assume that the magical black person also includes the black sidekick, long a staple of cartoons and these days best played by Eddie Murphy is Mulan and Shrek. The main difference between the other MBPs is that he grumbles a lot while saving the white person's life. Also don't forget Ernie Hudson in The Basketball Diaries, who locked up Jim Carroll and forcibly detoxed him. I'm sure we could play this game all day, there are plenty of movies with this trope.
The AV Club article suggests that Hollywood writers don't know anything about black people so instead of giving them rich characters and backstories they have no backstory and magical powers. I think there is one other factor at play. Interactions between blacks and whites are on occasions complex and rife with subtext, and so movies do anything they can to make them simpler, whether it's making the characters adoptive brothers (Money Train and that movie where Mark Wahlberg and the other three guys avenge their foster mother), making the black character a fantasy element or 'not real' (What Dreams May Come springs to mind) or making the black character unwaveringly devoted to the white character for some reason (Silver Streak). That way audiences don't have to worry about which side of town who is from and what's going on back at the black character's house, thus uncluttering and unfettering the imagination. Who would want to think about Bagger Vance's family life in 1920s Georgia? That would be depressing.

New project update

So I have been very happy with the moderate amount of attention that my translation blog has been getting on the English language Korea-related blogosphere, and I've been fascinated at the amount of information that others have put forward on the subject of antisemitism in Korea. Someone commenting on The Marmot's Hole says that the first books in the series were more academic, but that when the author started writing about Japan and Korea he started to go off the rails, and the quality of the information in his books started slipping. Interesting theory that I'm not in a position to judge. So many people have added their own stories of people in Korea launching into tirades about the Jews, all similar to what I myself have heard. I recently met a Korean guy who had lived in Philadelphia for many years before moving to Korea to open those deli stands you may have seen in some Hyundai Department Stores (basically the only place in Korea where you can buy nice fresh turkey). When I told this guy I was from Long Island the first thing he said was "You're not a Jew, are you?" When I told him I wasn't he said (exact quote) "Those Jew-boys give you a lot of trouble?"
It's anecdotes like that that I actually want to keep off the Reading Monnara project. I want the text being presented as fact to speak for itself without any question of "Is Korea antisemitic?" The bottom line is that the author and the book are antisemitic, and that's all that I can say with authority.
One more thing that I can say with authority is that these books are popular. I busted out my copy at a memorial service (제사) last night and it passed around the room for an hour, ans everybody there, all the old folks and not-so-old folks alike declared it interesting and fun to read. All the more reason to fight it.
As for my personal opinion about Korean antisemitism (a topic I definitely don't think is appropriate for Reading Monnara), I suspect that the reason many Koreans are attracted to the concept is that it allows them to hate elements of the West and at the same time consider those elements foreign even to the West. Rhie Won-bok's book blames all the wars in Europe, slavery, colonialism and the decimation of the Native Americans on the Jews. In his book, "WASPs" (he doesn't seem comfortable with the fact that many white Americans and nearly everybody in my home town are not WASPs) are the helpless puppets of Jewish financiers. See, they're victims like us, so it's OK to identify with them even as we hate elements of their country. Because those elements are the Jews' fault.

MLK, Pimps and Hos

Here's a dumb fella. And here's a bad thing, A racial stereotype party. I knew this would eventually leak into the media. I went to a 'Pimps and Hos' party in my BU days in an unsuccessful search for alcohol and oblivion. I was shocked and disgusted at the time, and I wondered aloud how so many students in ostensibly liberal Boston could go in for this kind of thing. It was unclear to me whether or not the costumed partygoers were innocent morons or mere racists airing their usually well-concealed darker sides. What they clearly weren't were deep thinkers about the whole concept. I wonder a little bit about the titling of the party in the article as an MLK party. Doesn't the whole thing speak to the parallel devolution that has taken place in America since MLK died? The degenerate white college students parodying degenerate black stereotypes, it's all very oniony (layers within layers, so to speak).

Finally, someone I don't think is racist

Rosie O'Donnell is not racist, despite what Youtube might say. Her umpteenth rehashing of the classic "Yackity yackity shmackety Hostess Twinkie gibbety gibbety mish mash" joke is only being posited as racist because of a) Michael Richards and b) the continued existence of Youtube in a post-Michael Richards world.

Rosie could have substituted 'Chinese' and 'ching chong ching' with 'Spanish and lots of 'rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr' or German and 'glochen Schprockfluschensproinkel" with no repercussions. In a Youtube free world the joke would have passed unnoticed.

I almost hope that Youtube and its ilk are sued out of existence, because in the event that it does not disappear, Youtube presents two possible courses for the future of our society. Either people are going to get a little more thick-skinned and reasonable in their responses to things that offend them (not gonna happen) or people are going to have to remain extremely guarded all the time for fear that a captured faux-pas will cause them to be banished for ever (almost certain to happen).

I've been pulled into something ugly

So thanks to my good work, my little English school is set to expand in March from 5 classes a day to 9 classes a day. That means we need a new part-time teacher, and I've been charged with hiring them. I know my students' parents have high expectations, as I think I have set the bar pretty high. So yesterday I put two help wanted ads up on English teaching websites. I got my first respeonse last night from an oddly accented fellow. He lives far away from where our school is, but he said that was not a problem. He didn't have the experience or Korean skills that I was looking for. Finally he asked me what nationalities I was looking for. I said any was fine, and he said that's good because he is British Gambian. From his accent I would say he was heavy on the Gambian, light on the British, and just from the accent I knew I would not hire him. North American accent is a must. I briefly thought about the controversy that would erupt if I hired an African teacher. many parents would probably complain, and the woman who helps me run the school, as well as my wife, would probably veto the choice, should I make it.
An hour later I got a call from a woman. She had a very good American sounding accent with a hint of something else. She had the experience and Korean skills I was looking for. She sounded like a good fit all around. Then finally she asked the same question about nationality. Turns out she was from the Philippines. Again, I thought, that might raise some eyebrows but if she's really good it wouldn't matter.
I got home and told my wife about the two calls, and her reaction was "Hire an American or Canadian, you can't hire someone from any other country, it just won't fly." And I knew the was right. But I hate it all the same. I think too often in this country people make these simplistic racist decisions based on what other people's reactions are likely to be. The students' parents won't like it or people will think we hired a Philippine woman because they work cheaper or a non-Nroth American will teach the children a bad accent. There are so many fears, all about what other people will think, that people never address what they themselves actually feel.
I don't like it, but I can't pretend it's not true, so I feel like I'm becoming part of the system. You know what I mean?

Monoracial nation inexplicably racist!

That's right, Korea, a country with one racial group and an identity based almost entirely on eating food nobody else likes and shunning outsiders, is racist and doesn't even know it. I'm talking about an incident (dealt with in English on The Marmot's Hole blog) on the asinine KBS TV show "The Beauties' Chatterbox". The show features beautiful young foreign women (mostly exchange students and dancers from former soviet satellites) who speak fluent Korean discussing Korea and how great, unique and interesting it is (eventually: being an acquired taste, it takes a looong time to grow to love Korea). One of the young ladies, African-American Leslie Bensfield, was singing a Korean song when singer Cheon Myeong-Hun appeared on stage in a rasta wig and began doing Korea's own version of the classic American blackface, chanting "shickamunce!" (transliteration mine and mine alone), roughly translated: "I'm really black!"

None of this should be any surprise in a country where I've had grown men approach me child-like and either grab my belly and go "Fat" or touch my head and say "No hair!" with a strong sense of wide-eyed wonder. The shock is KBS's reaction to large amounts of criticism from viewers, both Korean and foreign: nothing. They have said it is not racist and that Cheon will continue to appear on the terrible show, despite the incident and being even less talented and attractive than the average Korean pop-star and having crooked teeth.

Double-dog Racism

I was just listening to an interview with Michael Shermer, noted skeptic and scholar, about the Michael Richards tailspin. Shermer explained that everyone harbors some racist feelings inside them that are inhibited by society and can be released by alcohol (as in the case of Mel Gibson) or rage (as in Richards' case.) Shermer goes on to reference an ongoing project by Harvard to determine people's "implicit assumptions" about various groups of people. I encourage you to try it for yourself, because knowing what's coming may bias you, but it basically involves sorting pictures of people from different races and different categories of things at the same time. For example, the first test I did was the black/white, good/bad test, in which you sort white and black people's pictures and words with good or bad meanings. It said I moderately associate whites with good traits. Shermer said that this is true of two thirds of whites and half of blacks. That is a truly depressing statistic, that despite our best efforts these associations lurk within us.
Then, since I am married to a Korean and have lived in Korea for four years, I decided to take the Asian/white, American/foreign association test. I'll give you the punchline first. The test says that I slightly associate Asian faces with Americanness, and White faces with foreignness.

What's . . . what?!?

Heres how the test works. You have to sort pictures of white and Asian faces with pictures of American and European monuments. So in fact, I associate Asian faces with American national monuments like the St. Louis Arch and The Statue of Liberty, while I associate The Eiffel Tower, The Leaning Tower of Pisa, and The Tower of London with white faces.

This is highly reminiscent of the famous maze navigating drosophila melanogaster test run years back. Scientist dumps a bunch of Drosophila in a 3d maze, takes the first ones that come out and breeds them. Through the generations he gets the time way down. He's finally created a race of super-smart flies without the use of a teleporter machine and Jeff Goldblum. He sticks the fastest of the fast in a maze alone and it doesn't come out for an eternity. He puts a hundred more flies in the maze and he pops right out. What he had created was not a race of super-smart flies, it was a race of super-antisocial flies who would flee when confined with too many other flies in a maze.
By the way, the only time I ever see or think about The Washington Monument, The White House, Mount Rushmore and The Empire State Building are when they appear in the English books I teach to my (mostly) America-obsessed students, who happen to have Asian faces.

For Michael Richards

Oh Michael. I feel for you. I wouldn't be the first person to tell you that I was deeply shocked by the things you said. I find it almost impossible to imagine those words coming from the mouth of a person who harbors no racist thoughts. Your interview on The Late Show showed you to be very much out of touch. Afro-Americans, Michael?
You're the same age as my father. I can't imagine the ridiculously out-of-touch things he may say if he were a comedian in this careful world. I imagine you were trying to blow people's minds with your insightful and ironic ranting. We've all seen you as Kramer. You put everything into your performances. That desire to be loved by everyone must burn hot inside. You seem well educated, which means that you'll never be able to explain your thoughts in a soundbyte.
I believe you think you're telling the truth when you say you're not racist. Remember Pryzbylewski from the Wire after he shot that black cop. How do you know if that's inside of you? I'm sort of Calvinist on the whole issue. If you go your whole life racist to the core and conceal it so well that you don't even know it, then you are de facto not racist. Because there's probably a murderous part of everyone, but everyone who's never committed murder is, naturally, not a murderer.
When I saw you in the Letterman interview I felt for you. Not for the you I saw on Youtube, but the man you are the rest of your life. I'm fascinated by the wakes of PR nightmares. Public perception is so final. Hey, that's racist old Kramer, case closed. You were rambling and you clearly didn't know what to say. I could imaine myself in your shoes, seeing everything spinning well out of my control. Turning yourself over to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton must certainly be a last resort. It's so Faustian. When you have to give yourself up to powerbrokers like them you're playing a dangerous game. Jackson used this debacle to get into the news his proposed legislation prohibiting that word (I won't even use the first letter) and making its use a hate crime. Imagine, now you're in his pocket. This man wants to make a word a crime and you'd better do what he says or you're done for good.
But really, Michael, the most shocking thing to me is how self-absorbed you are. I imagine that you've spent more than a little of your sitcom money on therapy, the way you kept talking about your rage and what's inside you. And then Letterman throws you a nice softball question like "What's the next step?" and what do you say? You've got some self-work to do, or something like that? You are lost in your own world Michael, you didn't even apologize to anyone who wasn't in the room with you, like your 'rage' was the only problem. And a social problem at that! Ridiculous.