Black People in Korea

I had an interesting experience today at school. With my grade 3 middle schoolers, I had my students writing sentences using the perfect. The intention was to prepare them to play a modified game of Never Have I Ever next class. I had them write 5 sentences using the affirmative present perfect, and 5 using the negative present perfect. The sentences had the following stipulations regarding construction:

1. The sentences had to be true according to their author, meaning that the student must have actually had or not had the experience depending upon whether the sentence was affirmative or negative, respectively.

2. The students must use the present perfect and English to write their sentences. No Korean, no other tenses.

3. The students should attempt to think and create sentences about experiences that are unique or special, meaning the sentences should represent experiences that not all of students have had (for example: I have played the recorder is not a good sentence to use because every student in every class plays the recorder in school as a requirement. Instead, I have played the guitar is good, because in one class of 36 perhaps just 5 students have played the guitar).

So, my students began writing and many of their sentences were excellent. I have students who have been to France and ridden elephants and raised pet scorpions (all taken directly from my students' papers and all things I have never done). Some students were less creative, but still, their sentences were grammatically correct and generally not common experiences.

Then I come across SuJin's paper. She is an excellent student--very hardworking and while not the best English speaker, she certainly attempts to use English as much as possible. Her sentences included I have been to Jeju-do (Jeju Island which less than half of each class has been to) and some others but the one that stuck out was "I have talked to a black person."

I was pretty surprised by this sentence (mostly because of all the experiences in her life, this is a memorable one that is still in the forefront of her brain).

Now, having lived in Korea for over a year now, I have grown rather thick-skinned to the ignorant, although rarely ill-intentioned, comments Korean people have regarding black people (or anyone of a minority race). Korea is extremely homogeneous and even as it grows more inclusive of minorities and as other ethnic groups expand within the country's borders, still there seems to be a general misunderstanding of black people and black culture within Korea. Unfortunately, the primary (almost only) source of information regarding black people (be they African American, Caribbean, or African) comes from American movies (namely gangster movies or comedies where black people are largely cast in pigeon-holed roles even today). Korean students largely see black men as gangsters, dangerous men who all rap and have tattoos and kill guns. This is because that is how even most of the American media portrays them. The movies that attempt to change the way Americans think about black people, (see Spike Lee's movies, Boyz in the Hood, Richard Pryor, Tyler Perry, etc) are all but unknown here. There are not prominent black authors. Sure, Beyonce is famous. And everyone now knows Barack Obama. Plus there are celebrities like Heinz Ward who have a Korean parent and a parent of a different racial background. But that doesn't erase the fact that Korean people see Blacks a largely fear-inducing group, regardless or age, creed, gender, religion, or socio-economic status. This perception, I think, is not due to a true base belief that Blacks are inherently a bad, worthless or dirty race. However, when Korea was first opening its doors to immigrants (mind you since the Japanese colonial era and the end of the Korean war, Korea has been extremely closed to almost all races) the American-cultural boom invaded Korea and movies and pop music that contained not such sparkly-clean imaged of black people. And so, without having ever seen a black person not on a television or movie theater screen, opinions and judgments were being formed.

It is unfortunate, but it is true. I have shown my students pictures of me with friends who are black and my students often gasp in amazement at my apparent closeness.

Half of my students are afraid of black people.

Half of my students are entranced by black people (one student once said, I want to be Barack Obama's wife. When I asked why, she said, because he's black. I said, so? She said, black people are cool).

I'm rambling, but it's been an interesting thing to witness, if not first-hand. 

I'll leave you with this. On YouTube, most people posted this as a KFC commercial. It's not a KFC commercial. It's for KyoChon chicken, one of the biggest Korean fried chicken chains. It has ad conracts with Super Junior and is currently located throughout Korea and has locations in LA and New York City.