Hines Ward’s Tale of American Transcendence
by James Na ~ May 17th, 2006. Filed under: America, Korean Culture, Miscellaneous.My latest Seattle Times column is online. Some snippets:
Now that it is May, have Seattleites recovered from the Seahawks’ Super Bowl loss? May is also “Asian Pacific American History Month.” What does the Super Bowl have anything to do with this ethnic tokenism? Hines Ward, the Super Bowl most valuable player, of course!
Ward’s saga made headlines after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ victory in February. It had the makings of a mediagenic tale: a child of a broken home, born to a black GI and his Korean wife; a dedicated immigrant mother who worked three menial jobs to support her son; an unselfish player winning the MVP award. Capping it all was Ward’s triumphant visit last month to his native South Korea, where he was feted by its president and hailed by the local media as a Korean hero and a symbol of new South Korean multiculturalism.
May 17th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
You may want to couch your racism is “soft” terms, but it’s
hard core is apparent to anyone who looks beneath the surface.
It is easy enough to get beyond that surface; your Hines Ward
as an example of “racial harmony” is debatable. Ward’s black
father was in the military when he married Ward’s mother; a year
after he was born, she filed for divorce. Now, I realize that the
papers were full of her “nobility,” but why should we buy it whole? She could
have been looking for a free ticket to the States, or once she
arrived here, she discovered that she was relegated to unwanted
second-class status being married to a black man. We don’t know for
sure because the media is more interested in the fantasy aspect of
the story than the reality; what is known, however, is that you are
conceited enough to deceive people on this matter.
The hard middle is equally open to question. Yes, many Koreans
in this country complain of so-called black racism, but the things they
complain of rarely have anything to do with racism, yet Koreans (like
yourself) glibbly engage in stereotypes and prejudices of all
sorts (boycotting people who discriminate, is not, by the way, “racism”).
You yourself are comfortable enough in your own racism (”rudeness”
you call it; how pathetic) to contrast it with some fantastical “higher” racism.
It is only that simple to a simpleton. In 1992, Latisha Harlins, a 15-year-old black girl, was shot and killed by a Korean shop owner over a $2 container of orange juice; this is an
example of not only the “soft” racism of the shopkeeper, but, interestingly, “violent”
racism as well. It didn’t help that even though the shop owner was convicted
of manslaughter, she was let off with a fine and no jail time. It further
didn’t help that shortly afterward, a black man was given jail time for abusing
a dog, which caused many to question the issue of proportion in these
two cases.
Interestingly, LA police reports after the Rodney King riot
that followed soon after these events show that few Korean shops were targeted by
rioters, despite the fact that there had been many complaints about unfair competition, unequal treatment of customers, price gouging and the fact that few if any Korean shop owners hired any local blacks.
Complaints by Asians against blacks, on the other hand, often seem to be more
self-serving and a matter of their own prejudices than any hard fact. Out bigoting whites
may garner one a false sense of “acceptance” among whites of the conservative strain,
but that only makes you the bigger fool. And you fool no one.
May 17th, 2006 at 11:17 pm
If you are referring to what I described about Korean prejudices against blacks, they are not “my” racism. I do not subscribe to such views and condemn them.
Or she “could have been” an evil sorceress and her husband discovered this. Seriously, that is pure, unadulterated speculation on your part, perhaps based on YOUR racism and stereotype.
What is undeniable is that Ward’s mother did much to make things happen for Ward, despite very trying circumstances. You seem to bemoan the media coverage of this in a bizzarre and petty manner. It’s like you can’t stand any story of a mother sacrificing for her son, so long as the mother happened to be ethnically Korean.
So you are implying all Korean shopkeepers discriminate, and that thus they all deserve “boycott.” I might also add that this particular “boycott” in NYC was against the law. Contrary to the judge’s orders, the demonstrators intruded into the shops and impeded business. Mayor Dinkins of NYC (who is black) declined to enforce the judge’s order, by the way.
Name-calling is usually a clear sign of a weak argument. I don’t know why you keep calling the pervasive prejudice against blacks among Koreans “my” racism. You must think that just because I am ethnically Korean, I also subscribe to such views. I suggest you look up the term “racism” and think again about your own beliefs.
By the way, because I “expose dirty laundry” of “fellow” Koreans (I think of myself as an American, no hyphenation), I am often condemned by Koreans as a “traitor.” Pissing off people like that and like you, I must be doing something right.
I thought someone would bring this up — that because one shopkeeper who happens to be Korean shot a black teenager after the latter punched the former, there is justification for burning many Korean-owned shops.
I am not suggesting that Korean-on-black racism is ALWAYS “soft” racism, but rather that such “soft” racism is often the norm. Korean-on-black violence is statistically very rare. The reverse, unfortunately, is not.
What’s your definition of few? 100? 1,000?
Complaints do not facts make. EVEN IF, for argument sake, we decided to accept all these allegations, there is no justification for the kind of pogrom that occurred. Furthermore, the question is, if such blacks are so aggrieved by Korean merchants, why don’t they set up their own shops, hire other blacks and provide their black customers “fair” prices? Boy, if these allegations were all true, then these black-owned shops would out-compete the Korean-owned shops and bankrupt the latter in no time.
It’s a free country. You are free to not buy from shops owned by Koreans and give your money to someone else. What you cannot do, however, is threaten their business, block access to it by other customers or even burn it down. That’s just mob rule, the same kind of pack mentality that led to lynchings of blacks in the old South.
And black complaints of Asian prejudice are noble and completely not self-serving at all.
Give me a break. The reality — and the central point of my piece — is that there are enormous mutual distrust and prejudices between the two ethnic groups, but that, DESPITE this, a hybrid success story like Ward can rise in the U.S. AS OPPOSED to South Korea.
Furthermore, removed from these often silly and at times violent disagreements between the ethnic enclaves in traditional urban areas, people of varied backgrounds are forging new mixed families in some of the “new” residential areas.
In my own block, there is a family of a black guy and a Thai gal (and their amazingly beautiful little girl).
My immediate neighbor happens to be a young ethnically Korean woman who dated a black colleague, despite her parents’ dire objections and intimidations. She cares not for these ethnic squabbles in the “old” neighborhoods. To borrow a term from a former colleague (who happened to be black), she is an equal opportunity offender as dating and romance go.
My neighborhood (which did not exist 2 years go) is full of “exotic” mixes, multi-ethnic families for whom these ethnic squabbles are just weird and backward.
You seemed to have completely missed the main point of my piece. Instead, like so many mindless bigots, you seemed bothered by, and indeed fixated on, the fact that I discussed ugly strains of prejudice against Koreans among many urban blacks (I also did the reverse, but that didn’t seem to have bothered you at all, except perhaps you thought that description was not sufficiently critical).
December 6th, 2007 at 4:32 am
Although this is an older conversation, I just stumbled upon it and wanted to comment.
I believe that Mark has missed James’ point. James addressed many of his comments. I think there is one point that still needs to be addressed: much of the prejudice that exists in Asian countries against bi-racial children is NOT just against children who are of African-American decent. The prejudice is aimed towards ALL bi-racial children, those who have white parents too. The issue is not as simple as pure racism. It stems from a deep rooted history of colonial/military presence by the United States. I am not justifying the racism, but it is not as simple as Mark seems to think. The issue is present in many countries in Asia (i.e. Viet Nam) where the United States has forced its military presence. One of the results of the American military presence has been a large number of bi-racial children, fathered by American GIs. Most Asian nations were rather homogeneous before the forced military presence of the United States. The Korean Peninsula was divided by the United States and this military presence still exists. Is it no wonder that there is a great lack of understanding and even animosity towards this presence? The negative treatment of these bi-racial children is directly related to this history and can not be ignored.
Mark, I would suggest you research the issue further before assuming that this is an issue of outright Asian racism aimed towards African-Americans. I think it is easy to jump to conclusions and apply our personal experiences here in the U.S. to issues that apply abroad. But it is important to see the “global” picture as well. In attempting to address this particular issue (which is one that exists IN KOREA) we must address it in its own historical and local context, not our own. To effectively work towards a solution, we must open our eyes to all of the causes of the prejudices that exist. Hines Ward’s establishment of his organization is one such step towards educating the community in order to create a healthier, more accepting and understanding community for bi-racial children and adults living in Korea.