Ethnocentrism? Korea? Tell me it ain’t so! [Chosun Ilbo, English]
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UN Warns Korea about ‘Ethnocentrism’
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on August 20, 2007 at 7:54 pm, filed under Asides, Ministry of Barbarian Affairs. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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31 Comments
Anyone know the background to this UN study? Who/what triggered it?
I believe it was just a regular session of the UNHRC Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and it was Korea’s time at bat. Here’s the report:
http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/.....endocument
Interestingly, the Korean delegation, while acknowledging that things needed to improve and that the concept of ethnic homogeneity was a slippery slope to cultural superiority, explained that Korea’s emphasis on ethnic homogeneity was a defensive measure developed while Korea was confronting Japanese imperial agression and was not a means to attack other ethnic groups.
http://www.kukinews.com/news/a.....&cp=nv
In terms of the media response, I’ve yet to read one editorial disagreeing with the UN report. Which didn’t really surprise me — there’s pretty widespread awareness that there’s a problem, and that the concept of “ethnic homogeneity” won’t do in a globalized society where one in eight marriages involves a non-Korean. But things don’t change overnight, so it’ll take some time for social attitudes to catch up with social realities.
On this topic, there was a really good column in the JoongAng Ilbo about the concept of “pure-bloodedness” and, bluntly, what a crock of shit it is:
http://news.joins.com/article/.....72357.html
Quite interesting, actually.
Most Koreans I’ve talked to, including even my racist grandma, believe “pure blood” ideology is a dangerous one, and that Koreans (I’m talking about native ones who had little contact with foreigners) are too xenophobic racist in general, though I find it understandable given their circumstances.
Unfortunately, as always, the popular “netizen” opinions are dominated by those idiots who think the UN should shut the hell up about however Koreans think about themselves and others, and then goes off-tangent into some half-baked theories about how ethnocentrism leads to world peace.
I have a feeling that in a year or two Ban Ki-Moon will become to lefties (otherwise known as netizens with no life) a bogeyman, a national traitor who did not serve Korean interest as the Secretary-General of the UN.
Most languages use the passive form to address their language. Korea makes it a part of the family. That’s fine, for me. I think most things like bills of rights are made by people who want to milk the better things until they have nothing to say for people who are actually clamoring at the door.b
I think a book called “Brother One Cell” should be on the required reading list of expats who want to understand Korea a bit more. I think some of you guys have heard of it. It’s written by some guy who got caught by the police for mailing some damn good Filipino pot to himself and got 3 1/2 years in a Korean prison.
Anyways, the author, Cullen Thomas, got to see this ethnocentricism first hand, in a raw kind of way from the dregs of Korean society. Yes it exists and it’s real, but it’s different from other kinds of ethnocentricism. It’s a very “confucian” type of racism that Koreans convey. It seems that countries are all “ranked” unofficially in the mind of Koreans. The less developed ones have a lower subconscious rank, etc. As an American, Cullen was treated with some kind of privilege, if you will, because he’s from a country at the very top of the confucian order of countries. The Filipino and Pakistani prisoners, not so much.
“Yes it exists and it’s real, but it’s different from other kinds of ethnocentricism. It’s a very “confucian” type of racism that Koreans convey. It seems that countries are all “ranked” unofficially in the mind of Koreans. The less developed ones have a lower subconscious rank, etc”
I don’t think there’s anything Confucian about ranking nationalities by their country’s level of economic development. It’s just an extension of socioeconomic hierarchy to an entire group of people.
As I recall, the KAL Flight 858 North Korean woman bomber stated in her memoirs that she and her accomplice took on Japanese identities in order to enjoy preferential treatment accorded to nationals of an economically powerful country. Prior to the bombing, they were questioned in one Middle Eastern country. The man whipped out his Japanese passport and threatened to complain to his embassy. The local officials backed off and let the couple go.
Being a Korean myself, I think it’s great that at least the newspapers are finally addressing this issue. Ethnocentrism is definitely rampant among at least half of the population of Korea. Sad, I know, but it makes the rest of us level-headed people look bad.
@ sonagi
But isn’t social hierarchy established by one’s characteristics one of the foundational concepts (or, at least the bastard child of the foundational concept) in Confucianism? (Very similar to how the concept of caste system is an inevitable offspring of Hinduism). That is, if one has to respect one’s superior/elder, you need someone to be superior to you for the system to work.
No doubt that ethnocentrism is ethnocentrism and racism is racism, but perhaps it’s because Koreans historically had little to no foreign interaction (relatively speaking, of course) that the ethnocentrism and racism developed the way it did (inwardly? isolationing?). It would make a very interesting anthropology research project to do a comparative analysis of history of racism in Korea to a historically more interactive nation.
Completely agree with what Robert Koehler said up there. I’m just glad that there is a sense of need for change as well as steps taken to make that change in the Korean society.
All countries have some form of social hierarchy. Korea’s is influenced by Confucianism, but the notion of ranking members of out groups by socioeconomic status isn’t unique to Korea. The anecdote related by Kim Hyun-hui took place in the Middle East and involved non-Koreans.
Here in the States there is an informal socioeconomic ranking of immigrant groups. Imagine an immigrant family moves into a 3,000 square feet home in a tidy new subdivision. A dark-skinned immigrant family from India would likely get a warmer reception than a light-skinned family from El Salvador, where most people are of European descent (the natives were mostly wiped out by diseases). Both native countries are underdeveloped, but the two immigrant groups have vastly different socioeconomic status in the US.
“That is, if one has to respect one’s superior/elder, you need someone to be superior to you for the system to work.”
I believe that the US isn’t as egalitarian as it pretends to be. Socioeconomic status matters a great deal. A couple of months ago, I walked upt to a cash register in a store to pay for an item. A tall, gray-haired, suited man in his fifties rushed over from another direction, thrust a couple of towels on the counter, and huffed, “This won’t take long” while opening his wallet. If I had been his peer or a very attractive woman, not a short, casually dressed bare-faced hag, I wonder if he would have cut in front of me so aggressively. This sort of thing doesn’t happen every day, but it illustrates how Americans do make judgments about others based on appearance and treat people according to rank. Korea is more hierarchical than the US, but we’re not as egalitarian as we fancy ourselves to be.
Then again, that could just be bad manners that this gray-haired man would have imposed on anyone without thinking.
Oh, he acted with forethought. His comment to me indicates so. Perhaps he would have cut in line in front an elegantly dressed middle-aged person, but for some reason, I doubt it.
One thing I remember when looking at some good books to by on Amazon.com. There was a book written by an Indian (from the subcontinent) where he talked about the world’s debt to America and the culture developed from the New World. The book was about the good things of America and the bad things.
Anyways, it was when he stepped out of a limo in his $20k suit and the door man to a hotel opened to door for him and shook his hand. The doorman looked him straight in the eye with no fear. In India, a highly stratified society at least from a religious, if not a sociological, standpoint, people know their place. A menial worker in a hotel will never look at a multimillionaire straight in the face. When they do look, they look with a knowledge that one is qualitatively better then the other. In many older societies, this is true, classes are real barriers and societies have or once did have . There is a feeling by the rich that they are qualitatively better then the majority of their fellow man. However, in a relatively new society, like America, he believed that even blue collar workers know that they millionaires may be quantitatively better, but they are not seen as qualitatively better.
The anecdote is interesting, WangKon. I won’t argue that American society is less stratified than some others like Korea or India or that our lack of a traditional inherited social class facilitates social mobility.
I do think the Indian man might have made too much of the difference in eye contact. In the US, direct eye contact is considered polite. Those of us raised by assimilated American parents recall clearly an angry mom or dad admonishing us, “Look at me when I’m speaking to you!”
We in the US do not have a permanent upperclass, but we do have a permanent underclass, and I believe there is a perception that members of the permanent underclass are qualitatively inferior.
Yeah… the damn Irish. No wait, I meant Eastern Europeans. Err… East Asians? …Mexicans? Ahh… no wait, I remember… It’s the Native Americans.
Who’s in your permanent underclass?
I noticed you left out of your list African-Americans. A majority of Americans with incomes below the poverty line are white, but African-Americans and Native Americans are overrepresented in proportion to their share of the US population.
Hispanics are overrepresented, too, but the rise in poverty among Hispanics correlates with the rise in illegal immigration, strongly suggesting that native-born Hispanics are able to climb the ladder.
I used to teach in an urban school district with children from multigenerational poverty families. There were equal numbers of black and white with a fair number of Hispanics whose parents had immigrated. The children follow in the footsteps of the parents and repeat the cycle of poverty. They have no role models because they live in poor neighborhoods with few adults holding regular skilled employment. The kids are getting worse because parenting skills weaken with each successive generation, according to veteran teachers with 25+ years of teaching experience.
#5,
It’s called ‘Social Darwinism’.
#13,
“However, in a relatively new society, like America, he believed that even blue collar workers know that they millionaires may be quantitatively better, but they are not seen as qualitatively better.”
Ignorant people like to think that “quantitatively superior” people (whether they are so education or money-wise) aren’t “qualitatively superior” to them because in their mind it allows them to be rude. In other words, don’t expect good service at McDonald’s if the cashier is a soon-to-be high school dropout with a chip on her shoulder.
#13…Not to say that blue collar workers are ignorant people. Just showing the other side of the coin.
Speaking of underclasses and Social Darwinism…anyone else reading Joe Bageant?
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/....._meet.html
Korea must become more multicultural. The lack of Muslim fundamentalists in this country is a disgrace.
#20,
Bah, it makes up for it with the tons of Christian fundamentalists.
#7 Bravo, well said!
Of course it would be good for Korean society to become more tolerant of non-Koreans in general and mixed-race citizens in particular.
I wondered about two parts of the report, though. The report urged Koreans “to recognize the multi-ethnic character of contemporary Korean society”.
I think that is wrong. The official figure for foreigner residents in Korea is 530,000. How many of these are ethnic Koreans, from the US or China? And let’s remember these are not Korean citizens, and many stay only a short time, so whether they are members of Korean society is arguable. Anyhow, let’s guess there are about 300,000 illegal foreign workers. And add on maybe 300,000 mixed-ethnicity children.
We are looking at a million people, in a society of 48 million. That gives you 2% non-ethnic Korean, 98% ethnic Korean. Again: “to recognize the multi-ethnic character of contemporary Korean society”
BULLSHIT, I say.
That is asking Koreans to reject factual reality and what is really out there when they open their doors, and “recognize” a particular dogma of multiculturalism currently in vogue in the west.
My second objection is to this part of the report:
“It also remained concerned that migrant workers could only be granted non-renewable, 3-year contracts”.
To forestall straw man attacks, I absolutely believe migrant/foreign workers should receive equitable pay, respectful treatment, a safe workplace and the protection of labour laws.
But that is not what the quote above is about. This basically says Korea should open its doors willy nilly to immigration from anyone who wants to come, and let them stay forever. Korea, with the fourth highest-population density in the world.
BULLSHIT, I say.
I get frustrated about this in debates on immigration back home, too. When did it become a ‘right’ to enter a country and stay forever? When did states’ sovereignty disappear under UN and assorted lefty tsk-tsk’ing? (And I consider myself a working-class lefty, by the way. No sympathy at all for identity-politics lefties, who sneer at the working class every chance they get, but that’s another rant.) When and how did Korea agree to the responsibility (according the UN) to provide permanent jobs to the citizens of Bangladesh, etc.?
Koreans should cherry-pick this report, implement the real issues of actual treatment of non-ethnic Koreans while rejecting multicultural dogma such as the above.
Well said, Hugh!!
The more I see what’s happening in the US, UK, etc, the more I think the Koreans have the right idea.
This whole homogeneous race thing smacks of a large dose of hooey. Am I to assume that after thousands of years of wars, occupations and forays that the invading and incursional tribes suspended their usual R and P solely in Korea? It would be unprecedented.
I look around at the people here and I see an extraordinary variety of facial features, body types, predisposition to melenin in the skin and I wonder. These groups which have variously stayed on this peninsula never engaged in midnight rendevous out of some sort of respect for the Han race?
Hasn’t it been said that there is a bit of myth to this generated by the government for manipulative purposes?
The xenophobia which undoubtedly exists here as elsewhere, but whose motivation seems to lie in the perception of exceptional blood consistency, would be an incredible case of irony if my suspisions are correct. It would be akin to some sea creature having a fear of water.
#6
I live in a place where people are ranked according to their nationalities, and their salaries are based on this ranking. For instance, for the same nursing position a Canadian might draw $3500, a South African $2000, a Korean $ 1500, a Filippina $1000 and Indian $500 and a Bangladeshi $250. Not Confucian here, just a superiority complex based on economic performance.
I’m certainly oversimplifying. People have an aversion to change everywhere. Strange sounds, smells, ways of doing things all piss people off. They like the way things are or were.
But still. I remember that commercial; Lady with fingers immersed in green ooze — “Isn’t dish washing detergent harsh on my skin.” Beautician — “You’re soaking in it.”
# 21,
Yeah, but with Christian fundamentalists I generally don’t fear for my personal safety (unless I work in an abortion clinic…).
@26
South Africa isn’t better off than Korea economically. Sounds like plain old racism rather than a superiority complex based on economic performance.
Racism is alive and well here, unfortunately, but a nation’s economic performance figures in significantly. Sudanese, who are considered Arab, tend to do better the Peshtun Pakistanis, who are not. Koreans are a relatively unknown group here, but this is becoming less and less as the days role on. Anyway you figure it, it sucks.
/me grabs towels, flings them back, proceeds with checkout.
Actually happened to me, in Korea, with an ajumma, and I seem to remember there were eggs and other breakable items. /Shrugs