South Koreans Struggle With Race - New York Times - November 1, 2009 (full article here)
This is the story of Bonojit Hussain (Bonogit Hussain), a brave and courageous man from India who fought against racists in South Korea.
from the New York Times article:
when South Koreans refer to Americans in private conversations, they nearly always attach the same suffix as when they talk about the Japanese and Chinese, their historical masters: “nom,” which means “bastards.”
Tammy Chu, 34, a Korean-born film director who was adopted by Americans and grew up in New York State, said she had been “scolded and yelled at” in Seoul subways for speaking in English and thus “not being Korean enough.” Then, she said, her applications for a job as an English teacher were rejected on the grounds that she was “not white enough.”
The Korea Herald published an article about the Bonojit Hussain case as well.
Excerpts from The Korea Herald:
Despite being proposed several times, there is still no specific law against racial discrimination.
The Republic of Korea's Constitution guarantees freedom from discrimination on the basis of race, religion and other things, but it is still undefined as to how far the court could apply the clause.
The charges filed by Hussain and his companion, a Korean woman named Han Ji-sun, are charges of contempt.
They accuse a man named Park, who was riding the same Bucheon bus as them, of kicking Han and hurling sexual and racial insults at them, refusing to stop when asked by them and another passenger. When Park got off the bus, he pushed Han in the chest - something that Han argues is an act of sexual violence.
A fellow passenger helped escort Park to the Jungbu Police Station in Bucheon, where their complaints were filed, but not without some difficulty. Han alleges that the police did nothing to physically separate her and Hussain from the assailant, and that they gave unfair hearing to Park, who was intoxicated.
Both also say that the police initially refused to accept that Hussain could be a university professor and that they questioned the authenticity of his Alien Registration Card. They say police questioned his immigration status in "banmal" - the low honorific of Korean - and referred to him as a "foreigner with a hard life," implying that his employment situation was poor.
Han has since complained to the National Human Rights Commission about the police officers' conduct.
"I was deeply disappointed and was insulted by Park's actions and those of the policemen at the Bucheon Jungbu Police Station," said Han of the incident. "But at the same time was very embarrassed when I realized that Korean society still had a strong sense of ethnic nationalism, xenophobia and a patriarchal social system.
