Bonojit Hussain Gets 1 Million Won Man Fined in Bonojit Hussain Case

@6 – I think you could if the court found it to be an “insult” under the Korean Criminal Code (제 311조 (모욕재)). That’s all that’s happened here despite all the hub-bub.

I’m not sure I like the idea of having a law against calling someone an S.O.B. (scratch that, I don’t like it), but if it is actionable then to argue calling someone an Arab/Black S.O.B. couldn’t be punished because Korea doesn’t have any laws punishing racial discrimination doesn’t make much sense. . .

While each of the many news reports on the incident included slightly different details, most of them focused on the alleged “hate speech” uttered by Park and the failure of Korean law to punish it. As Yonhap put it:

After the incident, Hussain decided to take action against the man by filing a racial discrimination suit. He soon found, however, that no explicit law against racial discrimination exists in South Korea and thus the charge could not be applied. “When I found out there is no such category on racial discriminatory practices, I thought that racism is more serious and deeper rooted in the society,” Hussain said. “Without proper law, foreigners don’t have many options but to put up with such situations.”

However, while it is true that a specific “racial discrimination suit” was unavailable, we’ve seen that Park’s actions did not go as unpunished as the many reports implied. Park was charged “with criminal insult [mo yuk chae] on the theory that racist language can constitute such” and if convicted, “he could face up to one year in prison or a fine of 2 million won ($1,640).” [link]. (That “모욕” would be art. 311 mentioned above). And now we have a decision and Park’s been “fined 1 million won ($855) Friday for insulting” the professor.

So while the Hussain case has been put forward to show that “Korean law does not recognize racial discrimination as a crime,” (“한국 법체계가 인종차별을 범죄로 인정하지 않아”) there is a strong argument that it demonstrates the opposite proposition. Indeed, not only was Park indicted, fined and roundly condemned in the press, but as a result of the case two members of the National Assembly announced independent plans to introduce bills with further measures to ensure against discrimination on the basis of race or nationality. (If it happens this would be the third try.)

That is a big result for someone being racially insulted and way beyond what would happen in most countries, despite the Korean press’s naive assumptions otherwise. (I saw one report that mentioned the “US Civil Rights Act of 1964″ as prohibiting such a racial act. That’s certainly not the case.)

I think what happened here is that Korean prosecutors struggled to use the laws on the books to punish something they wanted to punish, such an approach is hardly unusual and (in my opinion) praiseworthy. I see this case as similar to a US race case from the 6os. (Fisher v. Carrousel Motor Hotel 424 S.W.2d 627 (Tex. 1967)). A NASA rocket scientist who happened to be Black was attending a convention in Texas. While at dinner with his colleagues the manager of the restaurant came up and shouted that a “Negro could not be served” and snatched the plate out of his hands. Even though the whole case was about that racial insult, it wasn’t actionable since you couldn’t punish it just as speech (or ‘insult’) – however hateful. Instead the case brought on a physical battery charge even though the manager never touched the scientist (just the plate) and the scientist said he was never in fear and suffered absolutely no physical pain. In the end the scientist won his “battery case” got a nominal recovery (like Hussain), but the point of course was never the money or the “battery.”

I think something similar is going on here, it’s not about the “insult” per se. Hussain said “his goal was to make this issue public to spark a national debate on racial acceptance and tolerance.” [link] That seemed to have worked. It’s a shame that Hussain gets so much flack for bringing what appears to be minor issue when he admits as much himself. He mentions that in conversations with migrant workers they told him: “This is nothing. The media are taking it up because you are a research professor. We face much more serious situations.” [link] He agrees and says he brought the case for others who wouldn’t be able to. He said: “Most of the time, they face much worse situations than mine. They cannot complain for two reasons. One, they might lose their jobs. Two, (they think) ‘even if I go to the police, nothing will happen.’”

If the Hussain case is to be criticized for anything then I suggest it is for pretty much ignoring Ms. Han Ji-seon, who in addition to being insulted as bad or worse than Hussain (she was called a whore) was kicked and hit in the chest in the bargain. (Some limited discussion in womennews.co.kr). I would argue that as important as it is for Korea to have a dialog on race, it shouldn’t take precedence over the issue of violence to Korean women. I suspect Prof. Hussain would agree.

“모욕재” >> 모욕죄

Very interesting article from Prof.Hussain today. It’s definitely worth a read. Here’s an excerpt:

“. . . I believe that the extensive media coverage definitely had a considerably positive impact on Korean society. It is imperative for any society in order to address emerging issues of social conflict to discuss and deliberate them. The extensive media coverage has precisely prompted Korean society to do just that – to talk about racism – whether they agree or disagree is of a secondary importance. In recent months racism has been discussed in Korean society in way it has never been before.

However, the media can’t be absolved of portraying only part of the story. The male dominated Korean media utterly failed to show the ugly underbelly of sexism and gendered discrimination of society, which was so blatantly present in our case. Han Ji-sun was not only the victim of sexist comments, but she was also physically assaulted.

Moreover, Han was my co-complainant in both the court case and the petition to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. Like numerous other women-related issues, the mainstream Korean media conveniently pushed her story into oblivion.

Before being kicked, Han was called a “Joseon Bitch” and was asked “how does it feel to date a black bastard?” This is an isolated incident. I have met numerous Korean women who had similar experiences while being with non-Korean men.

In fact after our incident was covered by the media, I received many e-mails and letters from anonymous Korean women who are married to “other” Asians. They invariably reported the same story: When they got married, they were called “prostitutes” – sometimes even by Korean family members. Considering the seriousness and frequency of violence against Korean women in these kinds of incidents, the mainstream Korean media deserves to be strongly condemned for having failed in bringing forth the sexist dimension of the whole incident on the bus.

But one of the interesting things arising out of this case has been the response from the expat community in Korea, especially some Western ones . . .”

Read the whole article here:

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/12/02/200912020049.asp