THE INBOX Groove readers’ opinions and feedback.
Re: WHY KOREA MUST EMBRACE MULTICULTURALISM
The main issues with Korea and this boils down to semantics. This woman (Rep. Jasmine Lee) has confused the word multiculturalism with what would best be described as “multicultural households,” and an aversion to racial discussions has completely misnomered/not addressed the issue of biracial children in her country, which is the real issue at hand. She and the rest of the Korean government are sidestepping and avoiding the issue of racial integration while trying to redefine an already well-defined word. Children who are raised in a multicultural home do face problems that need to be addressed, but children with mixed-race parentage also share these issues regardless of their current parental background. They are playing a cup-and-ball game with racism, and I can only hope the children involved are not hurt too greatly in the process. My own family suffered from biracial integration in a small community so badly that to this day I have lost all cultural ties with no way to connect with anyone. Multiculturalism isn’t the problem; Korean pride in the ideal of pure blood is. — Stetson Smith Re: WHY KOREA MUST EMBRACE MULTICULTURALISM
Honestly, Korea doesn’t have hate crimes like in some other countries. Some people believe there is a problem in Korea in regards to racism, but I disagree. Majority children taunting minority children happens everywhere, even in the United States and Canada. Just be glad Korea doesn’t have groups like the Ku Klux Klan, white pride and gangs selling drugs on street corners. And as far as I’m concerned, some foreign people complain about the smallest things they face in Korea — about taxi drivers and whatnot. And that just pisses me off, considering that Korea provides them with jobs and a safe community — Anonymous
HP1 Deadline: July 20th
RE: HOW FOREIGN MEDIA GOT KOREA WRONG
Thanks for that editorial, Groove. Even the New York Times did a hatchet job in their coverage of the Koreas during this so-called “crisis.” And let’s face it, if the New York Times can’t even get it right, then most people in the world aren’t going to have a clue as to what’s really happening here — not because most people read the NYT, but because they’re supposed to be some kind of bastion of journalism. Then you have CNN practically declaring World War III from their holodeck, Fox News foaming at the mouth for another war and the networks ... okay no one watches the networks anymore. And all of this for what? Like you said, we weren’t even close to a real war. It was all hot air. This just boils down to irresponsible editors thinking they have the pulse on what’s happening, only they couldn’t have been further from reality. — Andy Wermen RE: HOW FOREIGN MEDIA GOT KOREA WRONG
I hope it works out for you. I’m English, coming up to 5 years here. That followed 12 in the US, 7 in Germany and before those, 2 years in Holland. When questioned if I will ever return to England, the answer is always “maybe next year,” which of course never comes. — SeoulDave
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