And from the new blog “Living in the Land of Extremes,” a transracial abductee Korean adoptee discusses her dreams for the future of America, and then why she wants to leave “enemy territory” and return to Korea, the land of the culture that was “literally raped from her.”
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70 Comments
So, let me get this straight. Being stuck in an orphanage would have been the better solution? She is obviously missing one major point– KOREANS DON’T ADOPT. I used to volunteer at an orphanage here– it was depressing to see all of those lovely little kids, who had been rejected and discarded by their parents. This woman’s a racist– no way around it. Yielding when geting onto an elevator while others (even those f*cking Americans) is called common courtesy.
That’s right - not figuratively. Literally.
Considering that adoptive parents in Korea frequently change their adopted child’s name in order to protect them from scorn and ridicule, and will of course take the child away to a new life in a new community, wouldn’t this woman have been ‘literally raped’ all the same, even if she had somehow been lucky enough to have been selected for adoption here in Korea?
I wonder if it was Korea or America that whacked the po girl so damn hard with the ugly stick.
Looks like a steady diet of Big Macs and KFC to me. Twenty years of kimchi and doenjangjjigae, and who knows? She coulda been somebody. She coulda been a contender!
Incidentally, it looks like she’s got han down pat, but I didn’t see any evidence of jeong, not even toward the people who went through the considerable hassle of international adoption to give her a loving, nurturing home.
Alright. Let me comment since I can provide some genuine insight into this issue and not just bash the woman.
I am a Korean adoptee. I know what this woman has gone through. Although she is much (MUCH) more aggressive than I am, I definitely sympathize with her. No one knows what adoptees go through being perpetual outsiders. We are not fully American or fully Korean; we are stuck in an ethnic purgatory.
I could go on about how obsessed Korea is with maintaining homogeneity, or how Americans are de facto perpetuating colonialism by adopting. Is it true that adoption is good, given the one alternative? Yes! But why can’t there be a change in Korean society that allows DIFFERENT alternatives?
Like setting up a welfare system for single mothers, De-stigmatizing domestic adoption, or forcing Korea to confront its xenophobia, even of those with full Korean blood who were forced to leave their motherland (and mothers) against their will.
Look, I constantly ponder this issue and its complexity everyday. It’s hard not to when people ask you everyday, “what are you? No what are you REALLY?”
Let me ask you all, What is it like to walk by a mirror and NOT be surprised? To be able to see your facial features in the family photo album? This woman is simply in pain and is lashing out.
I assume most people here are White expats in Korea. If you’re white, you indeed have had the luxury of white privilege your entire life. You don’t and cannot ever know what it’s like to not know your true parents or culture. Am I a broken victim? No, I’m a proud American and have enjoyed the unparalleled opportunities here. But there is more to this issue than simply dismissing her as being ugly.
My point is: I think it’s important to listen to the legitimate views of others, ESPECIALLY when you have not had the same experiences.
For the tmc1233, who tried to gain credibility by saying he worked in an orphanage: I remember actually LIVING in an orphanage. Those memories of being forced to a foreign land with foreign faces stay with you. And if you want to refute her point of white Americans being insolent, you failed. You actually proved her point with your profanity and refusal to examine the institutionalized discrimination in the US (and other countries too).
Okay, I just realized I’m going to be flamed for my response (I’ve followed the comments section in other posts).
Let me just say, I would probably react the same exact way if I was Caucasian-American. In fact, I probably would’ve reacted the same way as a teen, before I began researching the sociology behind transracial adoption.
Note: there is an adoptee conference in August sponsored by several adoptee organizations in Seoul. I think there are over 1,000 adoptees coming. So, if you don’t like us, I guess it’s going to get a bit worse for you all soon!
I was chiefly thinking ugly on the inside after hearing those hateful and racist rants, but I retract that comment with apologies to all who are offended if it misleads more commenters or diverts attention from the real issues, which stem from prejudice and other intractable social development problems IN KOREA. I’m afraid she needs to win herself an Academy Award, a Superbowl or a couple of LPGA golf tournaments and she’ll find open arms back in her “real” homeland.
Slim, you’re right. It’s not too constructive to be hateful, regardless of whether your opinion is legitimate. And just as Korean adoptees don’t want to be stereotyped, Whites shouldn’t be either. I mean, 99% of people I meet are cool about my adoption. It’s just the other 1%.
Eek! I don’t know if she’ll be able to win that LPGA tournament, however. I suggest she go after the old favorite: Korean female archery.
The lady in the videos is not a politician, she’s not a journalist, and represents no ‘ism’ of any sort. She’s an average person with an identity crisis whose opinions don’t really reflect anyone’s but her own. There’s no need to bash or make fun of her. Doing so is what makes this place no different from the Korean or kyopo sites that spotlights the actions of any random esl teacher in the Korean news and turns them into a matter of national politics.
abcdefg is absolutely right, it should be recognized she’s someone who’s expressing an identity crisis, and it seems to be coming from some deep pain. She just deserves some sympathy.
andru, I know someone like you and have had some great conversations on international adoption–it’s a really complex issue and many aspects of it are devastating for the birth mothers and children in ways we can’t imagine.
Good luck with the adoptee conference.
There are brave ROK citizens who have infiltrated the DPRK from China and surreptitiously made videos using hidden cameras. One image that has stayed with me from these is of a marketplace in a DPRK town, where one of these young filmmakers videoed undersized orphans who hung around the stalls looking for food handouts or to pick up kernels of wheat or corn from the muddy ground (some of these were from sacks of donated food from US or ROK, which were clearly not meant for resale).
The filmmaker tried going up to these kids when nobody was watching and asking them quietly who they were and where were their parents, but they were too young, too frightened, and maybe just too dumbstruck to answer.
I think the documentary was called “Children of the Secret State”, it was on one of the Discovery channels and references to it can probaby be found online somewhere.
Andru, I recommend you get a copy of it (even if you have already seen it) and have a look every time you’re inclined to feel sorry for yourself. Whereever these children are now (in heaven or in hell) I think you’re better off than they.
The memory of that sequence chills my blood, but then I had a normal American “white” childhood so maybe I’m just a softy compared to tough-minded Koreans of either the North or the South. However, I suspect that most white American parents who adopt Asian orphans/unwanted children are motivated only by the best of human motives.
“The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven…” Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.
Do you suppose, andru, that of all the peoples on this planet only a Korean can find it in him/her self to complain about getting soaked by this particular rain? Maybe you should change your handle here to “Shylock”.
After she finishes her MA she’ll come to Korea. And that’s when her REAL education will begin. Let’s check back with her in five years.
It is somewhat naive of this woman to think that life is automatically going to be better for her in Korea but in all fairness, it is a common feeling some (not all) adoptees have, especially growing up. I am surprised that as an adult she still carries such fantasies but maybe a trip to Korea can bring her back to reality.
She is in for a huge wake-up call and the double standards that await her here are going to suddenly make “yielding to an American” not so bad afterall.
I don’t know if she speaks Korean or “acts” Korean but I am going to guess that she will only be able to pass herself off as a Korean to a limited extent once she comes here and I do not think that once Koreans get to know her, they are going to view her as one of their own–ever.
It is ironic because if she can’t speak Korean well and can’t play the Korean woman part, the moment she opens her mouth here she will not be recognized as a Korean but as one of the Americans she despises.
I am sincere in saying that I truly hope she finds what she is looking for. I also encourage her to come to Korea and spend time here, but to do so without any lofty expectations about how much better life will be for her. Coming with no expectations at all would probably be better.
Hopefully the experience will make her realize, as it did for me, how there is not much that is Korean in her afterall and how at the end of the day she’s still more American than anything else. And hopefully she can accept that because there is absolutely nothing wrong with that fact at all.
I’ve had a good (and sometimes challenging) time in Korea for the few years I’ve been here. I’ve learned a lot and my time away from the States has only made me appreciate the country even more. I am looking forward to returning to the US for good in a couple of months.
I hope a trip to Korea can help this woman learn to appreciate the Korean identity she has without compromising or hating her American one.
andru,
It might not be wise to judge all (white) expats by the first few posters, some of which have no taste (what does Yun-Soo Kim Navarre’s appearance and especially weight have to do with what she ’s saying - truly tasteless). If you want to get into a flame war, flame on. I’ll gladly step aside and let you flame.
However, if you’d like to share knowledge so we can both learn something, then:
1. It’s likely Yun-Soo Kim Navarre represents just a small minority of (Korean-American) adoptees. So, I don’t judge all (Korean-American) adoptees by her. Likewise, please don’t judge all (white) expats by a few posters.
2. It is clear from the URL banners advertising a website that she has an agenda other than speaking everything on her mind. Thus, it’s difficult to take what’s she saying as her true experience. Rather, it’s more likely what she’s saying is a selection of her true experiences rather than a comprehensive view of her experiences to thus further an agenda.
3. It’s not clear she’s ever visited Korea or speaks Korean. Otherwise, if she spent any considerable time here, she’d quickly change her misguided expectations about how loving and embracing her “Koreans of the same blood” would be of her. Based upon my experiences and observations here, Koreans are especially rough on:
i) gyopos
ii) …who aren’t fluent in Korean
iii) …and are female
iv) …with no traceable parents !
v) …and are unfortunately overweight by Korean standards
I know several gyopo women living in Korean of vastly different incomes, language abilities, body shapes, and attitudes, and the culture here is difficult for all of them for most of the reasons above.
She rants about how badly people in the U.S. treat her based upon something superficial like her skin color, yet she doesn’t mention how badly Koreans would treat her based upon superficial things, almost all beyond her control.
4. She uses charged and inaccurate words like “culture raped from me”. *eye roll*
She also clearly tries to equate the U.S. treatment of South Korea as “stealing natural resources”. Right…and those natural resources would be ? If it’s human children as she implies, then what’s the alternative ? Where does she think she would actually be if she was left in a Korean orphanage , without parents, and grew up here ?
5. Yes, she does make some very good points about how Korea could be doing more to “help its own”, especially in terms of:
i) not giving up so many children for adoption
ii) adopting more of their own
6. I have no doubt her life has been difficult. The way many/most minorities get treated in the U.S. by the ignorant or willfully mean is shameful. The “land of opportunity” still has a long way to go towards true racial and gender equality. What does it matter what skin color someone has ? Squat.
So, I believe I can understand where her anger and frustration come from.
My guess is that she’s been taken in by some left-wing nuts (hey, I’m a lefty myself, but some lefties are just nutjobs) with an agenda and her anger is being used a tool to further their agenda.
If she truly wanted to help Korean orphans, she’d be in Korea, working/helping at an orphanage, and doing a rant on Naver, in Korean. She’s actually hurting her cause by making a fool of herself ranting in the wrong direction, citing emotional, yet easily disproved reasons.
I have about two platitudes that have never disappointed me. My main axe: No good deed goes unpunished.
“We are not fully American or fully Korean; we are stuck in an ethnic purgatory.”
“Okay, I just realized I’m going to be flamed for my response.”
Not flamed…but, really, you believe that? It’s pretty simple: you’re Korean-American.
Have you ever wondered if you’d feel that way if you had not been adopted or if you had been born in the US/moved there with your biological parents?
Want to talk about ethnic purgatory?
I’m interracial and my son’s mother is Korean. My son’s ancestry can be traced to 4 different continents.
In the end, you are who you are. Learn to accept it. Be proud of it.
Look, I agree with basically everything that the posters have said thus far. I’m not judging white people by a few posters. Like I said, I grew up in a white culture and have mostly white friends, none of which are racist. I was just surprised that the first few posts were personal attacks.
PaulH: I actually have seen that particular documentary. It was very disturbing indeed. I’m not into comparing plights of disadvantaged peoples to other disadvantaged peoples. There is inherent tragedy in this world and there is ALWAYS a group of people who have suffered more (even than NK children).
And please don’t lecture me and tell me when or how to “feel”. I don’t know if that was a patronizing comment or not (I doubt it was). Even so, just because there is a worse-off group doesn’t excuse an entirely different problem. If so, there would be no impetus for social change whatsoever.
I really agree with Jodi. I’ve even experienced the “double standards” when I haven’t been in Korea. It’s easy to attribute that to societal attitudes. But frankly, I know so many nice Koreans that I usually attribute it to people being mean.
MigukNamja: You have some good points. She needs to understand she is not “Korean of the same blood”. Well, technically she is, but not culturally. Let me exclaim right now: there is no ‘greener pasture’ waiting for her in Korea. Every society has its vices and virtues. She’ll just be presented with another whole set of problems over there. You have good points there.
Oh and also, I have a problem with the rape analogy. One of my good friends from highschool was raped. It really destroyed her. I won’t ever compare adoption to that.
Hey Someguy, you’re preaching to the choir! I think of myself as very well-adjusted and am very proud of who I am. I’m open to discussing my adoption and not “in pain” or anything. I think it makes me unique and hope it can be a topic of conversation.
I was just trying to defend her from the fat cow jokes, since I can understand where she’s coming from, although she’s pretty scary I admit.
I don’t think she’s that bad looking, frankly.
Not that I want to get into a discussion of her appearance.
andru,
I had a feeling you were playing the devil’s advocate (no pun intended).
You’re a seemingly well-adjusted individual, so you shouldn’t put too much weight on the fact that she was.
Out of curiosity, what usually happens (or happened) to Korean orphans who weren’t adopted by families overseas? I get the impression that it wasn’t a day at the park, but eventually?
andru,
You, too, have some very good points. I also apologize for assuming too much about your views from your first post. Please accept my apology.
Also, I did a little more digging on the websites Ms. Yun-Soo Kim Navarre has on her video clips and found a good quote:
When I met the moms, I started asking myself questions that the other Americans weren’t asking.” Boas said. “Why would these moms give up their babies? Isn’t it the right of any birth mom anywhere in the world to bring up her child if she’s capable and loving? Why are these kids not being absorbed into Korean society, either by their birthparents or by domestic adoption?” The rate at which unwed mothers relinquish their children in South Korea, estimated at 70 percent, comes as a shock to Americans, where fewer than 2 percent of unwed mothers relinquish their children for adoption.
After meeting healthy and seemingly capable Korean unmarried mothers, who were nonetheless sending their children overseas for adoption, Boas wondered, “Why am I favoring so much international adoption when it doesn’t need to be necessary? This is like the tail wagging the dog.”
The 70 percent of unwed mothers giving up children in Korea vs. the 2 percent in the U.S. is also interesting, to say the least. Also, I have to hand it to Dr. Boa as a seemingly selfless individual (http://www.adoptedthemovie.com/2007/06/19/father/)
-MN
Um… my comment #4 was in poor taste. I apologize to any and all who were offended. I apparently whacked myself with the ugly (inside) stick in my sleep last night.
Again, sorry to all.
Little Miss Ungrateful Victim of Western Capitalist Pigs that fed, clothed, and cared for you, which was more than your people ever dreamed of doing: “I was born (in Korea), I want to die there.”
Whatever you can do to speed that process along would be greatly appreciated.
I hadn’t known Margaret Cho was adopted.
“I assume most people here are White expats in Korea. If your white, you indeed have had the luxury of white privilege your entire life.”
I, as a non-white non-American, transnational and transracial adoptee am really sick and tired of the whole fuss which is made about the issue. I’ve had my fair share of problems (e.g. I did not get along well with my adoptive mother, so that I hastily left my parental home after my adoptive father’s passing when I was 20, never to return, not even sporadically. But I am full well aware that some of my friends who were raised by their birth parents had quite similar experiences. To put the problems down to my background as an adoptte would never have occured to me. And, while I lived in a whole number of very different countries for extended periods of time, my country of birth was not among them. And I see absolutely no reason why it should have been…
Good luck to her… I’d bet she would be great fun to have a beers with.
About those damned elevators… You know, a little Chutzpah goes a long way in any culture.
I don’t think she’s bad looking– no, uh-uh, not at all…
What are they teaching in American schools nowadays: It’s all about me? The self indulgence seems to be laid on rather thick here.
Anyway, I don’t want to comment much until I can hear this.
Sorry that I misspelt “adoptee” in my comment above. And I agree with Andru and Robert that arguments about her looks are neither here nor there.
Except maybe in the sense that someone should point out to her that in Korea, unlike in the US or other Western countries, there is a profound lack of political correctness when it comes to comments about a female’s physical appearance. But this is, of course, not something for us to emulate…
Several close female friends of mine are veterans of the Korean orphanage system in the 80’s. Through them, I have met many others. They have brutal stories: regular beatings from older girls (which on occasion required stitches), kids little more than toddlers working in the fields, later being illegally held back from entering school (for up to several years) to continue working in the fields, the outside toilets being the haunt of old men who liked to masturbate in front of the children. The list goes on.
Finally, upon leaving, most of the women married early and now have children. It seems like a disproportion number ended up in abusive relationships.
Having an identity crisis doesn’t sound that bad.
“What are they teaching in American schools nowadays: It’s all about me?”
I too suspect she may be a bit–well– overzealous in the self-application of her cultural studies (or whatever) classes. Perhaps she should indeed meditate a bit more on her studies…
““I assume most people here are White expats in Korea. If your white, you indeed have had the luxury of white privilege your entire life.””
What a load of racist BS. That’s like saying an African American is successful because of affirmative action.
“I could go on about how obsessed Korea is with maintaining homogeneity, or how Americans are de facto perpetuating colonialism by adopting. Is it true that adoption is good, given the one alternative? Yes! But why can’t there be a change in Korean society that allows DIFFERENT alternatives?
Like setting up a welfare system for single mothers, De-stigmatizing domestic adoption, or forcing Korea to confront its xenophobia, even of those with full Korean blood who were forced to leave their motherland (and mothers) against their will.”
Your authentic first-hand voice as a Korean adoptee is welcome here, Andru, but you are being too hard on loving American parents who adopt foreign children when you label it “perpetuating colonialism.” The only difference between a white couple adopting a Korean baby and a Korean couple bringing their baby to the US as immigrants is that the white couple is of a different race and thus obviously are not the biological parents. Moreover, all of your suggested alternatives are things Korea can/should do, so if white Americans adopting foreign-born babies is “colonialism,” then should all international adoptions cease immediately? Should only transracial adoptions cease? A white Romanian baby is the same race as its American parents, but it’s still Romanian. Should parents not be allowed to immigrate with their children, who are brought to a foreign country against their will? They are, after all, depriving their children of growing up in the land of their birth, which is apparently your definition of colonialism or maybe it’s only international transracial adoptions that fit your definition. I’m not too sure really.
“If your white, you indeed have had the luxury of white privilege your entire life. “
There are many kinds of privilege. If your parents were able to adopt you, then I’m guessing they were solidly middle class and raised you in a comfortable home, fed you well, and provided you with many enrichment activities to help you learn about the world. I grew up in a poverty home and made my first visit to a dentist at the age of 17 to have a rotten tooth pulled out. I am an elementary school teacher at a school where 30% of the kids come from poverty homes, and every day I see certain kids who come to school in raggedy, stained clothes and bedhead hair. I see a few kids born to crack-addicted mothers, their minds and bodies permanently damaged. I see quite a number of kids who act up because their young parents do not know how to discipline them with love. Andru, this past year, it became evident that one of my very young students was being physically abused by her mother’s boyfriend. I had to mask my revulsion when I looked down into her smiling face adorned with a blue-black ring around the eye and hear her say, “Mom, dad, brother no love me.”
I’m not diminishing your pain in growing up in a family with parents who do not look like you, but Andru, life is full of difficulties and challenges. It really is. If your parents raised you with love and discipline, nourished your mind and body, and most importantly, embraced you as a family, then you have been blessed.
Like being white means we all come from the same background and the same culture [all whiteys are Americans, remember?]. And that there are no white adoptees either…
Ridiculous…
correction:
I had to mask my revulsion when I looked down into her smiling face adorned with a blue-black ring around the eye and hear her say on a number of occasions, “Mom, dad, brother no love me.”
Ok, Andru, here goes:
“For the tmc1233, who tried to gain credibility by saying he worked in an orphanage: I remember actually LIVING in an orphanage.”
Was it preferable to being raised by loving parents, regardless of their color?
“Those memories of being forced to a foreign land with foreign faces stay with you.”
See above. The fact of the matter is, Koreans don’t adopt. So don’t blame Americans for having a heart. I am sure that your adoptive parents’ hearts would break if they knew your true mind.
“And if you want to refute her point of white Americans being insolent, you failed. You actually proved her point with your profanity and refusal to examine the institutionalized discrimination in the US (and other countries too).”
Last time I checked, it was common courtesy to wait for people to get off of an elevator before getting on– that’s American culture, she’s in America. If she thinks that she can play the race card and go against local customs, she is seriously mistaken. I am sure that people never looked at her race, but looked at her level of RUDENESS. As for my ‘profanity’ you have taken it out of context. Isn’t what I wrote in that one word, what she is essentially saying? So how have I proved her point? If anyone is insolent, it is she. Maybe it is where I grew up, East Coast of US, but I have rarely encountered racists. Racists are looked upon with disgust where I come from. She seems to think that SHE has special rights to push into an elevator? Methinks SHE is the racist, and SHE has some serious issues to work out. Perhaps you too, should reassess your level of tolerance or lack thereof. Don’t give me crap about being a minority in the US, wah wah wah.
I have lived in Korea for more than half my adult life– off and on for ten years, and while most here have been terrific, I have also been spit on, assaulted, accosted, sworn at and denied services based solely on the color of my skin.
dda,
Right, it’s like saying there are no poor white folk, either.
Andru,
I have read more of your comments since, and I take back any allegation of you having racial intolerance. I apologise for jumping the gun. Anyway, yes she has issues, but with the reality of the situation, I fail to see how the current alternative would have been better. Sure, she would still be in Korea, as would you, but is it better?
As I mentioned before, it was painful to see the children who had been abandoned for whatever reason– born out of wedlock, physically disabled, etc. It was in a small orphanage, one of many in Ulsan. It had some 150 lovely kids, who had been left there. It used to break my heart to see them there, and I always wished that someone would come along and adopt them. Well, that’s the end of my rant.
I love the link with all those commentaries bashing her. On July 4th nonetheless making pro-American anti-Korean statements. Lovely.
Dave,
Freedom of expression isn’t only for the logical.
Hey, if she’s in pain, she ought to take some time to reflect, or seek counseling, or talk with someone she trusts - anything except get in front of a camera and appear in a documentary where she tells folks that her culture was raped from her.
Korean television, for better or worse, has no Jerry Springer or Dr. Phil, and Michael Moore is absent from the Korean film milieu. In the country in which she was raised, however, the way it goes is that if you hit a mass-media outlet in order to vent your spleen, you’re going to receive commentary. I don’t see any problem with commenting on her actions, given that she’s chosen to present them to the general public.
Since I brought on the hail storm I might as well get into the fray, I’m not going to puss out and let everyone have at it and just stand by and watch. First of what’s with throwing the white guys under the bus- whoever said I was or was not white? And what the hell does that have to do with it.
Dave Lee did you really want to throw that gas can out there? Did you ever find it fitting in light of what poured from her vox and where she’s from, which seems to be where you reside from too. This woman pissed me off because it was something that did not reflect what people I care about stand for.
My point is, this woman is foolish, misinformed/uninformed, and just going on an emotional rant. Whoever was making those commentaries on the blogsite was stooping down to her level by posting one-sided biased comments.
Hey, I want to apologize to all the people I’ve offended with my “white privilege” comment. I admit I was a little too reactionary. I made a mistake.
And I definitely am glad I was adopted. It may not seem like it from my earlier comments, but I am. As one poster said, I was trying to be a devil’s advocate somewhat.
I truly believe my adoptive parents are two of the greatest people in the world. They are truly and I mean truly kind and loving. I don’t want to imply that they’re both “colonialists” at all! I was just pontificating from my soapbox for a bit there, while trying to put adoption in the context of history, etc.
So, thanks for your comments. My attitude has definitely changed a bit from everyone’s good points, which means I learned something.
“What a load of racist BS. That’s like saying an African American is successful because of affirmative action.”
Why so dismissive? I notice that any time this subject comes up, the response here and elsewhere from whites (to be frank) is almost always to reduce the measure of racism to quantitative criteria- job or university positions, property damage or bandages, or class - a rhetorical proclivity that, imo, is already an indication of a psyche that’s enjoyed the privileges it’s denying. In other words, “privilege” doesn’t need to be construed in terms of advantages like money or things you can count. Surely, there are other healthful dimensions relative to social and psychic life that are induced by not living in a world racist against your race. I’m sure blacks would trade in affirmative action any day for the deep heritage of institutionalized self-hate they grow up with.
Then again, if we mean to be more mundane about this, andru still has a point. You (generic you) are in Korea. Would the jobs that you have had there been given to you if you were not white? Yeah. Sure, there’s always a small margin for you to be among the much vaunted ‘lucky’ black or brown ones, but we all know how that works out.
.#45 abc: “…you (generic you) are in korea. would the jobs that you have had there been given to you if you were not white? yeah. sure, there’s always a small margin for you to be among the much vaunted ‘lucky’ black or brown ones, but we all know how that works out.”
An appropriate “affirmative action” program for ROK would be for the current ROK administration to compare the number of “whites” employed by Korean employers nationwide, on a “per capita” basis, to PRC, Vietnam, ROC, Thailand, etc. (Note that I leave out Japan, lest any hint of that comparison be as the red flag to the bull).
If it turns out that ROK is “excess” in its “whitey” quota, then by gum the ROK govt should order the firing of excess “whites” and the hiring of Koreans (or other oppressed world minorities) in their stead. That’ll show ol’ whitey!
I’m not living or working in ROK so I can’t voluntarily quit a job there, in furtherance of this laudable objective. But I promise to do my share back here in oppressor land USA, by agitating for the withdrawal of “white” foreign troops stationed in ROK.
I’m confident that this would do more for “white flight” from the ROK than any affirmative action plan ever conceived in the minds of mere mortal men.
paul h,
what the bloody tucan fuck are you ranting about? there’s no need to spazz out in neurotic american political hero mode when i haven’t a made an issue of such.
also, note: i wasn’t criticizing the practice of hiring esl teachers (for example) based on an applicant’s whiteness. please understand the difference between description and condemnation. the point of 45 is not to rag on those who get jobs for being white. the point is to explain disagreement with someone who believes no such priviledges for whites exist.
abcdefg, I really don’t have a problem with this white privilege stuff - it’s true. The reason why I have it is that my white ancestors worked really hard, formed industry and the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution. If my ancestors had been lying around smoking a pipe they couldn’t light, enslaving 40% of their own race, and waiting to be colonized by the dwarves, I, too, might have no inherited privilege due to my ancestor’s recognizably superior culture. I might even, then, suffer from an inferiority complex.
This doesn’t mean the “white” way of life is superior - it isn’t. It is, however, if you want to compete in the world as it is right now.
Buried in the video is the real root of Yun-soo Kim Navarre’s bitterness about being adopted: she grew up in Detroit. No wonder she wants to come back to Korea.
#45
Come on. You’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m not even white.
Andru,
No prob. I understand. I often do the same thing.
“Buried in the video is the real root of Yun-soo Kim Navarre’s bitterness about being adopted: she grew up in Detroit. No wonder she wants to come back to Korea.”
Nah, she just wishes she had grown up across the bridge in Windsor.
Damn, is nobody bothered by the poster’s comments? This guy is an idiot. No one asked the US to come into Korea in the first place. When the adoptee used the phrase “impoverished nation” she OBVIOUSLY meant when Korea was overtaken by the US and when overseas immigration reached its highs in the 1960s-70s. So how are 2006’s world statistics relevant? Shit, I’m a proud American but retarded posts like this piss me off. As extreme the adoptee may have come off the poster was extreme to the same extent himself.
“No one asked the US to come into Korea in the first place. ”
Ambassador Chung did just that, on behalf of President Syngman Rhee, on Monday, 26th of June 1950.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/c...../han2.html
“Nah, she just wishes she had grown up across the bridge in Windsor.”
Located anywhere else but across the river from Detroit, Windsor would be a sh*thole. Just hearing that name brings back memories of a carload of girls heading across the Ambassador Bridge for the delights of male strip joints and a drinking age of 19. We always liked to joke about how people in Detroit enjoyed a better riverview gazing at Windsor while residents of Windsor had to look at the rusting smokestacks of River Rouge.
#49 - Come on now Sonagi, you know better than this. Her parents could afford international adoption.: Oakland County all the way, or maybe one of the Grosse Pointes.
On an entirely tangential note: remember Boblo?
‘Buried in the video is the real root of Yun-soo Kim Navarre’s bitterness about being adopted: she grew up in Detroit. No wonder she wants to come back to Korea.’
All she has to do is come here for a year or two, teach English, and she can buy that house in Detroit!
I think the header “Fucking Asshole” is as apropiate for this story as for the above one.
People only have the capacity to project from their own experiences. That’s the point.
She did not push her way into the elevator. It is common courtesy that women be let out/in first. She saw white women being afforded this courtesy, but at times she herself was denied the same.
My speculation is as wild as “she pushed her way in to the elevator”, but it’s way way more likely to be closer to the truth.
“No one asked the US to come into Korea in the first place.”
Rather than 1950, I expect this is probably a reference to US occupation of the southern half of Korea beginning Sep 45, ending in spring 1949 when last US combat regiment was withdrawn and the occupation was ended.
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/pd-c-02.htm
I always enjoy these little “quick hits” occasionally inserted here — short comments implying it’s all the Americans fault (Korea isn’t unified because of Truman — MacArthur was a genocidal maniac — etc etc).
One neurotically imagines a subsequent and rather breathless watch being made, to see if anyone “spazzs out” over them (like a “tucan”(?) would (?)).
It really is too bad that the Americans came in 1945, when they weren’t wanted; if they had foreborn, like earlier in Korean history, there’d be a lot more white ones alive today, able to look in the mirror and do the appropriate mandatory agonizing over their position of “privilege”.
A tolerable substitute for Cedar Point, Ut Videam. The boatride was fun for about the first fifteen minutes, then we got impatient. Do you show the location of your hometown by pointing into your right palm with your left index finger, too?
Yeah, the boat ride got old after the first few times. As my siblings and I got older, my parents took to driving to Amherstberg to avoid it—especially the long upriver cruise at the end of a long day in the sun.
Of course—mainly to outsiders though. To initiates I give my coordinates in Mile Roads.
“Located anywhere else but across the river from Detroit, Windsor would be a sh*thole.”
So, you admit that Detroit is a dump than Windsor?
abcdefg, reference: “you (generic you) are in korea. would the jobs that you have had there been given to you if you were not white?”
My immediate superior is Black, and he comes from much further up the social ladder than I did. He even attended university without having to rely upon the GI bill. Our last director was Chinese-American, also from the upper echelons of the middle class. The one prior to that was Latin.
Damned America! It’s not just for Whites anymore. Come to think of it, it probably never was.
#64 - “So, you admit that Detroit is (more of) a dump than Windsor? :)”
Well, DUH!
“#64 - “So, you admit that Detroit is (more of) a dump than Windsor? :)”
Well, DUH! “
LOL. About the only time I ever hear the word “layoffs” is when I go back for a visit. To cure occasional bouts of homesickness, I just pop “Roger and Me” into the DVD player.
LOL.
I went to Detroit a couple of times while visiting my uncle in Windsor when I was a kid. First time I had been in a ‘abroad’.
dammit. I noticed the typo a fraction of a second too late.
DaveLee, love how first I lowered myself to her level, but now you’re happy to throw the idiot, retarded post blasts. Nice, at least my point came with facts and figures. She said Korea was “impoverished,” never did she state the timeline on that did she? Nor did she ever state any proper stats or present a logic based arguement about the ROK or the US’s involvment with it. But I’m at fault in this whole thing, where have I heard this before-
Find some Korean media and you’ll see extreme, and please don’t ask me to make a list because it will be down right embarrassing. In the end you and this lady need to sit down (because you two have a lot in common) and have a cup of logic, and learn about Korea period. Facts and logic Dave that’s how points are proven, not name calling, which not once did I ever do to you. How is it your all alone in the dark with your point , I wonder how that could be?
The last two videos about Yun-Sook Kim Navarre were posted on You Tube under “Korean Culture,” so what kind of assumptions do you think people will make about Koreans from this lady. She has this view point and she’s educated.
Wow, how do Koreans get all these horrible misconceptions piled on them- I have no idea.
If you read all the way through the post I wouldn’t have to repeat the following: Stop making good Koreans, who love the western countries they grow up in, look bad.
I started it and now I’m finishing it.