On The Vanguard Element he invites readers to ask if he was offended:
Absolutely not…I was just utterly shocked and somewhat disappointed that culture and history is unfortunately not being invested in as much as the English language. It’s in the context that makes things racist—in this case, I saw the innocence in their eyes but it did feel extremely awkward to actually experience the “situation” take place. I’m fully aware of the US history behind repugnant blackface caricatures, but the children evidently weren’t. It was a weird occasion…I walked up to the kid, shocked by his appearance and he was equally shocked at my mere existence—just an amazing ironic moment. Remember, this was an English camp, where we foreign teachers were there to exchange many aspects of “culture.” My conclusion: ignorance is not bliss, its sad…for every nation.
I won't quote too much from the forum, because the four pages are worth reading, but I think I agree more with commenters like ehyunas
I think they were just playing a character and perhaps you are reading too much into it.
shelleydee
There's nothing wrong with describing someone using their colour of their skin so long as there is no negative connotation along with it. Unfortunately, North Americans have loaded words with so many connotations its impossible for us to forget that.
and adamwatch
Ithink its of more concern when foreigners abroad expect everyone to follow their own cultural"taboos”。 What right has a country like America with its poor record of human rights to reflect on what it sees as other countries "faults". After 50 years of American involvement in Korea we are now facing another "korean" war. Lets just try to put our own house in order. I don't think America can lecture anyone on race given its history of racial troubles.
For new readers, the issue of blackface in Korea has been written about for years, in a couple different contexts and from a couple different perspectives: Scribblings of the Metropolitician on, among other things, the Bubble Sisters in 2006; my site in 2007 looking at textbooks and English-Korean dictionaries; and The Grand Narrative and Monster Island looking at an LG print advertisement in 2009. And while I've been critical of Koreans adopting offensive imagery for their benign purposes, whether a KKK hood to advertise a play or a model in a Nazi uniform to advertise Coreana cosmetics,
and while I find the debate---and its tangents into depictions of foreigners and English teachers---on Korea generally interesting, I don't put a couple of kids in the same category as using Hitler to sell make-up or the KKK to promote a dance troupe, let alone the more historically offensive examples of blackface many Americans have learned to recognize.
9 comments:
Ironically, the Nazi supermodel is standing in front of a painting that depicts the spirit of the French Revolution.
Turn the tables around and have some African-American students in the US dress up like Korean comfort women. How would Koreans there, foreign or otherwise, react?
Yeah, thought so.
Saying Americans shouldn't talk about racism sounds like a typical "Korean" defence of racism by Koreans.
Maybe the dude was innocent about everything, but that still doesn't mean something shouldn't be said. Koreans seem to react rabidly to any perceived slight against them that the Japanese (and everyone else) make against them. Suck it up.
Couple of thoughts --
1. If Korean students wanted to act out Hairspray, in which race relation is a critical part of the story, is it possible for them to NOT do a black face? If they acted out, say, Dream Girls -- which features African Americans but do not involve race relations as a critical part of the story -- I would be a little more troubled.
2. If anti-racism comes with a degree, it would only take a high school diploma not to say, "black people are genetically stupid." But it would take a Ph.D. to know that a blackface is racist and must be avoided. It takes a fairly educated American to know the history behind blackface and all the Sambo-type depiction of African Americans. Even in a more troubling situation (e.g. the Dream Girls example earlier,) I think I would be a little more understanding. Not forgiving, but understanding.
Actually, there have been productions of Dreamgirls in Korea and guess what? No blackface! Why? Because if you understand and your audience understands that the story is about race relations or an ethnically different community, you don't need to resort to racist idiocy like blackface or yellowface or whathaveyou.
For an excellent response to another incident of blackface stupidity, watch the video of Harry Connick Jr. being a voice of reason:http://gawker.com/5376363/in-australia-blackface-is-still-only-slightly-offensive
Most Koreans just aren't aware of Racism like we, from the land of political correctness, are.
After talking to my Korean gf explaining that KARA's 'yayaya' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_cPXo5HkiM was on the wrong side of the racism spectrum, she still didn't get it until I told her "How would you feel if an American girl group dressed up as Yangban or Sejong and pranced around sing cute love songs."
The Korean claims that to recognise blackface as a symbol of racism in the USA, would require 'a Ph.D. in anti-racism'. I wonder what level of education is needed to recognise the same sensitivity around Uncle Tom's Cabin?
It certainly would not take a Korean a phd to recognize, oh, Mickey Rooney's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's is racist.
http://thegloss.com/beauty/if-you-cast-white-actors-as-non-white-characters-there-will-always-be-a-need-for-fake-tans/attachment/mickeyrooney/
"How would you feel if an American girl group dressed up as Yangban or Sejong and pranced around sing cute love songs."
How many Koreans will ask "are you American" and you say "No, I'm Canadian" and sometimes they'll quip "well, the cultures are the same anyway". I have to point out that's a bit like an American calling you Japanese and then retorting Korean and Japanese cultures are hard to tell apart so what's the big deal?
I wonder if there's something about the Korean psyche, all those years of being raised to understand they're the true victims, they don't ever have to view things through a "if the shoe was on the other foot".
Gut reactions aside, I don't think we can judge a Korean teenager for using blackface makeup the way we would judge a North American who did the same thing. Most North Americans have at least some knowledge of the history of American blackface performances, and how they reflected racist ideologies of the time. Most Koreans don't have that knowledge of the history and social issues of a country on the other side of the world... and why would they? Of course, if they were to travel to North America, or have American friends in Korea, this is the kind of thing they should be made aware of. But we can't expect them to be aware of it when they haven't had that exposure, just as I can't be expected to be know what would be offensive to someone from Finland or Argentina.
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