Tag: Korean-Americans

Will Supreme Court Ruling Change Opinion of Gays Held By Korean-Americans?

| June 29, 2015

According to the KoreAm Journal they are hoping that the recent Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage across the US will help change the opinions that supposedly many in the Korean-American community have about gays:

As much as Friday’s ruling resonated around the country, some advocacy groups are urging greater acceptance within the greater Korean American community of LGBTQ individuals—an issue touched on by KoreAm in this June 2013 feature story about the community’s attitudes towards same-sex marriage.

“We’re thrilled by the national progress on LGBTQ equality, but deeply disappointed by the hostility we and our families continue to face in Korean American communities,” The Dari Project, an LGBTQ Korean American organization based in New York City, said in a statement. “There’s no way to sugarcoat it: homophobia and transphobia are still incredibly serious problems in Korean American communities and cause very real harm to LGBTQ Korean Americans.

“We urge Korean American allies to not be silent when they witness homophobia and transphobia in Korean American communities and to use today’s court decision to start conversations in their families, churches and other Korean American community spaces that will help Korean American communities recognize the humanity of LGBTQ people just as the Supreme Court did today,” added the organization. [KoreAm Journal]

You can read more at the link, but considering how churches are such an integral part of many Korean-American communities it may take a while for opinions to change, but I think they eventually will.

Korean-American Recognized By Forbes as One of the Most Successful Self Made Women

| June 1, 2015

I have not even heard of this company before, but its Korean-American owner was featured in Forbes as one of the most successful self made women:

Thai Lee, a 56-year-old Korean-American businesswoman, has one of the largest female-owned businesses in the U.S., Forbes reported Wednesday.

Lee was featured in the first ever list of America’s “top 50 most successful, self-made women.”

Lee is CEO of Software House International, an unlisted company specializing in software sales and services.

Headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey, SHI operates about 30 branches in Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, and the U.K., as well as in the U.S. With 3,000 staff and 17,500 clients, it had sales of US$6 billion last year, making it one of the top three minority-owned businesses in the U.S.  [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but good on her for making her company into the billion dollar business it is today.

CNN Profiles Korean-American Family That Lost Their Business

| May 11, 2015

Via a reader tip comes this CNN report about a Korean family in Baltimore that lost their business due to the criminals that some in the media like to make excuses for by calling them protesters or rioters:

The day after rioting rocked parts of Baltimore, Matthew Chung stared in disbelief at a video clip circulating online, showing an older Korean woman sobbing as a man props her up to keep from collapsing.

According to the description, the woman was a shop owner who had just found out her store was destroyed by rioters.

That woman was his mother.

Confusion, anger and sadness gripped Chung as he started to realize that his parents’ wig and beauty store, which has been on Pratt Street for 30 years, was the target of looters on April 27. The protests that turned violent were in response to the death of Freddie Gray, an unarmed black man who suffered a spinal cord injury while in police custody.

Chung, 36, doesn’t usually visit Facebook — friends describe him as a private guy — but he felt compelled to write a passionate letter sharing his deep frustrations and sadness at seeing his parents’ livelihood destroyed.

“My parents came to this country with no money and worked hard to setup a little business that’s been in the same neighborhood in Baltimore City for over 25 years,” he wrote. “But just in one night everything they have worked for is now all gone.”  [CNN]

You can read the rest at the link, but I always find it interesting how people who can even speak the language can come to this country, open a business, make a living, and be productive citizens while many American born here cannot.

Korean-American Business Owners Particularly Hit Hard By Baltimore Riots

| May 7, 2015

Despite people doing damage and theft like this we are not supposed to call them thugs?  What else should this behavior be called?:

Image via the Korea Times.

Richard Sung Kang’s American dream shattered along with his liquor store’s window during the Baltimore riots earlier this week.

The 49-year-old Korean immigrant saw his liquor store and bar, the Oxford Tavern, wrecked by a group of violent rioters following the funeral of Freddie Gray, who died of a spinal injury he apparently received while in police custody. Despite Sung closing the front door, the looters smashed the window and plundered the establishment. Even the store’s ATM was torn out, leaving a gaping hole in the exterior wall of the building.

“This is America. I wanted to follow my dream and wanted to make something for myself,” Kang told the Associated Press. He added that it was only his first year of owning the business and was unsure of reopening the store, as it could mean taking on more debt and paying higher insurance premiums.

“The most important thing is, I have to move on,” Kang said as his locksmiths worked on his doors. “But is it better to rebuild and start again or give up and find some other place? I don’t know.”  [KoreAm Journal]

You can read the rest at the link, but according to the article 200 small businesses were unable to open after the riots with 40 Korean-American owned businesses among them. If many of these businesses do not re-open than that will just further cause economic problems in area already economically depressed in the first place.

Korean-American Faces Deportation Due to Adopted Parents Not Completing Naturalization Paperwork

| March 15, 2015

With stories like this I can understand special legislation to deal with these situations on a case by case basis, but it does not require mass amnesty for illegal immigrants sweeping across the border to address this:

The pending deportation of Adam Thomas Crapser, an undocumented Korean American adoptee and survivor of severe child abuse, has sparked a dialogue on a major loophole in immigration law, according to NBC News.

When Adam first arrived in the U.S. in 1979 as a Korean adoptee, his childhood quickly turned into a nightmare. He and his biological sister were adopted by the Wright family in Michigan, where he suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse. In 1986, the Wrights relinquished their parental rights to Child Services without completing Adam’s naturalization paperwork. As wards of the state, Adam and his sister became separated from each other. After living in a group home for a year, Adam was formally adopted by Thomas and Dolly-Jean Crapser in Oregon.

The Crapsers, along with their biological sons, subjected Adam and seven other foster children to years of heinous abuse and torture. In an interview with Gazillion Strong, Adam revealed that he would get choked, beaten or burnt on a daily basis during the five years he lived with his abusive adoptive family. In 1991, the Crapsers were arrested and convicted of multiple counts of child abuse, child sexual abuse and child rape.

Adam, now a husband and father of three children, faces possible deportation because both sets of adoptive parents failed to complete his naturalization process and refused to provide him with his adoption papers, according to the blog Reappropriate. As an undocumented American, Adam has struggled to attend school or find work for most of his adult life. If deported, he will be sent to a country where he does not even speak the language.  [KoreAm Journal]

You can read more at the link, but hopefully this gets worked out for Adam Crapser, especially since the US government is to blame for his situation considering they allowed him to be adopted without naturalization paperwork and then not once, but twice put him in abusive homes.

Korean-American Businesses Looted and Destroyed During Ferguson Riots

| November 29, 2014

I am not at all familiar with St. Louis so I was wondering if Korean-Americans had opened businesses in the black neighborhoods there like they have in other major cities.  It appears they have which of course has made them targets of the rioters:

The violent protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over a grand jury decision not to indict a white police officer who fatally shot a black teen destroyed two Korean stores.

Among the roughly 20 stores that are run by Korean nationals in Ferguson, two were burned down and another five or six were looted or had their windows broken as of Wednesday, according to the Korean American Association of St. Louis.

The cost of damages has exceeded $2 million.

The stores, most of which sell cell phones and beauty products, were attacked because they are on a road leading to the Ferguson Police Department.

Local police are reportedly blocking that road now, although business owners were recommended to suspend their businesses as people continue to protest the decision over Officer Darren Wilson, who fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown in August.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.