Racism on the Subway in Korea

This post is not funny.

I have now been in Korea teaching English for approximately two months. During that time my Korean friends, co-workers, and Koreans in general, have generated a lot of goodwill in my eyes. They have rolled out the red carpet, and have been exceptionally hospitable hosts at every turn. Needless to say, my perception of Koreans has been riding high.

Funny how one event can affect all of that positive cache.

It all started when I was walking inside the Dongdaemun Stadium subway station in Seoul, linked arm-in-arm with a Korean female friend of mine. We were just walking and talking … We weren’t doing anything that should have been of interest to anyone else.

A Korean man, around 45-50 years old, walked along beside us, and kept looking in our general direction as if he needed directions or some kind of assistance. I made eye contact with him, thinking he needed some help.

However he did not need help.

He looked at the girl that I was with and said “You slut, you whore”. They exchanged words in Korean. I was shocked, but suggested we ignore the man, and we continued walking. He followed, and proceeded to call me foreigner trash, and attempt to blame me for western influences in Korea that he does not like. I only faintly remember his exact words, which came streaming out in an angry fashion, but I recall vividly the words “fast food” and perhaps “military”. He also chastised me for coming to Korea to “date Korean women”. He told the girl I was with that she should “marry a Korean man”, and when she sarcastically responded that her and I were married, he said “shame, what a shame”.

The most telling aspect of this exchange for me was when I tried to suggest that this man did not know me, or anything about me, and he responded:

“I don’t need to know you”.

Of course this man did not need to know me. He didn’t want to know me. It was easier for him to assume that all people with white skin in Korea are the same. We come to Korea to abuse the system and steal their women. To actually get to know me would distort his comfortably held world view.

This man was the definition of racism, with a little bigotry left-over for my Korean female friend.

To be continued…