Over the past couple of years working and living with Koreans, I believe I can say that I’ve already made quite a significant amount of sacrifices for them on many different occasions. Don’t get me wrong though, those were not a matter of race; I’m just the type who’d naturally go the extra mile for someone I know even if it cost me precious time and money. If you’ve ever worked, lived, or interacted with a foreigner, you’d know for a fact that there will always be ways you (a local) can assist them with; regardless if they just arrived here or have been living here for a decade.
In contrast, on those very rare occasions when I was the one in need of assistance from Koreans, it seems most (not all) of them never actually went the extra mile to help me out. Regardless of gender, age, social status, religion, or worldview, I have discovered that most of them were pretty much the same.
If given the choice, Koreans will always side with other Koreans.
It’s as simple as that.
You may disagree with me but I’m speaking from decades worth of experience.
Now before you single me out as if my experiences were invalid, it’d be interesting to know that I wasn’t the only one in the world who had the same experiences and said the same thing. In fact, most of the people I know who’ve lived with Koreans had the same sentiments as well, including notable vloggers who lived and worked in Korea. The quote above wasn’t even my own words, it was from a German vlogger based in Korea.
I’ve had plenty of instances where I was caught between an argument between one Korean colleague and another that ended up with me taking the blame for a mistake I did not do because both Koreans decided to take each other’s side and blame the non-Korean (me) as the most viable solution to the problem. I’ve seen Koreans who refuse to pray for non-Korean members in their church for no valid reason.
But of course, this doesn’t mean that all Koreans are bad. Because they’re not.
They’re as broken as we are. And this gives no one a license to invalidate Korea (or any other culture) just because of one flaw. I’ve been to countless mission trips sponsored by Korean churches just to bring the Gospel to the ethnic tribes up north. I have worked with Koreans who planned major feeding programs for the poor. I’ve known Koreans who have lived here for decades and has loved our country a lot more than we should have.
The issue was never about who’s better and who’s not.
Neither was it about who started it.
Because we are all guilty of the same accusations.
What we need is to find what we can correct from our personal worldview.
If we start talking about culture, the conversation would go on and on and we probably wouldn’t reach a decent conclusion. However, I believe we should all understand and hopefully agree on a few very basic facts about culture. I hold a degree in Intercultural Studies by the way. So unless anyone here claims to have a Ph.D. on Korean culture solely based on k-dramas and k-pop, then by all means take the floor.
It is not true that one culture is more superior and inferior than another.
Each culture has it’s own good and bad qualities. It would be an understatement to assume one is superior than the other. One common concept that we are mostly unaware of is Ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism is using one’s own cultural standards as a basis for weighing and evaluating other cultures as good or bad. In the same way, it’d be wrong to assume that the entire world knows everything there is to know about your country because they just don’t. The world already has enough problems on it’s own.
For example, in the Asian mindset wearing shoes inside the house is not acceptable. Whereas wearing shoes indoors is considered a norm in the Western world. This is because in the Asian worldview. the floor is considered clean while in the Western worldview, the floor is considered dirty. This doesn’t mean one culture is better or stronger than the other, it simply means that different cultures have their own rules by which they define what is acceptable and what is not. And that basis for defining what is culturally good and bad is what differs from one country to another based on their own values and worldview.
With those in mind, it’d be nice to pause once in a while and try to analyze the root of racism and discrimination. Are the standards we’re using valid? Or are we simply judging others’ cultures based on our personal assumptions of what is acceptable?
Are there racist Koreans? Yes.
Are there racists in your nationality? Yes.
Are all Koreans racist? No
Are all people from your country racists? No.
Racism has been a problem for as far as we can remember.
This is not to single out just one country. Because in reality we are all guilty of being racists to many degrees. That goes the same for all countries in the world.
Which is why #Love is of utmost importance..
It’s true when they say it makes the world go round.
What we need is to learn to see the good and bad in our own culture, see the good and bad in other cultures, and in turn learn to embrace all cultures for the beauty that they are.
