Why Koreans Need to be Allies

By Seowon Choi Junior Staff Reporter

As Koreans, we may question whether the protests for the death of George Floyd are relevant to us. We may ask why we should even care, when Black people did not particularly stand up against racism towards Asians at the height of the coronavirus, when we were being targeted and harassed for “looking Chinese”.

This stance on the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement is unsurprising and not unexpected, considering Korea’s ethnic homogeneity. This indifferent attitude may also arise from our identification as a danil minjok, or “one people” who are connected by blood and share a common ancestry. From a historical context, this version of Korean ethnic nationalism is thought to have originated from the myth of Dangun, the god-king who is described as the founder of the first Korean kingdom of Old Joseon, thus being our common direct ancestor. During colonial occupation, nationalist leaders further emphasized this concept to unify the Korean people against outside forces.

Such ingrained homogeneity has inevitably led to cultural and racial intolerance — with anyone who does not look Korean, speak Korean, or act Korean automatically classified as an “outsider”. With a relatively small number of foreigners in Korea, Koreans’ attitudes towards specific ethnic groups have been shaped by the racial stereotypes perpetuated by mass media. Especially for the older generations, it is no surprise that black people, who are often disproportionately portrayed as criminals and living in poverty by both news outlets and entertainment industries, are stereotyped as dangerous and uncivilized. But even before the spread of these racial stereotypes and Western beauty standards, preference for paler skin color had already begun to take root even back in the Joseon era, where whiter skin implied a higher social status — more precisely, of having the luxury to stay indoors rather than having to work outdoors in the sun. Regardless of its origin, it is without doubt that Korean society has been and is still prejudiced against darker skin color.

Even among Koreans, people of lower socioeconomic status, those with disabilities, or immigrants from developing Asian countries are often deemed “inferior”. With discrimination even towards their own people, it is quite likely that this judgemental nature of Koreans manifests itself during their interactions with the Black community. Especially during the late 20th century in LA Koreatown, reported incidents of shoplifting and aggressive behavior by black individuals further perpetuated the Koreans’ prejudice against the black community, making Korean shop owners less likely to hire black people and more suspicious of black customers. 

This hostility became plainly evident in the early 1990s when Korean shop owner Soon Ja Du shot Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old African American girl, in the head for being suspected of stealing a bottle of orange juice. Despite the disturbing murder of Harlins, Du was released from court and sentenced to only probation, a fine, and community service. This lenient sentence triggered anger in the Black community, ultimately culminating in the infamous 1992 Los Angeles riots. 

The LA riots and the conflicts leading up to it shed light not only on the inherent racial prejudice that Koreans possess, but also on how they have blatantly benefited from systemic racism within the criminal justice system, at the expense of another minority group. Particularly, the model minority myth — which uses select Asian immigrants as an example to assert that rising up the socioeconomic ladder can be achieved through hard work and passive law abidance — is a common political tactic used to devalue the urgency of institutional racism. This has functioned to intensify already-existing tensions between Asian American and African American communities, for many Asians were also victims of this mindset. 

Although the model minority myth appears to have some basis, given that Asian Americans earn the highest median income among all other minority groups, the reality is that they also have the biggest wage gap. Even in the case of high-achieving Asian immigrants, would their rise to their current status and the equal rights that they enjoy today have been possible without the Black people’s movement against segregation? The truth is, Asians were and still are much more privileged than Black people; Asians started off at a position where social mobility was possible, while Blacks have been stuck in an ongoing cycle of discrimination, even centuries after the end of enslavement. 

This time, we cannot be silent. We must not repeat the same mistakes of complying to systemic racism and oppressing the Black community. We cannot be deceived again into thinking that our enemy is the Black community, as with the LA riots. If we are to ever achieve racial equality, we Koreans should support other minority groups and fight on the same side, as allies.

Why #AllLivesMatter is Ridiculous

By Sean Tristan De Guzman Head of International Division

The death of George Floyd is not an isolated case. From the transatlantic slave trade between 1525 and 1866, to the Jim Crow laws of segregation in the late 19^th century, the US has an enduring history of racism towards black people. Black Lives Matter is the latest large-scale fight of African Americans, and the Black community in general, against racial and systemic inequality. Not long after, the All Lives Matter movement started to gain traction, particularly to criticize the BLM’s supposedly divisive and noninclusive nature. 

Indeed, all lives matter. But not all lives are being treated equally. That the All Lives Matter movement chooses to lament the political correctness of the BLM rather than recognize its roots and purpose is exactly why it will never amount to any magnitude of importance. Its only purpose is to invalidate the BLM, to reduce the plight of the oppressed to a common occurrence by claiming that anyone could experience equivalent injustice. Similarly, the #NotAllMen campaign in response to #MeToo attempted to refute the calls against gender-based violence towards women, and the working class has often been placated with rags-to-riches anecdotes of a successful fraction of people. But these narratives have all failed to acknowledge that some groups are more vulnerable to inhumane treatment than others. Muslims are often associated with acts of terrorism, Blacks are often associated with criminal activities, and even activists in oppressive regimes are tagged as dangerous rebels in society. Such stereotypes result in racial profiling, ignoring due process and the rule of law. 

These narratives subsequently discourage people from protesting and advise them to embrace the system instead, then climb up the ranks up to a position where they can then induce positive change. Just like in chess, pawns can get stronger if they move across and reach the end of the board. But how could a single black pawn penetrate a wall of more powerful white pieces on the other side of the board? The truth is, the luckiest pawn to promote to a higher rank does so at the expense of the first ones to move forward. Not every pawn gets to reach the end of the board, but even when they do none can become king. There will always be higher entities that are hard to dethrone, and just as how pawns are forced to attack each other at the beginning of the game, oppressed minorities are being pitted against each other by those in power. Their demise is insignificant, but the success of the very few will be a convenient tool to condition the rest into the societal narrative of conformity — that rising up the socioeconomic ladder is the way to success. 

Sadly, this is already happening amid the protests. The rising number of shops being looted fuels tensions between the black community and ordinary working individuals. The disproportionate international coverage that the BLM receives has incurred criticisms from people who are either victims of or advocates against other atrocious human rights violations that do not get a similar level of attention. Worst of all, those who do stand vocally with the black community are being called out for not being as vocal with other issues that are happening elsewhere. Such sentiment resonates very clearly even in KAIST: an anonymous post on the Here at KAIST page called supporters of the BLM movement hypocrites who “selectively care about inhumane actions whenever they are told to”. 

This overly righteous sentiment places an unfair burden on vulnerable groups to be perfectly consistent and knowledgeable on everything before they even speak up, and it justifies the refusal to at least express vocal support towards the BLM protests. It also promotes the idea that social issues are solitary rather than interconnected issues, and that people should only channel their attention onto issues that “concern” them. But while the BLM protests further the advocacies of the black community, they also set a precedent for other issues to be brought forth and heard. These protests may be getting more media attention than other causes, but let’s not lose focus and fall into the trap of splintering and squabbling. If the world is the chessboard, minorities of all types and origins are the pawns being made to play against one another. This sentiment only perpetuates more divisions among minority groups.

Remember that the power that higher-ranking pieces possess is built upon the presence of pawns. Although the loss of one pawn may be insignificant, imagine if there were no pawns at all on the board. Our united and collective resistance likewise has the capacity to destabilize the oppressive system, but for as long as we allow ourselves to be manipulated so easily, we cannot maximize this power. We must realize that campaigns like All Lives Matter can make us stray off course, and we must refuse to legitimize incidents that incite apathy or hatred towards one another.