Or so lectures “gyopohood” ideologue Alex Lee. Because he likes to lecture. Everyone.
-
English Books on Korea... and More!
-
Visit My Brother's Film Review Site
Or so lectures “gyopohood” ideologue Alex Lee. Because he likes to lecture. Everyone.
59 Comments
Alex might be heartened to know that not all Korean-Americans are apatheics. About half the members of Republicans-Abroad are Korean-Americans. On second thought, that might not hearten him at all.
If he took himself more seriously, he might reach Nerdvana and become Al Gore.
What a tool.
One “wonders” if “Alex” is quoting real “people” in his article or just putting “words” in their racist white “mouths.”
WAH!!!!! WAH!!!!! WAH!!!!! Two Wongs make it white? WAH!!!! God, some people need to develop a thicker skin. Seeing that the shirt was a big hit in the Asian-American community, Alex should look in the mirror and recognize that he is a tool with no sense of humor.
Alex is a young gae who clearly doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He doesn’t articulate any of my views or the views of any other sane (and mentally mature) gyopos that I know of…
I would not be so hard on him. I remember being young and idealistic (although in a very different way), which led me into youthful indiscretions like working for the Alan Keyes for President campaign.
Maintain the rage Alex!
#5,
I actually thought that Abercrombie shirt WAS offensive. What I have against Alex is that he’s got no focus in his rants and he comes off as a confused young kid who’s Korea Times articles may actually confused some people as actually being representative with what other Korean Americans may think.
Too much whine with the cheese. Oh wait….there was plenty of cheese with that too. Ah, to be young, dumb and full of c*m again.
Alex Lee does kyopo like Erik Satie does isolated and lonely. Ie, very well! (Albeit it’s Lee’s inner kyopo, the only one that matters as far as I’m concerned…)
ps: I laughed at the t-shirt.
I’m Korean-Am., so I didn’t like the shirt. It is kinda funny…just a little. But I also have a sense of humor too.
The larger point he was addressing was the fact that there is a dearth of Korean-american presence in politics, the public arena, etc. The fact is, no shirt would ever be printed with Blacks doing…well, anything. Blacks refuse to tolerate racism and stereotypes while many asians don’t. (This doesn’t mean all KAMs should be so involved though…I usually shrug racism off myself, and don’t write an article about it) I’m just saying this is what he’s upset about.
That said, I also remember when that shirt came out. And the response by A&F was extremely disingenuous. That response actually made me more angry than the stupid shirt.
#5. I think your attitude is just a tad bit dismissive. It’s legitimate to complain of those types of pathetic caricatures of your own race. One should never feel forced to compromise themselves for other’s perceived humor, or just “laugh it off”.
Come on everyone…I was just reading in an earlier thread how many of the white men on this blog feel its unfair how Korean society doesn’t give you as many opportunities, doesn’t take you seriously or relegates you to being ESL teaching machines. I’ve felt it too: It sucks when people condescend to you and tell you what you should feel.
I know this blog hates Alex Lee, so I post this under hesitation…
who da f**k is alex lee???
Lee’s reasoning is questionable. When some caucasians do something about which he disapproves, he’s said that this is because of some misbegotten attitude connected with ‘white priviledge’. No mention was made to the nationality or ethnicity of the individuals in question - only the fact that they were white.
Yet when he writes that
the problem is somehow only limited to a subgroup of Asians. Why is this not a problem which ought to concern all Asians? Why aren’t all gyopo - or, taken more correctly from Lee’s anecdote, why aren’t all Koreans or all Asians - being taken to task?
Please keep in mind that I don’t think that we should do that. I simply think that Lee finds it easy to paint caucasians with the same broad brush, but hesitates to do the job he seems to have started with Asians.
And that makes him gutless as well as wrong.
Sounds like an affirmative can-do slogan to me. Wongs do it right.
Actually, I see some of Alex’s viewpoints. But God forbid I should write which ones before upsetting more of the Western expats on this thread. Many of your reactions to his article are similar to my (and other kyopos’) reactions when I read many of your comments on this blog about Koreans and Korean-Americans.
BTW, Richardson, who are you to slam Al Gore? Are you still in denial about global warming?
The whole A&F case was brought up during the first ever lecture of an introductory course of an Asian American Studies course I took when I was in college.
I remember I spoke out in front of ~300 students in the middle of the lecture, asking the professor, “Who the F*** cares? Black people went through slavery. It’s a F***in t-shirt. Why are Asians such pansies?”
Now, a few years later, I kind of see it as offensive. Maybe it was all those Asian American Studies courses I took that made me more sensitive to subtle (or in the A&F case, blatant) racism. Who knows.
When it boils down to it, Asian Americans may not seem socially aware because they aren’t facing many hardships. It takes tragic events such as the VA Tech shootings or the L.A. Riots for people to talk about social issues - which can be viewed in both ways: tragic or fortunate.
Maybe we really DON’T have it that bad. I honestly don’t think it is possible to have an equal society in this world full of so many different races, until all the races eventually blend. America is the closest thing to equality there is on this planet, if you compare how minorities are treated in other countries.
# 14,
Brings up an interesting point that I alluded to before in that Alex has so little focus in his article and his thoughts are everywhere. It’s just a tirade of little and big complains dished off in a very disorganized manner that does more to discredit your ideas and your reasoning ability.
In cases like this, it’s better to just not say anything, get your ducks in a row and make a coherent case instead of a tangled rant.
Alex may take the above recommendation and brush it off by saying, “at least I’m do something…” but that’s not the point. Sometimes, if you don’t do “something” the right way, you end up shooting what you profess to care about straight in the foot. Case in point, do you realize how many uninformed, disorganized, illogical, but passionate arguments were in the Koguryo wikipedia talk page from Korean Americans? So many so that Salon.com devoted a special article to it, and there were not many kind words written about them or Koreans for that matter. Had those idiots keep pressing, the Koguryo article would of ended up like the Dokdo article.
I have to agree with #18. On their own, none of Alex’s points are “wrong,” but they are not supported. I don’t know if he’s a college graduate, but he could obviously use some writing/debate classes. After a professor and other classmates ripped him several new holes for sloppy thinking and presentation he would probably shape up.
I mean he throws out liberal buzz-words to which he has obviously not given serious thought to. And I’m pretty sure he has the definition of maquiladora wrong. This article is just sloppy all the way around and KT should be ashamed it published such poor quality drivel.
# 19,
AGREED.
I wonder if the Koreatimes publishes unsolicited “contributor” or “editorial” responses like newspapers here do…
…anyone have experience with this?
#12….WELL-SAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
well, the expat can whine about korean racism ad nauseum but if a korean complains about racism in america? well, we get this:
‘WAH!!!!! WAH!!!!! WAH!!!!! Two Wongs make it white? WAH!!!! God, some people need to develop a thicker skin. Seeing that the shirt was a big hit in the Asian-American community, Alex should look in the mirror and recognize that he is a tool with no sense of humor.’
expat, if you want to be taken seriously, then you gotta practice what you preach. capeesh?
To take it further…
What if the shirt said something like “Two Jacksons will take your Franklins” or “Two Moskovitzs will call their lawyers” or “Two Rodrigos will mow your lawn”…?
If something happens involving a foreigner in Korea, whether its real or imagined, you can bet that a 100 expats will be furiously blogging about it the next day. So there is a bit of a pot-meet- kettle feeling to the snide remarks.
Alex Lee’s right. I agree. His peers need to be more “socially aware”, or, as I would put it, have a keener situational awareness of the racial-socio-political realities of your environment. In America, the racial dialogue consists of Black versus White versus Latino. As an Asian-American, you need to know how to deal with all three mofos.
I also agree that the T-shirt slogan is a supremely petty and foolish example as a case study of social justice.
Against the Wall of Jews the gyopos always lose.
Hoping young Lee tackles that one next.
Give me a break #25! Korean nutizens are far worse than expat bloggers could ever hope to be. Korean anti-American and general xenophobia exhibited on line and in the mass media pales in comparison to a few angry expats blogging away about the hypocisy in Korea.
Foreigners are the barbarians remember? Koreans are morally, spiritually and academically above most others, especially non-Asians. Therefore, it is for us foreigners to assume that because of your superiority, Korean nationals would not say and do the things they do. Because we are barbarians, we can not help but act barbaric. Koreans are not barbaric so when they act that way well… Koreans are not supposed to be hypocritical like use barbarians.
We are simply holding Koreans up to their own standards. You have to understand us and our situation!
James Layne (#13) asks:
“who da f**k is alex lee???”
I don’t know, but he sounds sort of like the adverb “actually,” so you might want to see if he’s one of the parts of speech.
Speaking of grammar, Mr. Layne…
Jeffery “Language Cop” Hodges
* * *
I can see young Alex’s point. As a Norskie-Yank myself, it cuts to the core every time I haff to read an Ole and Lena yoke. Uff da!
#2: Sorry for the O/T, but don’t knock Al Gore, the high prophet of Global Warmenism. In 50 years, he will be recognized as the greatest charlatan of all time. He pulls in $120K a speech and people can’t get enough of him. His numerous residences use the electricity of a small town. He flies around in G-5s. Not only does he preach the use of carbon offsets, but he owns an actual carbon offset trading company from which he “buys” his offsets. He’s laughing all the way to the bank and he has half the world hoodwinked. Respect.
Breaktrack wrote:
“We are simply holding Koreans up to their own standards.”
Alex Kim is an American…..who happens to be of Korean descent, oh closed-minded expat.
Wedge, provide evidence that Al Gore is a charlatan and that he abuses the environment, as you imply.
Breaktrack wrote:
“Korean nutizens are far worse than expat bloggers could ever hope to be. Korean anti-American and general xenophobia exhibited on line and in the mass media pales in comparison to a few angry expats blogging away about the hypocisy in Korea.”
I disagree with your first statement. You and others have your opinion, while I, and Netizen Kim and others, disagree.
And I disagree with your second comment, also.
This THREAD is proof enough that the opinions as to who bitches more between white Western expats or native Koreans is divided between 1) white Western expats and 2) Korean-Americans and Korean-Canadians. So typical.
Go Alex Lee! Keep it up, bro! Ignore the whiny white Western expats who bitch ten times worse than they accuse you of doing!
Is that observation based on reading netizen commentary and the Korean mass media on your own, Breaktrack? Or from what you’ve been told or read?
Of course, I might ask the same of JK, too. I ask simply out of curiosity.
Fight tha power!
LOL
You heard dogbertt, Alex. More support for ya! Even David Duke’s apprentice is supporting you!
LOL @ the uppity kyopo.
But, lest you think all us whitefolk think alike, yes, the A+F shirt was RACIST.
Have a nice weekend in your fantasy world there, jk.
Don’t categorize yourself with all white people by saying “us whitefolk.” I’m talking about YOU, dogbertt. Quit hiding behind the group mentality that you so accuse Koreans of doing.
You’ve even had at least one other non-Korean expat say you were a racist.
“Go Alex Lee! Keep it up, bro!”
Just when I think Lee can’t get any lower, he writes this and TOTALLY REDEEMS HIMSELF.
(No. Let’s not encourage Lee. He writes like shit and states nothing most don’t already know.)
abcdefg,
You got your opinion. I have mine. And going by the comments of others, some support your opinion…and some support mine.
End of story.
What did you want? “Alex Lee…bad; Western expat complaints about Koreans….good”?
Until JK can show evidence of “whiney expats” crashing International Olympic Committee web sites with invective and death threats over perceived slights (or gaining widespread notoriety for nationalistic abuse of wikipedia, invalidation of on-line polling or creating a brown-shirt group like VANK) I’d say giving gold, silver and bronze to Korea’s netizens is a complete no-brainer. There’s a formidable Korean track record behind this “opinion”.
Alex Lee is poor writer and simply not learned or logical enough to pull off what he’s trying to do. Some of the issues that exercise him are valid and deserve serious treatment by someone.
#31 (Sorry, Marmot): Here’s a good link.
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/.....l_warming/
Actually, this guy is more optimistic. He thinks The Goracle will be outed in one or two decades.
Let’s see….how many native Koreans living in Korea are there? How many Western expats living in Korea are there? Not that many in comparison.
A more fair comparison would be Korean netizens versus all the netizen citizens of the home countries of these Western expats. Compare THEIR Internet activities.
But any Western expat who doesn’t see how angry, bitter, and oftentimes vindictive many Western expats living in Korea can be online is living in another world.
Oh wait a minute….they are. Their own.
“A more fair comparison would be Korean netizens versus all the netizen citizens of the home countries of these Western expats. Compare THEIR Internet activities.
This supports my point, not yours. Thanks.
Have Canadians crashed Olympic web sites with hate mail? Have even Chinese nationalists (probably the closest to Korean netizens in ferocity) done that?
What do you want me to say? I, and I’m sure many other flesh-colored people as well, found the A+F shirt RACIST.
Simmer down, now, little fella.
Have Canadians (and Americans) killed expats and immigrants living in their countries? In what countries, Canada, the US, or Korea, have minorities suffered more physical abuse over the years? And don’t you dare say Korea.
Exactly WHO are the whiners now?
Hey folks. I was simply being sarcastic for the most part that’s all. Lately, there has been a lot of foreigner trashing going on in the media and by nutizens the last couple of years. Remeber nutizen reation to the English Spectrum thing? How about the white supremist thing during thing World Cup. Please correct me if I am wrong about this. If I am wrong I apologize. It seems that a lot (not all)Koreans can trash talk foreigners and it’s patriotism, but if a foreigner says anything negative about Koreans look out! Again, correct me if I am wrong. And again, if I am imagining this or I am wrong I apologize.
Breaktrack,
Have your opinions…..but look at the beginnings of this thread and see where the anger came from. No Koreans that I know of were proactively trash talking foreigners on this thread.
I was laboring under the distinct impression — and my comments, as well as the ones I was responding to, demonstrate this — that comparitive netizen civility (or lack thereof) was the topic being here.
I guess I should appreciate the fact that you didn’t introduce Hitler and his ethnicity at this stage.
Non sequitur aside, I have to ask what you hoped to achieve by comparing the record of two multi-ethnic, spawn-of-empire countries built on centuries of immigration and Korea, with its completely different history.
being discussed here
Of course JK you are correct. Guess I jumped the gun. I apologize for this to everyone. One thing I shouldn’t have done is assume that because there are less foreigners in Korea than Koreans, Koreans made more anti-American and/or anti-foreigner complaints on line. In general I am wrong about this and some other things, and will make no excuses. I will be man enough to admit this. I hope the same will be done by others towards others as well. In some ways, I can somewhat sympathize with Alex Lee and others like him. Half of me comes from a minority group that has been conquered and oppressed for over 500 years after all. It should be remembered that hypocrisy is an ugly, vile thing.
Yo Wedge,
http://www.environmentaldefens.....tagID=1011
Slim,
The attitudes of many netizens (be they Korean or Western expats) often reflect their country’s history and subtle/blatant racism.
The attitudes of MANY Western expats online, in terms of what they say about Koreans (which often comes across as whining about Koreans even though many of them decry whining by ethnic minorities in their OWN home countries), is a reflection of all the racism that did occur (and is occurring) in their own countries.
To be honest, I don’t read Korean language blogs that much, so I admit I have less exposure to what Korean netizens are saying than perhaps you do. I read mainly English-speaking ones, and on such blogs, the lines are always drawn down racial lines. I mean just look at this thread and see the comments by white Western expats versus people of Korean descent! Based on what I’VE read, many of the Western expat commenters on this blog (at least on threads involving Alex Lee) DO seem closed-minded and inconsistent (”we can bitch about Koreans but don’t you dare bitch about us Western white people”).
From MY perspective, the white Western expats go overboard more. But that’s just my perspective. I, and other people of Korean descent, just get a little tired of the complaining about Koreans by white Western expats (which in and of itself is not bad) who then respond angrily to anything they perceive to be a criticism of white people by someone of Korean descent. It’s like SOME negative generalizations (like for Koreans or people of Korean descent) are okay, but others (like for white Westerners by a Korean or someone of Korean descent) are not.
And some of those who point this out ALSO get attacked. But who cares? I stated my opinion and will respond again if necessary.
But the lines drawn on this thread are interesting. And sad.
dogbert wrote:
“Simmer down, now, little fella.”
Little fella? Uh, okay, if you say so, BIG fella. What are you, some dude with a 40″ beer belly or something? Maybe you should workout. I mean, even David Duke stays fit.
Didn’t you write that you are 5′7″, 140 lbs?
Oh, taller than 5′7″, pal. And I WISH I was 140 lbs. You?
Alex Lee’s latest muddleheaded piece is bitching about Korean Americans, not about whites. And even on those terms, he applies to his anonymous Korean-American subject a ridiculous and meaningless measure of social awareness — reaction to A & F after a lame and tastless idea for a tee shirt. For all we know, that guy hadn’t heard of the Two Wongs tee-shirt incident he was being taken to task for. Alex Lee must not be aware of the brave folks of LiNK or a myriad KA church groups who do work to help North Korean refugees, to name one socially just cause.
The toughest criticism on this thread came from people who identify themselves as ethnic Korean (wangkon, abcde….) Marmot’s approach was dismissive, based on a history with Alex Lee. Andy was reasonably sympathetic. I agree with corpy that Alex Lee is a “tool” although I expressed myself differently and in fact reconized that there were valid points that Alex Lee was groping for. Not sure who tmc is up there, but his was the only comment that could remotely be called angry.
I’m a bit surprised that JK now would lament a tendency for comments to cleave along ethnic lines, when 1) It plainly ain’t true in this particular thread and 2) JK himself has by my recollection a nearly 100% “pro-Korea” commenting record, whatever the argument or the topic at hand.
I see. “Plainly ain’t true”? There was Andru in #12, Pawi in #23, Netizen Kim in #25…..
And white expats with two people of Korean descent (who to their credit, aren’t known that much for whining about how native Koreans treat them).
May not be black and white (or yellow and white), but it wasn’t absolutely nothing either.
“100% pro-Korea”? Define that. If you mean I am anti-over-the-board-and-excessive-bashing-of-Koreans, which is not the same as being “pro-Korea”, then I am guilty as charged…but as I said, they are not the same thing.
What a pointless discussion - is it worthwhile to try to measure which gruop is more sensitive or discriminated against - Korean/Americans vs. Expats in Korea? If anything, these two groups have a strong mutual interest in opposing discrimination, and should be able to understand each other, having lived in both societies. When I was back in the US, I attended Korean services at a church nearby and made friends with Koreans in my neighborhood - it was a natural thing to do after living in Korea for a while. I heard some stupid white kid say a snide remark about the Koreans in the congregation and it really pissed me off. There are plenty of ignorant, uneducated racists in this world, and they need to be held in check, regardless of where they live.