Below is a really good read in today’s Korea Herald that I recommend reading in full. It is about the history of mixed raced children in South Korea fathered by US military servicemembers. These mixed race kids definitely had a hard life growing up in South Korea. Of particular interest is the role that Korean brokers played in trafficking women into the sex industry. It makes me wonder if these were the same brokers who trafficked women to Japanese soldiers during the Japanese colonial period?:
Jang Yeon-hee is searching for her American soldier father, who left Korea while her mother was pregnant with her in the 1960s. (Claire Lee/The Korea Herald)
Jang is one of some 40,000 mixed-race Koreans born in South Korea from 1955-1969, many of whom were born to American soldiers who were temporarily stationed here. Many of the Korean women who gave birth to such mixed-race children were those who were trafficked by Korean brokers to work as prostitutes for the U.S. military.
Many fathers simply went back to the U.S. and never returned. Mothers relinquished their children, as many of them had no financial means to raise them, while suffering from severe social stigmatization for being sex workers. Most of the children were adopted into American families. For those who remained in Korea, like Jang, life was filled with a sense of alienation, racist attacks and longing for her birth parent. (………)
To this day, Kang doesn’t know if her father died that day or simply decided to leave her mother for good. After her father went missing, Kang’s mother had a number of live-in relationships with American soldiers, who supported her financially.
Her mother soon started working as a dancer for the U.S. military, moving from one base to another. Kang lived in almost every Korean city that had active U.S. military bases, including Dongducheon, Osan, Paju, Pyeongtaek and Uijeongbu. During these years, Kang witnessed many teenage daughters of sex workers being trafficked or forced to work as prostitutes by their mothers’ pimps and brokers.
“Those brokers should still be tracked down now and jailed. … It’s not too late,” she said. [Korea Herald]
Oh Young-jin the chief editorial writer at the Korea Times is at it again. This time he wrote an editorial titled “Ugly Foreigners” that described three cases of road rage in Korea involving foreigners. For those that don’t know the ROK recently implemented a new law that made road rage incidents like the one described illegal. The article is actually good information for foreigners living in Korea to know. However, there was no need to give the editorial that title so to me it seems that Mr. Oh published the title as click bait which has worked. Now the Korea Times has been flooded with emails accusing Mr. Oh of racism. Oh has actually had to publish not one, but two editorials defending himself against racism. What I continue to love about Mr. Oh is not his penchant for click bait articles, but the fact that he continues to use the email address of foolsdie5@ktimes.com. It seems that if Mr. Oh wants people to take him seriously he might want to start with using a professional email address.
It is interesting how there are companies marketing products for whiter skin to darker skinned people while countries with people with whiter skin promote tanning services to give customers darker skin. This may have less to do with racism and more do to with classism if that is even a word. In Korea people with whiter skin were thought more highly of because it meant they weren’t farmers working out in the fields all day thus from a higher social class. It could be the same rationale in Thailand. Are there any ROK Heads familiar with Thailand that can comment on this?
The video advert of a skin whitening pill in Thailand was denounced by many Internet users as racist for carrying the tagline ‘You just need to be white to win.’
After receiving widespread criticism, the maker of the ‘Snowz’ whitening pill removed the ad from YouTube and issued a public apology.
The advert featured a Thai actress attributing her success to her white skin. She added that her popularity will suffer if she loses her whiteness, thus explaining the need for her to use whitening products like Snowz.
The ad ends with the now infamous tagline ‘You just need to be white to win.’ [Global Voices]
What the bar owner says about what expat patrons have been doing in his bar sounds pretty bad, but you can’t tell me that Korean customers haven’t done the same thing before?:
Fiesta pub, near Korea University in Anam, Seoul, has been denying entry to foreigners for three years due to promiscuous and irresponsible behavior, the bar owner said.
“We no longer accept foreigners because we had many issues with them. I had many bad experiences three years ago when I ran this place almost like a ‘foreigner only’ bar,” the owner Baek said.
“I even had to pick up used condoms while cleaning the bathroom. Our bar is not a motel. Sometimes we could hear customers moaning in the bathroom.”
Baek said he found a condom in the bathroom twice.
He stressed he could not tolerate the lewd behavior of foreigners anymore and that he was very upset with a female customer who took a shower in the bathroom after sex and some male customers who would sexually molest intoxicated female customers.
An expat recently visited Fiesta but was denied service even though the bar was empty. [Korea Observer]
When I was first stationed in Korea 15 years ago I can remember people both Korean and retired Americans telling stories about how a black soldier was hung by Korean civilians outside of Camp Humphreys for killing a Korean man. I was always skeptical of this claim, but as it turns out there was a grain of truth to the story. I recently decided to research this story to see if I can make a GI Flashbacks article about it. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the always informative Popular Gusts blog had already researched this very topic. The site posted an article from the Stars and Stripes that was published in 1971 that explained what caused a race riot to occur in the Anjeong-ri ville just outside of Camp Humphreys:
Korean protesters in Anjeong-ri hold signs after riot occurred in the ville back in 1971. The sign on the left says BLACK, BLACK, BLACK” and “Go back to cotton field,” and the sign on the right looks like it says “We don’t need any N*****”
Black GIs on Rampage
Riot-Torn Anjong-Ni—Why It Happened
By M. SGT. JIM FREELAND and JIM LEA
S&S Korea Bureau
ANJONG-NI, Korea—A sign hangs on the rear wall of the security guard house at the Camp Humphreys main gate which lists the names of 12 bars.
Beside each is a pair of nails from which a small plaque is hung to tell American GIs who are the life’s blood of this village of perhaps 2,000 population, 60 miles south of Seoul, the situation in each bar. A black plaque means the place is on limits; a yellow one means it is off limits.
Since 9:30 p.m. July 10, all the plaques have been yellow. The sign will remain that way for a very long time, Camp Humphreys commander, Col. John C. McWhorter, says.
A few minutes past 9 p.m. that Friday, 50 black soldiers from Camp Humphreys walked into Duffy’s Tavern, one of the plushest of the bars which line a pathway GIs call “the alley,” climbed up on the stage and told everyone to leave the club. In minutes, they had demolished it and moved on to three other clubs which, they say, discriminate against blacks. Those were demolished too. “They didn’t stay around each place very long,” McWhorter said.
“They hit one place, then moved to the next. Some news stories have said there were whites involved, but that is not true. This was between a group of black soldiers and Koreans.”
More than 200 MPs and Korean National Police swarmed into the area and struggled to separate the combatants. McWhorter ordered the village put off limits and the MPs began moving Americans back up Anjong-Ni’s single dusty street.
“We had about 80 men who were moving back toward the gate with a crowd of Koreans following them. The Koreans started throwing rocks and, to break up the crowd and protect the camp, we used tear gas grenades/’ he said.
“Some shots were fired from .45 cal. pistols.
“No one was shot down here. There are rumors that some people were shot but that isn’t true. All the shots were fired into the air to break up the crowds.”
Four bars were extensively damaged. Four days after the riot, young Korean men loafed amidst the wreckage, playing go (Japanese chess), coming alert only when newsmen came in too look at the damage. Then, they hobbled about.
The bar owners are claiming 20 million won ($54,000) damage and the 8th Army Claims Office is accepting claims. If they are legitimate, they will be paid, an Army spokesman said.
The damage does not appear that extensive.
There were no houses damaged. One shop window was broken, apparently by a rock, and the Koreans reportedly were throwing the rocks.
By 11:30 p.m., most of the Americans were out of the village and safely behind concertina wire which had been stretched across the gate. About 10 U.S. dependents were moved out of the village and onto the compound.
“There was one man down here on leave with his wife. We brought them on the base Friday night and moved them out the next day,” McWhorter said.
Saturday, U.S. MPs swept through the village twice in a door-to-door search for other Americans.
“There was a lot of anger out there, a lot of tension. The men who got caught in it went into hiding. They were afraid,” McWhorter said.
One man, a Negro, was caught by villagers as he tried to make his way back to Camp Humphreys Saturday and was beaten. Police rescued him. Another man, who was injured Friday night, was found during a search and was taken back to the post dispensary.
“This man was not involved in the riot. He’s one of my best EOT (equal opportunities and treatment) men, and he definitely was not involved in it.
“We don’t know, yet, exactly who was involved. We’re investigating, but no one has been charged yet. There were many people hurt, but just because a person was hurt doesn’t mean that he was involved in it. Many were simply bystanders.
Anjong-Ni is not an unusual village.
Its single unpaved, pot-holed street is lined with vegetable stores, a hotel — which the manager says soon will boast a miniature golf course and a swimming pool—tailor and shoe shops which hawk the outlandish fashions of the young and souvenir stores which offer everything from peace beads to intricately etched Korean brassware.
The 12 bars which dot “the alley” are by GI bar standards in Korea, plush, but they are like GI gin mills anywhere. Camp Humphreys is Anjong-Ni’s major industry. It is the reason the village was built and the people and the village could not exist without it.
Its future is now shrouded in a cloud which has put the economy of other towns, other people, in jeopardy: racial discrimination.
Duffy’s, where Friday night’s riot began, is a major source of the discrimination, blacks say.
“We have no place here to relax. The bartenders don’t like to serve us, the girls don’t like to sit with us,” they say.
These are the same complaints that other GIs in Japan, the Philippines, in other areas of Asia, have. They are difficult to prove.
In Friday night’s riot, 14 Americans and Koreans were injured and were treated at U.S. military medical facilities. One Korean, a slim man nicknamed “Johnny,” the manager of Duffy’s, was evacuated to the 121st Evac. Hospital in Seoul for treatment of three stab wounds in the abdomen.
In town, people were saying Johnny was dead and a secret funeral had been held for him Monday.
Monday afternoon, Johnny was returned from Seoul and he was driven from the base to his home in a Pacific Stars and Stripes station wagon, one of the few U.S. forces vehicles allowed into the village that day. As we moved through the concertina wire at the gate, people in a crowd glared at us. The crowd had gathered a few moments earlier when base officials decided to allow Korean women through the gate to visit their boy friends.
Then someone recognized Johnny and word that he was not dead spread quickly down the street. In seconds, the hostility vanished and people ran alongside the car, shouting welcome home and smiling for the first time in four days.
As we took him home, Johnny told us about his club and about what happened.
“I was in the club about 9 p.m. and a bunch of black soldiers came in and told everybody to get out. I ran next door to call the police. We’ve had a lot of trouble here before and I knew, there was going to be trouble again.”
“When I got back to the club, I couldn’t get inside because the black soldiers had pushed everybody out. I could hear them tearing up the place. When they left, I followed them to the street. There were a lot of people around and suddenly someone stabbed me. I don’t know who did it. There were too many people around.”
“I don’t know why they did it. Somebody said it was because there was fight between a black soldier and a white soldier at my club early in the evening. That’s not true. There wasn’t any fight before 9 p.m.
We asked point-blank if there was racial discrimination in Duffy’s.
Johnny lowered his head and answered very quietly, “no.”
“Is the service you give whites any different than that you give blacks?”
He ignored the question and waved out the window at a woman who was running beside the car, waving at him.
The manager of another bar gave at least one piece of concrete evidence of discrimination.
“A lot of it has to do with credit. Many of the bars use chit books. When a soldier doesn’t have any money he can use the chits and pay on pay day. We had a bar owners meeting and some of us argued that the chit books are no good. They only cause problems.”
He said other bar owners will extend credit to white soldiers, but not to blacks. He said his bar does not extend credit, to anyone.
Some people in town — and some on base — say that gangsters have been brought into town to keep the blacks out. They say the gangsters are being paid two million won ($5,400) for the job.
“All I know,” an MP said, “is that since Friday a lot of girls have been leaving and a lot of men have been coming in.”
“Those are rumors,” McWhorter said. “We’ve heard that’s being done and are investigating, but so far we haven’t confirmed it.”
The riot at Anjong-Ni Friday night has served one purpose: It has brought the black soldiers and white soldiers a little closer together.
Monday, when GIs were allowed to go back into the village with an MP escort to pick up their belongings, blacks were not allowed to go.
“No sweat, man,” white GIs said time and again, “I’ll get your stuff for you.”
Anjong-Ni’s bars now are faced with a choice: Either clean up their town and end discrimination or go broke.
“The village will stay off limits indefinitely,” McWhorter said. “It will be off limits until each man who goes out the gate receives the same treatment as the next man.” [Popular Gusts]
I highly recommend reading the whole Popular Gusts article which begins with Part 1 at this link and Part 2 at this link. The comments section above Part 2 is especially informative since servicemembers who were in Korea during this time frame provided further context of what happened. What appears to have happened is that a group of black servicemembers decided to riot in protest of the segregation of the clubs and general discrimination against them in the Anjeong-ri ville. During the riot one of the popular club managers named “Johnny” was stabbed and evacuated to the 121 Hospital on Yongsan Garrison. It is interesting that Johnny and other Koreans that were injured were treated at the military hospital at the time because such a thing would not happen today.
Korea Times article from 1971
However, rumors spread that Johnny had died which caused anger with the Koreans in the Anjeong-ri ville. The Koreans started to hunt down servicemembers in the ville which caused many to go in hiding and wait evacuation, some by helicopter to escape the vigilantes. Despite the vigilantism there was no such incident as a black GI ever being hanged. It seems like this was just a rumor that spread just like the one saying Johnny had died. Fortunately no one did die from this riot in Anjeong-ri, but it shows that Camp Humphreys and Anjeong-ri have had historically a love-hate relationship at times. Some recent example are the Braveheart style battles that occurred in 2005 over the Camp Humphreys expansion and the nasty fight over off limits club bans in 2006.
Seek psychiatric help, Camp Humphreys commander!” is the message on this sign protesting Col. Michael J. Taliento Jr. and his policies concerning access to some off-base establishments in 2006. T.D. Flack / S&SProtesters combat riot police outside of Camp Humphreys in 2005.
Back in 1971 the protests did spread to other bases in Korea such as in the TDC ville outside of Camp Casey which saw only two people injured. However as the above Korea Times article shows three black GIs attacked and stabbed a white GI to death in Busan. It is incidents like this that show how far the Army has come since 1971 and hopefully we never seen anything like this ever happen again.
Note:You can read more GI Flashbacks articles by clicking on the below link:
U.S. celebrity gossip channel TMZ is under fire over the “racist” comments of a reporter who mocked a K-pop star who spoke in English.
A video clip of the segment has gone viral among Koreans.
The TMZ segment, which mainly deals humorously with celebrity stories, aired last Saturday ㅡ showing K-pop girl group EXID member Junghwa greeting the TMZ crew in English, which the reporter mocks.
TMZ staff instantly show disgust at the reporter’s comments.
As of Wednesday, “TMZ racist” was among the top 10 searched words on Korean web portal Naver, with bloggers and news outlets blasting the U.S channel for its comments. [Korea Times]
This is nothing new and par for the course in regards to provocative bluster from the North Koreans, however it still isn’t right:
On Saturday, the North’s powerful National Defense Commission, the country’s top governing body led by Kim, said that Obama was behind the release of “The Interview.” It described the movie as illegal, dishonest and reactionary.
“Obama always goes reckless in words and deeds like a monkey in a tropical forest,” an unidentified spokesman at the commission’s Policy Department said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
It wasn’t the first time North Korea has used crude insults against Obama and other top U.S. and South Korean officials. Earlier this year, the North called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry a wolf with a “hideous” lantern jaw and South Korean President Park Geun-hye a prostitute. In May, the North’s news agency published a dispatch saying Obama has the “shape of a monkey.”
The defense commission also accused Washington for intermittent outages of North Korea websites this week, which happened after the U.S. had promised to respond to the Sony hack. The U.S. government has declined to say if it was behind the shutdown. [Associated Press]
You can read more at the link, but President Obama actually got off pretty light compared to the ambassador of Botswana of all places that the North Koreans called a “black bastard”.
Via a reader tip comes news that Jesse Jackson is bringing his race hustling enterprise to Silicon Valley:
Civil rights advocate Jesse Jackson brought his campaign for more diversity in Silicon Valley workforces to The Chronicle Editorial Board Wednesday, noting that the racial separation of 50 years ago wasn’t as great as the inequality today. First Google, and then other Silicon Valley firms, released numbers depicting shockingly low racial and gender diversity in their workplaces, stories routinely reported in The Chronicle.
The Rev. Jackson said Silicon Valley companies are operating outside the equal opportunity employment and anti-discrimination laws and should know better. These companies have been created long since those laws were passed, and well after cultural expectations of equal access to jobs had taken root. The most frequent defense from the companies is that these jobs are technically demanding and that there are few blacks or Latinos with the needed skills. “Then why not invest in a plan to produce the engineers you need?” Jackson asks.
Jackson is promoting the idea that Silicon Valley firms, who have billions of dollars in offshore bank accounts that bypass U.S. taxes, could invest some of those funds in education and scholarships to train people of color as programmers and engineers. “Grow your own food, so to speak,” he said.
From Jackson’s view, the workforce should represent the marketplace. If 12 to 20 percent of the technology marketplace is black or brown, then shouldn’t 12 to 20 percent of the technology workforce be black or brown? The companies’ bottom line would benefit from the added value of inclusion, he said. (SF Gate)
You can read more at the link, but I eagerly await Jackson to start a campaign to get more whites and Asians into the NBA to better reflect the population like he wants Silicon Valley to do.
