Tiger JK on Racism and Change in South Korea

4 responses to “Tiger JK on Racism and Change in South Korea”

1. 

   jimboshu

   March 1, 2012

   As a Korean-American, I’m not that surprised by this.

   I occasionally hear my dad and grandfather say some insensitive remarks against black people on the side. My seemingly well-mannered cousins have said similar things when I was in Korea back in 2002. And I definitely hear it from Korean-American friends today. It’s usually said “in jest” but, c’mon..

   Perhaps this is true of all immigrant groups but I definitely feel that Korean-Americans are particularly exclusionary. You can see it in the number of churches we have all around Chicago and surrounding ‘burbs (When you add religion into the mix, yikes).

   Anyways, I don’t feel like I’m saying anything new but it is interesting how I see K-pop taking a lot of elements from the hip-hop without taking into consideration the skin color largely responsible for the culture and the history behind it. And in reverse, if K-pop is gonna become global, it needs to act by global standards and take in what’s going on outside the hermit country.

   Reply
   1. 

      shikagoland

      March 2, 2012

      I mean, I’m black (don’t be alarmed!) so sadly, without getting all victim about it, I’m well aware of racism. Most of the time I’m able to go about my day and not worry about it but occasionally I get smacked in the face with it and is kinda hard to deal with. Sometimes it feels like EVERYONE has some negative shit to say about black people and its like…well damn, excuse me for existing. How am I supposed to process that? The fact that for people who’ve probably never even seen a black person in real life, its ok to just assume we’re all spear chucking drooling jungle monkeys (or, for those who are more familiar: violent thugs/ignorant/welfare queens/sluts/etc.) is just…tiring.

      On a sidenote, like I said before, I’ve never really been exposed to large populations of Asian people. There were like 5 or 6 in my prep school and then lots more in college but they tended to keep to themselves. I only mention this because I remember the first time a friend took me to like H-Mart and I remember having this feeling of dread that I was going to have to deal with a lot of crazy looks and bs. On the whole people just seemed kind of amused that I was there. But it still took a long time to feel ok going by myself which I admit is ridiculous. But now I don’t care and I even take my mom there because she loves the seafood. She takes pictures of the food like a tourist. I’m sure there are some little comments or whatever, but I guess thats the benefit of speaking only about 30 words of Korean. Ignorance can be bliss sometimes.

      And don’t get me started on the kpop swagger-jacking. Most of the time I find it completely hilarious and precious. But when I’m reminded how little respect they have for the people who produce the music/style/culture they are so happily aping I feel like slamming my head into a wall. Its a mess. It always reminds me of something Paul Mooney (a comedian, if you’re not familiar) used to say in his act: “Everybody wanna be a ni**a, but dont nobody wanna be a ni**a”.

      Reply
2. 

   Jen

   March 1, 2012

   How hard is it to find her stuff on a non-itunes venue?

   Reply
   1. 

      shikagoland

      March 1, 2012

      More or less impossible. She’s been working on a new album for awhile but I have no idea when its coming out.

      Reply