[KS] Re: anti-Americanism and individual experiences...

[Michael Hurt]

Regarding advice offered to others on this list -

I offered my experience not as a prescription for others to behave, but 
rather as my observation on what has gotten me and others here in 
trouble, in my own and my friends' experiences. And I feel that no 
matter what, one cannot actively control how others perceive you, no 
matter how much you bend over backwards to assuage whatever prejudices 
about you.

Professor Robinson solicited opinions about the nature of anti-American 
sentiment here. I and several others offered them. I thought the 
discussion this sparked an interesting one, and somewhat relevant to 
the topics discussed on this list, in that it had to do with how 
members of his tour group might be received as they came to Korea.

However, I do not appreciate being given advice (especially in all caps 
and exclamation points) as to how to comport myself in public. My 
experience is not one to "object" to, to be quite blunt. You may 
disagree with my opinions as to what the cause of these reactions to me 
are; but, Mr. Bug, you are in no position to offer prescriptions to 
everyone in Korea as to how to successfully avoid confrontations just 
because in your own experience you have been able to do so.

So if you mean to imply that my African American friend and I walking 
down the street brought being called "nigger" upon ourselves, and also 
that she being almost physically assaulted by him and his two friends 
was due to our lack of "acknowledging people on a personal level" so we 
might "satisfy in a minor, intimate way their desire for political 
acknowledgement on an "international" level", you're way out of line. 
Minding our business, which is what we were doing, IS and SHOULD BE 
good enough not to be verbally or physically attacked.

 From your argument, it seems as if the onus of responsibility for the 
behavior of some drunk or belligerent people is on the person on the 
receiving end. Sorry, uh uh, no way. I draw the line here:

"The point is how do you return that
attention? If you just ignore it, some locals will
find that attitude standoffish and feel insulted or
provoked by it and want to do something about it."

"Attention?" Last month when I was crossing through the turnstile of 
Shinchon subway station, alone and in a good mood, about to walk 
towards one of the exits, a man appeared out of the throng of people - 
I had not even seen him - and grabbed my wrist forcefully and pulled me 
close to him, at which point he yelled something intelligible in what I 
think was English. He absolutely reeked of liquor and his face was red 
as as a beet. It was obvious he was blasted beyond return. I simply 
broke his grip and briskly walked to the exit. I know enough from being 
here not to get angry in such situations and just walk away. He was not 
behaving in a manner he likely thought to be belligerent; he probably 
saw me as an interesting foreigner through his drunken haze and wanted 
to engage in conversation or go drinking or some such. It's happened 
before.  But I knew instantly that this was a dangerous situation, 
since I had been in them many times before. I did not provoke or 
solicit it through my ignorance. On the contrary, ignoring people's 
verbal taunts is a survival strategy, whether they are anti-american 
jabs here or racist slurs in the States. I don't think this particular 
man had ill intent, but as drunk as he was, I know that can change in 
an instant.

I take offense to you implying that foreigners somehow passively 
provoke others into attacking them. I am not a gum-chewing, swaggering 
buffoon who gets on subways yelling and swearing in English, Korean 
girls on each arm, giving older men the "evil eye" with my American 
arrogance. Even if I were, I have to right to not be physically 
assaulted.

In the situation in which my Korean American female friend was slapped 
for speaking in English on an inter-city bus, it was not a situation 
that could be prevented by the maxim "all politics is local", an astute 
observation that is completely out of context here. People looking at 
an individual as a symbol of something that is hurtful to them are, in 
the end, responsible for working out their own issues. If some young 
Korean American woman is seen as crass for speaking English, the 
living, breathing symbol of her immigrant parents having "abandoned" 
Korea during its hardest times, that is not her fault. If I, as a black 
man, cause people to think my female companion is a woman of low 
breeding and ill repute just because she is standing next to me, that 
is not my fault. If he attacks me or my companion, the onus of moral 
and legal responsibility is on him.

I resent that you even bring me to even state this, but I will: I am 
conversationally fluent in Korean, comport myself politely in public, 
and even smile quite a bit. We black folk are known for having to do 
that a lot in "mixed company." Always have, will have to for as far as 
I can see. I bow deeply when meeting people older than me, hold my 
drink glass with two hands, and have even eaten all kinds of 
still-moving, soon-to-be seafood offered to me as a gesture of good 
will. I've done my part for king, country, and good international 
relations many a time in the noraebang by singing all the Elvis and 
Beach Boys any Korean people have requested of me. I've smiled 
respectfully and bit my tongue when older men at dinner yelled at the 
top of their lungs at me for drinking too much of the Coca-Cola they 
assumed I wanted to drink but didn't, for being too fat, for not being 
married, or Christian, and even been scolded for getting tan in the 
summer because I was already "too dark."

I've done more than my fair share of taking up the social slack for the 
minority of  ill-behaved and rude Koreans who really and truly do 
exist. And I know these people do not define the norm; if I believed 
that, why would I be here? Why would I be on this list? Why would I 
even be talking to you? But the only reasons I have been (and I said 
from the beginning - only rarely) subjected to violent behavior has 
been because I simply EXIST here. A very few people, mostly after much 
drinking, think I shouldn't. It's that simple. And no amount of nodding 
"acknowledgments", smiling, shuffling my feet, or doing a tap dance is 
going to change that. If I get beat up in the deep South for being 
kissy with a white woman, am I guilty of not rooting myself in the 
behavior of "local politics"? In America, we call that a hate crime. I 
guess you define this in the Korean context as a failure of 
"international relations" played out on the personal level. Should we 
then call hate crimes in the States "failures of race relations" on the 
personal level?

How dare you arrogate yourself to 1) completely dismiss other people's 
experiences w/o any direct knowledge of what transpired (since you 
weren't there), and 2) think you can tell others how to behave?

It's great you're all kissy-poo with your Korean girfriend, holding 
hands and whispering sweet nothings in her ear in all the most public 
of places. Whatever floats your boat - I can't tell you how to live 
your life. But even assuming for a moment that I were the type of 
person to publicly engage in such tasteless displays of affection, I 
would fear that meeting the gazes of drunken ajussis sitting around me 
could me misinterpreted as a challenge or a boast. But that's just me. 
It's probably related to how I look, how people perceive me. And I 
probably fall into different racial/social categories (based on other 
people's assumptions about me), in their eyes, than you do. I don't 
know you nor you me, but I think that's a fair assumption. I trust that 
you've adapted to life in Korea in the way that's best for you; I 
simply ask that you don't discount and condescend to others based on 
your own single experience.

I apologize for the flame, but Mr. Bug, you were way out of line. Offer 
your point of view based on what you have experienced or observed, but 
don't think you're in a position to prescribe catch-all remedies for 
how to live successfully in Korea. A lot of us are doing just fine at 
it, thank you very much,  despite occasional hardship or bumps in the 
road.
No one can prevent bad things from sometimes happening to good people.
-----
Michael Hurt
Korea-American Educational Commission
Fulbright Building
168-15 Yomni-dong, Mapo-gu
Seoul 121-874, Korea
011-822-702-6734 (h)
011-8216-512-9665 (c)

"Criticism, in short, is more than a right; it is an act of patriotism 
– a higher form of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals and 
national adulation."

                                        - J. William Fulbright