Amerasian entertainer Deanna Kim admitted to Star News that she felt like killing herself in 2002 after her fellow students harassed and ostracized her following the deaths of two middle school girls who were accidentally run over by a USFK armored vehicle.
Currently a senior at Yeoncheon High School, Gyeonggi Province, the American-born and raised Kim, the daughter of a Korean mother and USFK father, moved back to Korea four years ago and enrolled in an ordinary girls middle school, despite speaking no Korean. At first, her classmates were surprised a foreigner would transfer to their school, but after the armored vehicle incident, her classmates ostracized and harassed her, a situation made worse by the fact she still could not communicate with them. She confessed that she even felt the urge to leap from the classroom window because of the torment.
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18 Comments
I haven’t really been an newspaper reader but recently put a korean newspaper as my homepage so i could keep more informed of things going on in korea. lately i have noticed alot of press about mixed race koreans and the hardships that come with living in korea. My girlfried (Korean) mentioned Deanna Kim’s comment about suicide this morning after i told her about some new laws that some polititians were planning to propose. My gf worries quite a bit about the life that mixed people face in korea. We plan on getting married after i finish my studies and so this concerns her alot. It’s interesting to here about the difficulties that mixed koreans have had including Heinz Ward who has recieved alot of attention since his big win and his arrival to korea.
Typical “20 to 1″ gang-up bullying racist mentality of Korean culture for you. How lovely. No wonder you see those 30 year old male cowards with the mentality and maturity of 5 year olds anywhere else. They love to shout and scream as if they own the city when in numbers but them one against one to another foreigner, and they will reveal their true chickenshit, ball-less nature…the same one that has handed Korea its proverbial ass kickings by all other countries since the beginning of time.
Deanna Kim would do herself a big favor by not associating with typical Korean filth in that school…those chimps are just jealous because she has a brain…and double eyelids with a face that is half the size of their ugly visages. LOL.
Lovely, chonko. Just lovely. Liked the “chimp” and “typical Korean filth” references. Very subtle.
Chonko, get a life.
People like chonko are the ones i cant stand to see in korea. they live in korea and do nothing but whine about how bad it is. chonko is probably one of those who when in their home country does the same thing. I agree that racism is horrible, but understand that some people just have no understanding of others. I have been targetted a few times while i was in korea, but still love everything about it. im not blind and can see everything “bad” about korea but chose to be more productive with my time than to bash a country like mr. chonko. Heck the US still barely acknowledges what it did to japanese when they were put into concentration camps.
Heck the US still barely acknowledges what it did to japanese when they were put into concentration camps.
Though I certainly agree that locking up 110,000 men, women, and children, most of them US citizens, solely on the basis of their ethnicity is a regrettable chapter in our nation’s history, let’s not cheapen their experience or demean that of the Jews, Gypsies, and others in Europe who were forced into and then killed in concentration camps.
Manzanar, Tule Lake, etc., were internment camps.
Crap. I can’t believe I blew my one-comment-per-post wad on correcting this politically correct old chestnut.
Gotta love the hairshirt
my cousin was in high school when Kim Dae Jung became President. My cousin’s father and my paternal uncle was a Colonel in the ROK Army. His classmates knew. He became the subject of gang up name calling, and isolation. He was called Goon-Bal-Wie-Ah-Dul. (Son of the military force) or (Son of the military boots). It’s meant to be derogotary. Isolating him out as the son of a man who participated in military dictatorship in South Korea.
My cousin deserves credit to himself, because he didn’t take all that bullying quietly. He didn’t try to kill himself. He beat the hell out of whoever would face him. He beat up a decent number of kids, and got himself forcefully transferred to another school.
Chonko, to my understanding, this sort of class gang up, name calling, isolation has a deep tradition in Japan as well. I remember it was the subject of a US news article. Of course, who knows if it’s true at all? I’ve never been to Japan. I think the article had to do with teen suicides in Japan. I’m sure it happens in South Korea, too.
my cousin was unfortunate to have been going to high school of all places in an era when people were looking to vent against the military. During Park Jung Hee-Jun Doo Hwan-Roh Tae Woo, people looked up at you and envied you if you told them you went to Yook-Sa (ROK Army military academy), had connections with the armed forces, or such. Big time changes. Came with Kim Yong Sam, who deserves credit for jailing Jun and Roh.
Just to dwelve in the past, I remember my sister having told me that a 6th grade teacher had balls enough during Jun Doo Hwan’s presidency, at a public school, to close the classroom doors and windows and tell 6th graders about Jun Doo Hwan’s concentration/punishment camp for political criminals and anyone who broke whatever applicable law. I believe it was called the Sam-C? Kyo Yook Dae. Heavy forced labor and hell-like punishments seemed to have been involved. The Teacher’s union would have been proud of this South Korean 6th grade teacher, who was in his early 30’s with a family. I’m not sure why he would have said those things to “educate” his students. Children are loud mouths. He could have had major repurcussions. To my understanding, nothing happenned to him. His name was Kim Moo Sun, from Inchon, South Korea.
actually, i think my memory is faulty. It might have been middle school, and President may have been Kim Yong Sam.
The Samcheong camps are the ones you’re thinking of. One of the many truth commissions is investigating them at the moment. They played a large part in the mid 90s drama ‘Morae Sigye’ (Sandglass) and also appeared in a film called ‘Nabi’. I don’t know a whole lot about them, other than their recreation in the drama, so I’m curious to see what the commission digs up.
Chonko, to my understanding, this sort of class gang up, name calling, isolation has a deep tradition in Japan as well. I remember it was the subject of a US news article. Of course, who knows if it’s true at all? I’ve never been to Japan. I think the article had to do with teen suicides in Japan. I’m sure it happens in South Korea, too.
Nice try at diverting from the issue. Not sure what bullying in Japan, China or Tanzania has anything to do with Korea’s notorious bullying “picking on the weak” culture, but of course, this is a favorite tactic used by the Korea harlots/apologists. Deny, divert from the issue and hope that it won’t get exposed. I don’t know why but its seems like Koreans think that they can still save face if they talk about problems in other countries. Stick to the topic which is Korea..although that is quite difficult for Korea harlots to do.
Bye, chonko.
Not before time.
I would have held the Korean media and the DJ gov’t morally responsible for that suicide because their propaganda campaign milked that accident for anti-US sentiment and made possible the climate of hate and harassment that led Deanna Kim to contemplate killing herself.
Chonko - Google ijime before you go denying Japan has a bullying problem.
Chonko doesn’t live here anymore.
Chonko, I sense that you feel a little bit of angst.
I wonder why they moved to Korea. I attended school in Korea for one month when I was seven and the kids thought I was the coolest thing since sliced bread ’cause I spoke English. Thank G-d that was the only exposure I ever got to the Korean education system…no upsetting memories for me.
On a different note, I’m surprised nobody has commented on how fine she looks.