April 28, 2013
Section A01
Reading: Living in a "Sea of Fire" by Michael Hurt
Racism in Korea
In the letter by Michael Kurt, I was shocked to discover the acts of racism by the Korean people over an accident. Two girls were accidentally killed by an American armored vehicle during a training operation. The people in charge apologized and compensation was given to the families, however Americans in Korea started becoming targets of hate crimes. In the letter, he mentions, stabbings, beatings, and restaurants no longer accepting Americans. Surprisingly, these hate crimes were not publicized by the media, but other trivial things were. Basically, the Americans were portrayed as the bad people and the media backed it up.
The fact that Americans no longer felt safe in a country over an accident, disturbed me. However, these reactions seemed a lot similar to what we talked about in class. How when a white person commits a crime, for example shootings, murders, etc. they are seen as “geniuses” and the media tries to get the people to sympathize with them. However when a black person or a minority is caught committing a crime, they are seen as terrorists and that group is targeted and deemed as bad people. These similar reactions got me to think that maybe it is the natural response of a country to victimize themselves and see outsiders as bad people. Although the situation in Korea was blown out of proportion, maybe this sort of response should have been expected.
Question: Americans have been targeted in Korea for hate crimes, although this is wrong, Are Americans so different from the Koreans? If this happened in America would the reaction have been any different?
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