Honestly, I read crap like this, and it makes me glad I live here and not in the United States:
The African American community in Dallas has been protesting a gas station run by a Korean-born U.S. citizen in a predominately black neighborhood in South Dallas for over a month, taking issue with what they claim were racial remarks by the station’s owner.
[...]
According to the ministry and the local Korean community, the conflict occurred on Dec. 9, 2011, between the Korean-American owner of a gas station in southern Dallas and a black customer over the sale of gas.The customer, complaining that the price of gas at the station was much higher than at other stations, demanded he be able to buy gas by smaller amounts than what the owner set as the minimum sales unit. The owner refused and told him to go to another station, to which the customer responded by telling the owner to go back to his country. The owner responded by telling the customer to go back to Africa.
Lovely. From the Korea Herald:
A Park, who runs a gas station and a convenience store in the predominantly black South Dallas, seems to have somewhat antagonized poorer customers for his refusal to accept debit cards for transactions below $10 and relatively high gas prices. An argument occurred on Dec. 9 between Park and Jeffrey Muhammad, a minister at the local Nation of Islam mosque, when the latter wanted to use his debit card for a $5 purchase.
An online news report by an Asian-American activist group said Muhammad admitted he told the gas station owner to “go back to China.” But the black minister claimed he said so only after the Asian-American owner told him that he was a slave and should go back to Africa. Park asserted Muhammad made the slurs to him first, calling him a “Chinaman.”
Skirmishes took place incessantly around Park’s gas station as the local NAACP joined the Nation of Islam believers in their demonstrations to prevent African-American customers from patronizing the place. Injuries resulted when Dallas police tried to disperse demonstrators and part of them went to City Hall to protest. Police took special precautionary measures on Martin Luther King Day, Jan. 16, to ensure no violent incident by parade participants.
Now we have talk of boycotts of Asian-owned businesses, and the Korean Consulate in Houston sending the consul general to Dallas where, according to the Foreign Ministry, “we (the ministry) made emergent contact with the Korean community, requesting that its members restrain from an emotional response and examine their relationship with other communities.” This latter move I find rather disturbing—having foreign diplomats get involved makes the Dallas Korean community appear even more “foreign” than they probably already feel, and it’s not the Foreign Ministry’s job to tell American citizens what to do or lecture them about “examining their relationship with other communities.” Plus, not to put too fine a point on this, but it’s easy for the Foreign Ministry to talk when they’re not the ones running small businesses in the ‘hood.
I rather liked Jim Schutze’s take on this at the Dallas Observer’s blogs. Sure, some Koreans might have to work on their racial attitudes, he says, but on the other hand:
People don’t get business opportunities from politics. That’s not how it works. You get a business by wading in yourself and making it happen against all odds. How much balls does it take for a Korean immigrant who barely speaks English to set up shop in an area where there are gun-toters and crack-heads prowling the alleys? A lot of balls, that’s how much.
That’s how somebody creates wealth for himself when he has nothing, is not welcomed by anyone and has no connections in high places. He goes in and digs it out of the bitter earth with his own two hands. To do that, yeah, you have to be very tough. It’s a job for John Wayne.
(HT to jkitchstk)
{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }
Back in DC, there was one citgo station that I went to where the owner was a dick. I just never went there again. Is this the only gas station for miles? Just go somewhere else.
He better have more than balls of steel – he probably has some cold, hard steel, too. I cannot imagine having to work in that environment, but every major city has one, and you can bet you’ll almost always find immigrants working in the stores. In San Diego, a lot of Chaldeans had the shitty job of merchant work in the hood.
God knows how many times I’ve had this exchange:
“Where are you from?”
“I was born in California but I grew up in New York.” (knowing what they want me to say)*
“No really… where are you from?”*
*REPEAT 3 times or so
After awhile, I got tired of that shit and would ask a black guy what part of Africa HE was from or a white guy if he’s a Pollack. And THEY get pissed at me.
But of course, it’s okay for a “real” americans to be asking these questions bc we chinks can never assimilate in their eyes.
These ignorant aholes think that whether asians are citizens or not, we are not real americans so they have the right to tell us to go back to China. But when the tables are turned, they play the race card.
If they are so worried about outsiders coming into their shitty crackhead neighborhood and taking over what’s rightfully theirs, then stop shooting each other over a pair of Nikes and start your own goddam business. But of course that shit will never happen.
I think the article omitted one crucial part. This is quite understandable, as the editor made an editorial decision to save some space for Kardashian related news. Anyway, I managed to find the missing part and it goes like this.
“While the customer and entrepreneur were telling each other to go back whence he came from, a certain Mexican gentleman and his native American friend, who just happened to pass by, were heard to say in one voice:
“Why don’t you both get the ____ out from our land and take those Caucasians with you?”"
O, the joys of multiculturalism.
I agree that Korean Foreign Ministry involvement is inappropriate – heck, in the linked article, they themselves agree. I’ll go one step further: any greater involvement on their part would simply be an abuse of their resources. They shouldn’t have gotten involed at all, not even to make a statement. In case they’ve forgotten, they’re not the Chamber of Commerce.
re#3 What is a Pollack?
(Urban dictionary says it means to vomit profusely).
maybe Pollack=Pole?
Never heard of a Pollack joke? I guess they were the butt of jokes when I was growing up. I wonder who took over these days. A Canadian friend told me he’s heard all the jokes except one has to replace “Pollack” with “Newfie”.
How do you confuse a Pollack? Put him in a round room and tell him to sit in the corner.
Milosz Jr. comes home from school, wondering why no one’s there. He checks all rooms–kitchen, living room, his sister’s room, and finally his parents’ bedroom where he walks in on his parents having sex. He shrieks in disgust then runs away. A while later his parents are like, “Hey, where’s Milosz? He should be back from school by now.” They check the entire apartment; Junior is nowhere to be found. Finally the mom says, “Why don’t you go check upstairs, maybe grandma made some lunch for him?” So dad walks in on Junior humping his grandma. He’s like, “Milosz, what the fuck are you doing?!” And Milosz responds: “You fuck my mother, I fuck your mother!”
And yes, Pollack is a pejorative word for a Pole. But I dont think it’s at the level where if you call a Pole a Pollack, he’d shoot you.
I agree the South Korean consul-general has no dog in this fight. I also think, that a businessman who hasn’t earned the respect of his customers is a bad businessperson – period. In another Schutze blog, the owner admits his reaction to crime and debit card problems was to get tough, There is the issue of charging more for gas than other service stations. There is also the issue of barriers to entry, that African-Americans in the community had no money to start a business. These two issues sound like the unintended consequences of local regulations and ordinances. Customers don’t respect a businessperson who seems selfish, but this Korean-American might be the victim of a situation where he cannot make his own decisions to serve customers because local or state laws force him to be the fall guy. Maybe the African-American community knew this, too, but that this Korean-American family was able to surmount the barriers to entry and these accounting issues because this guy is backed by family savings. Still, this owner decided to do business here, and he needs to become part of the community, not a target.
Polack (one l)
It’s pollock, not pollak, you klutz.
Now go back to your home country and learns proper inglish befor you comes to my cuntry and talks shyte about my peeps.
DLB
What’s the definition of a Polish hostage?
A guy who threatens to kill himself if he doesn’t get what he wants.
DLB
#11 – if the business treats the customer poorly, then the customer should go elsewhere. Is that the only gas station in the city? No. Frankly, I can exactly understand where that business owner is coming from, after having to face the daily crap (mixture of racial and criminal behaviors) that gets thrown his way. He probably snapped. But partly his fault for doing business in an environment that’s fit for human beings to make a living in.
correction: “But partly his fault for doing business in an environment that’s NOT fit for human beings to be making a living.”
gas prices at each station are determined by their distributors and not the owners of the stations. they merely get something like 5-10 cents per each gallon they sell. also, every merchant who accepts credit/debit cards has to pay fees – something like 35 to 50 cents per each transaction – to these card processing companies. so, if this black guy wanted to charge $10 on his credit/debit card, that would’ve wiped out the owner’s measly commission and then some.
anyway, another win for multiculti!
Another LA-Riot-like coming soon?
Pollock is the white fish that goes into fish sticks etc, poor man’s haddock.
Opps, looks like it can be polock or polack. The things one learns on MH!
Q: What is long and hard that a Polish bride gets on her wedding
night?
A: A new last name.
DLB
Honestly no, think I heard one about a sardine though.
Also heard many about polacks (poles), but fush are not common subject.
slim, folks on the peninsula can find an even more local example: 오댕. Most of the stuff locals here eat is whitefish (pollack, hake, whiting or the like) which has been harvested from cold-water fisheries off the Alaskan, Argentinean and Chilean coasts. And actually, while it’s not much of a taste treat in its processed form, some grades of whiting can be good eating. Whiting’s an underrated fish, simply because the industry targeted meatier species earlier on, and only turned to it when, simultaneously, cod fisheries declined and demand for kamaboko shot up.
I observed one of those black versus Chinese demonstrations for a few weeks back in 2002. An activist in DC accused a cook at a Chinese takeout of dropping a piece of chicken on the floor, kicking it around like a soccer ball with a coworker, then trying to cook it. (The cook’s story was that the customer didn’t see him toss it into a garbage can under the cooking instrument.)
I wrote about it as part of a book review of Jesse Lee Peterson’s book Scam: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America.
I like this story because I don’t have to take sides. I can feel superior to everybody involved.
#3 You might think you have a special claim to that, but even white people get asked what kind of ancestry they have. The difference is in the way the question is asked, but only because to the asker it seems much more obvious. White people are often asked stuff like “Where does your family come from?” or they’ll ask about a person’s last name and the country of origin.
You could answer the question one of two ways
1 – you could play the dummy and pretend you have no idea what they’re actually asking and start a whole thing over it and build up resentment
2 – you could instead with all your vast experience fielding this question realize what it is they’re actually getting at and say something like “I was born in California, but my family is originally from XX”
Cute, Seoulfinn, but unless those two men were descended from whichever tribe inhabited the Dallas area prior to the arrival of the Spanish colonizers, then they have no more historical claim to the land than interlopers of other races. The indigenous peoples of the Americas are as distinct as the peoples of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
I understand why the gas station owner requires a minimum purchase if paying by debit or credit since banks deduct a 4% charge from the merchant. If I recall correctly, businesses in Korea and China can get away with passing the 4% processing fee onto the customer, but in the US, it is unlawful although bills have been proposed to change that.
oh and as a comment on the story did no one notice this:
The customer was being a jerk first, and the owner just responded in kind. Now the african american community wants to be all up in arms because someone called them on their bs?
zero sympathy.
Hume’s Bastard #11, I understand your sentiment, but it is tough doing business in some neighborhoods. In the protest I observed back in 2002, the merchant was constantly dealing with threats from customers, customers trying to scam them–sometimes customers would even return four or five days later to complain that the chicken wasn’t fresh, some would eat most of the chicken in the parking lot, then return a few minutes later to complain that the chicken wasn’t fresh and demand a refund. Then, they would demand to have extra chicken in addition to the refund. There’s the occasional robbery. Then there are the businesses with plexiglass–one place I visited the owner had been shot and killed in a robbery. In another case, the owner’s daughter was shot at–yes, the plexiglass worked, they could have provided testimonials. So many places where the drunks would pee and shit in front of the stores, as a gift to the owners in the morning. Customers constantly grumbling about “sun up, sun down” Asians.
In November 2009, just as I was about to return to South Korea, I visited the home of a merchant who had been killed in a robbery. The sadness from the family was unbearable–in that particular case, the merchant (Latina) was supposedly loved by many, “gave back” to the community, but someone killed her anyway after she handed over the money in a robbery (as I recall, one of her relatives was at the store at the time but I may be confusing the cases).
One Chinese cop I saw dealing with folks in the heart of southeast DC was really rough. I asked him about it, he explained that as an Asian cop, he learned early on that when he was polite with people that folks saw it as a sign of weakness. He was putting himself in extra danger so he went hard with people, that he had learned who the troublemakers were, that he would be polite with first-timers of course. And some of the merchants said the same kind of thing. When they were polite they were seen as weak. So many tried, but Asian merchants are targeted and singled out in those neighborhoods. It doesn’t matter how nice they try to be–their presence is a reminder to the nationalists and “tribal worriers” that blacks haven’t taken advantage of opportunities, that someone who is probably an immigrant and probably can’t speak English has done what they couldn’t do–and that blacks with the skills to run such businesses have chosen to do so in other places.
Of course, there were the typical cultural misunderstandings. A bunch of other issues, such as the Korean merchants typically being much more educated than their customers and looking down on them. I agree with the person who talked about how difficult it is for someone who doesn’t speak English well to open and run a business in a foreign country. They probably looked down on them even before they arrived, and then the losers justified their prejudice.
Some of the merchants would hold block parties, give to the local community, tried to get to know the activists and leaders, especially after a rash of killings of Asian merchants in the early 1990s. I attended numerous meetings at which people were trying to improve relations between Asian merchants and the black community/leaders/activists, but a piece of chicken getting dropped on the floor was enough to trigger a boycott or protest.
This has nothing to do with multiculturalism. This has everything to do with an asshole being an asshole, and a business owner not reacting properly.
Like this guy, who actually got to keep his monthly payments after an appeal. Tragically, the nurse who was getting paid by Medicare to change his nappies has passed away.
I wonder how the boycott is doing, it’s been going on for more than 1 month, the Korean business owner must be hurting? A Korean vendor on the streets of Seoul refused to take 5.000 Won cash which I wanted to add to my T-Money. I guess it wasn’t worth her time and energy?
John Wiley Price ought to send a group down to Houston and protest against the Korean Foreign Ministry. The later of which would probably like for the Dallas Morning News to cover this story but they ain’t budging or at least I can’t find any reference to it anywhere. The Korean business owner probably doesn’t want to or couldn’t speak English to a newspaper reporter anyway. Does the Korean Foreign Ministry advise Korean business owners not to speak English to the media?
Three key words most of you culturally sensitive folks are leaving out of your points: “Nation of Islam”
These followers of “Our Deadbeat Of Perpetual Outrage” are **A**L**W**A**Y**S** causing trouble for any non-black, non-Muslim in their sphere of influence.
They are as tolerant of those unlike themselves as any story you ever read about the KKK and black Civil Rights activists caught out alone on a lonely road at night. They are not Rosa Parks sitting in a different part o the bus, they’re the folks who shoot the police, beat gays to death, sell drugs to raise money, and then lie and blame others. These people ought to be brought up on RICO Act charges for voter fraud, voter intimidation, and assorted other crimes; but the US AG is on apparently on their payroll.
Don’t believe me? Look at which politicians and political parties they support financially. And look at which politicians and political parties ignore or even facilitate their crimes.
Dallas race relations and politics are no more crooked or corrupt than any other large metro area. It’s always the same people attacking and killing Koreans and other Asians. “And it ain’t Whitey”…
nayaCasey and setnaffa, good posts.
You’re probably partly right, but most multiculturalism advocates don’t look at themselves in the mirror.
Looks like we’ve found out who Dallas’s Sharpton-like shakedown artist is, and it’s even better that he’s Nation of Islam affiliated. That’s a lot of victimhood to draw upon.
And nice way to make things worse, MOFAT, by meddling in domestic American affairs. They’ll never get the idea that American-ness is based on shared values, not shared genes.
nayaCasey: #28
Who are these “tribal worriers” to which you refer? I have seen you use that term before, so I guess it must be meaningul. How is a “tribal worrier” defined?
@3
While I agree with your sentiment expressed in your original comment, I’m confused as to why you’d think it would be appropriate to follow up a complaint about being the victim of ethnic discrimination by…telling “pollack” [sic] jokes.
I just read the linked Korea Herald article about this. The Herald writes: “Since the Rodney King riot in Los Angeles in 1994, racial tension has existed in the United States between the minority communities. ”
Actually, the Los Angeles riots (or “rebellion”, as Maxine Waters and Jesse Jackson called it) in response to the acquittals of the cops took place in 1992.
King has been arrested a number of times over the years so I suppose the Herald was referring to one of his many one-man riots by calling it the “Rodney King riot in Los Angeles in 1994″…
@ #28:
Firstly, I get your stories. I worked the midnight shifts on the weekend at a 7-11 and waiting tables through college. In under a year, my co-worker who worked weekdays at midnights, was robbed at gunpoint three times. During my own shifts, three people were killed up the street at the same location during three robberies. After graduation, I interned at a city jail. 7-11 didn’t overreact or “get tough”. It implemented new anti-robbery measures after every incident, and finally the robberies stopped. Unfortunately, those three people up the street then paid the price.
Language and culture probably play a role in Dallas. When I waited the tables in Annapolis, patrons told the owner nightly about prices and menus. At worst, the owner would buy them a drink or instruct the server to schmooze them a little more. They complained not to be critical, but just to show that they were important to the owner. But, they always came back. This Korean owner doesn’t get why customers complain. Business is more than just accounting – it’s about people.
And, if it’s a real thing, it might be more than culture or language, or even competence. In another blog, the customer complained that there was only one gas station in that area. To me this brings up those barrier to entry or zoning issues. Someone needs to do better reporting. Overall, I would say the locals are not being served well by one gas station, and a business owned by someone too unprepared to survive in such an environment.
tommyboy123 #3, I got nailed with this after my first visit to Asia. I met so many people who were so nice to me in Taiwan and Korea that after I got back to America, I was hoping to meet some Chinese and Koreans. I was even eavesdropping when I saw Asians together, trying to figure out if they were speaking Chinese or Korean. Then it happened! In a book store, I saw a couple together, they were speaking Korean. I asked the question, they answered kind of the way you did: “New York” with so much ice that global warming could have been averted.
I moved on, next I heard a couple speaking Korean at a grocery store, it turned out to be a lovely family, they had recently moved to America, the husband was studying at Harvard for a year.
I learned to ask the question differently, almost always had pleasant experiences although a few people got testy about it. Koreans who had been in America for quite a while absolutely hated the question but Koreans who had not been there for long seemed quite thrilled. So I guess it is your point about assimilation and always sticking out.
On the flip side, I suppose the same is somewhat true with expats here in Korea–if you’ve been here for 20 years or more, you probably get tired of talking about a city in America or Europe you lived in decades ago and explaining that you have been using chopsticks for quite a while. But folks who have just arrived don’t seem to be bothered with that stuff.
Hume’s Bastard #39, good points and on-the-scene stories. Lousy reporting is always an issue with stories posted, they can never tell the whole story–and if they did, who would read it all? Zoning and barriers to entry may be real issues although I obviously don’t know what they are doing in Dallas.
If it is true about there being just one gas station in the area then it may be that the folks there are lucky to have even that gas station, with lousy customers like Mr. Muhammad. Others may have decided it isn’t worth the trouble, higher insurance costs and other higher business costs could be an issue. From what I have heard, Koreans like to make money, so it seems that if someone is charging higher prices that someone else Korean or black would open a gas station down the street and offer slightly lower prices.
I never visit the guy’s blog, so someone fill me in: Has The Metropolitician weighed in on this yet? Has this happa/pretends to be full Black American/dramaqueen extraordinaire put down 20 pages of vacuous opinion about this yet?
I don’t know what to make of the Dallas issue. The station owner shouldn’t have stooped to the guy’s level, if that is the case. Believe me, I’ve seen a lot of crap fbetween Korean business owners and the local folk, and I don’t mean to be disparaging of any ethnic group of people but the vulgarity flows almost always fllows in one way- by far- and it’s not coming from the business owners. But that’s just the way it is.
BTW, rememeber this?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearson_v._Chung
I think the problem is that Black people consider “go back to Africa” a much bigger insult than “go back to ——- (wherever)”.
Like, if a black called me a honky and I responded by calling him a, well, you know.
Koreans don’t consider “go back to China” or “go back to the rice paddies” just as a bigger insult to Koreans?
Seth #44–Not sure how I would go back to a place I’ve never been. The speaker might as well as tell me to go back to the French Riviera.
I love meeting whites and Koreans who have been to Africa. I make it a point to tell them, “Go back to Africa.”
“A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.”
–Frederick Douglass
Koreans are particularly pissed when they’re called “Chinamen” or told to “Go back to China.”
I think a Korean has never been told to “Go back to Korea.” haha
#48 – that would be not even insulting as much. haha.
#40 nayacasey
I understand what you’re saying but Part II which normally follows is what irks me, despite telling them I was born and raised in the states.
“Your English is excellent!”
The Nation of Islam is terrorist.
#51, not quite; but they are definitely a Seditious Conspiracy under 18 US Code Section 2384 http://law.onecle.com/uscode/18/2384.html
“If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”
But I’m not holding my breath waiting for the Obama Administration to actually enforce THIS law.
Or any of the rest of the following:
Chapter 115 – Treason, Sedition, and Subversive Activities
§ 2381 Treason
§ 2382 Misprision of treason
§ 2383 Rebellion or insurrection
§ 2384 Seditious conspiracy
§ 2385 Advocating overthrow of Government
§ 2386 Registration of certain organizations
§ 2387 Activities affecting armed forces generally
§ 2388 Activities affecting armed forces during war
§ 2389 Recruiting for service against United States
§ 2390 Enlistment to serve against United States
But I would love to be surprised and proven wrong!!
There is also this:
Sec. 1951. Interference with commerce by threats or violence
(a) Whoever in any way or degree obstructs, delays, or affects commerce or the movement of any article or commodity in commerce, by robbery or extortion or attempts or conspires so to do, or commits or threatens physical violence to any person or property in furtherance of a plan or purpose to do anything in violation of this section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
(b) As used in this section—
(1) The term “robbery” means the unlawful taking or obtaining of personal property from the person or in the presence of another, against his will, by means of actual or threatened force, or violence, or fear of injury, immediate or future, to his person or property, or property in his custody or possession, or the person or property of a relative or member of his family or of anyone in his company at the time of the taking or obtaining.
(2) The term “extortion” means the obtaining of property from another, with his consent, induced by wrongful use of actual or threatened force, violence, or fear, or under color of official right.
(3) The term “commerce” means commerce within the District of Columbia, or any Territory or Possession of the United States; all commerce between any point in a State, Territory, Possession, or the District of Columbia and any point outside thereof; all commerce between points within the same State through any place outside such State; and all other commerce over which the United States has jurisdiction.
(c) This section shall not be construed to repeal, modify or affect section 17 of Title 15, sections 52, 101–115,
151–166 of Title 29 or sections
151–188 of Title 45.
Some of your ancestors may have come from that part of the world.
I lived there for a year and wouldn’t mind going back one day. It was quite lovely.
Robert #55: Go back to Africa!
You know, the funny thing is I wanted to when I graduated from college.
Today’s Donga Ilbo reports that the Korean owner of the gas store has apologized in front of African American leaders, on an African American radio show. And the Korean community facing a broad boycott of their businesses, tried to approach the black communities by sucking up to them. The NCAAP has called off the boycott and the protests in front of the store. I guess bribing them with donations to black charities has helped them smooth over some ill feelings for now, until the next extortion. But the Black Muslim organization (NOI) is continuing the boycott and the pickets. Somebody needs to pay them off too.
cm #58–thanks for the update, that’s a good distinction between the NAACP and NOI, but my guess is that while NAACP is always ready to do business, the NOI is in for the long-haul. They won’t be paid off, money or donations are secondary to pushing bloodsucking Asian merchants out of the hood. In a way, you could think of the NAACP as the bootleggers fighting for a cause for their own self-interest and the NOI as the baptists who truly believe.
I am guessing there are distinctions like that in Korea–for example, there are some Koreans who are willing to settle for concessions from the U.S. army (curfews on soldiers, apologies, reworking SOFA), and then there are activists who want the U.S. soldiers out regardless of the consequences, that they can’t be ‘bought off’ because they have a bigger axe to grind.
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