[KS] Re: 'Memoir' defames Korean culture

kushibo jdh95 at hitel.net
Fri Sep 8 22:34:00 EDT 2000


REPLY sends your message to the whole list
__________________________________________

> This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

--MS_Mac_OE_3051344040_1587114_MIME_Part
Content-type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable

Terms like honhy=F4l, honhy=F4ra, or honhy=F4rin, are clinical descriptive terms,
yes. But that status does not preclude them from being a vehicle for racial
insult. "Oriental" was a term I had never found particularly offensive when
I was young (at the time I didn't know of the etymological reasons why
"Oriental" was *lexica non grata* among East Asian community leaders), unti=
l
I heard some rather unenlightened people (talking about the merits of
jumping on the "White flight" bandwagon to southern Orange County and
northern San Diego County) referring to "o-REE-entals" moving in to parts o=
f
Orange County in large numbers, and how they didn't want to live near so
many "o-REE-entals".

The context in which the word is found, and the way in which the word is
said, can take an innocuous term and turn it into something close to an
insulting epithet. Isn't this, to a large degree, how "Colored" and then
"Negro" fell out of favor: the words were originally neutral (or even
positive) terms, hence their use in the title of the NAACP or the United
Negro College Fund (now, apparently, simply called "the College Fund"). But
hearing White supremacists talk about NEEgro crime, the NEEgro problem,
keeping them NEEgros out of the schools, "our Colored folk are happy where
they are", etc., these terms became automatically connected to the context
in which they were used.

Just my thoughts. Purely observational.

K U S H I B O

Yuh Ji-Yeon wrote:
regarding the terms honhyol, honhyolah, and honhyolin, yes, they are cold
and clinical, but they are not used or seen as derogatory terms. and they
most certainly would not have been in casual circulation in korean rural
farming villages of the 1950s, the alleged setting for elizabeth kim's
korean infancy and early childhood. in addition to their origins with
japanese kanji terms, these terms are highly similar to the english terms
"mixed blood" and "mixed race." after all, europeans and
americans also have a long history of fixation on "pure" bloodlines and a
horror of getting them tainted by inferior blood, whether that blood is
deemed inferior due to class or race.


--MS_Mac_OE_3051344040_1587114_MIME_Part
Content-type: text/html; charset="ISO-8859-1"
Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: 'Memoir' defames Korean culture </TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Terms like honhy=F4l, honhy=F4ra, or honhy=F4rin, are clinical descriptive terms,=
 yes. But that status does not preclude them from being a vehicle for racial=
 insult. "Oriental" was a term I had never found particularly offe=
nsive when I was young (at the time I didn't know of the etymological reason=
s why "Oriental" was *lexica non grata* among East Asian community=
 leaders), until I heard some rather unenlightened people (talking about the=
 merits of jumping on the "White flight" bandwagon to southern Ora=
nge County and northern San Diego County) referring to "o-REE-entals&qu=
ot; moving in to parts of Orange County in large numbers, and how they didn'=
t want to live near so many "o-REE-entals". <BR>
<BR>
The context in which the word is found, and the way in which the word is sa=
id, can take an innocuous term and turn it into something close to an insult=
ing epithet. Isn't this, to a large degree, how "Colored" and then=
 "Negro" fell out of favor: the words were originally neutral (or =
even positive) terms, hence their use in the title of the NAACP or the Unite=
d Negro College Fund (now, apparently, simply called "the College Fund&=
quot;). But hearing White supremacists talk about NEEgro crime, the NEEgro p=
roblem, keeping them NEEgros out of the schools, "our Colored folk are =
happy where they are", etc., these terms became automatically connected=
 to the context in which they were used.<BR>
<BR>
Just my thoughts. Purely observational.<BR>
<BR>
K U S H I B O<BR>
<BR>
Yuh Ji-Yeon wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE>regarding the terms honhyol, honhyolah, and honhyolin, yes, the=
y are cold <BR>
and clinical, but they are not used or seen as derogatory terms. and they <=
BR>
most certainly would not have been in casual circulation in korean rural <B=
R>
farming villages of the 1950s, the alleged setting for elizabeth kim's <BR>
korean infancy and early childhood. in addition to their origins with japan=
ese kanji terms, these terms are highly similar to the english terms "m=
ixed blood" and "mixed race." after all, europeans and <BR>
americans also have a long history of fixation on "pure" bloodlin=
es and a <BR>
horror of getting them tainted by inferior blood, whether that blood is <BR=
>
deemed inferior due to class or race.</BLOCKQUOTE>
</BODY>
</HTML>


--MS_Mac_OE_3051344040_1587114_MIME_Part--






More information about the Koreanstudies mailing list