Oh, dear God! This is 2012, isn't it? There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of thing at all.
It being funny is not an excuse (it's not funny; it's puerile and juvenile). Them portraying comic book characters is not an excuse (the comic book portrayal is itself racist). And certainly being ignorant of how offensive this is to people in a lot of other countries is no longer an excuse.
That last point was already covered (by me and others) in the past. Specifically, I made the point that while some portrayals of black face may indeed be innocent, enough of these cases have hit the fan of global media that they can no longer be construed as innocent, just ignorant. And if you are trying to make your brand loved around the world, as LG is trying to do, and I assume MBC is trying to do with the Hallyu Korean wave, then you have to stop this. Not now, but yesterday.
I wasn't able to see the video, but I don't think that Korea has had THAT many incidents of blackface. Even with all the media attention on racism in the U.S., you still hear reports of some anchor or politician (people who should definitely know better) making blatantly racial remarks.
Korean advertisers/producers are tuned into KOREAN society. A few reports here and there about objection to those ads is not enough to help people understand WHY it is wrong in a meaningful way. As we know, growing up in a racial diverse society does not make one a racially aware person. You can be a white person who grew up in mostly white Malibu or a black person who grew up in mostly black South Central.
I would definitely criticize the Korean media if there was negative programming regarding mixed race Koreans because Koreans grow up with this awareness, but racism toward black people is not really part of Korean history. Koreans in Korea have not had the need for the most part to self-reflect on their racial identity due to its homogeneity. It is ignorance, but may not be the crime that it is made out to be.
Nate is a former newscaster and sometime journalist, Korean Studies specialist, current doctoral grad student in public health, professional writer and editor, Yonsei alumnus, UCI alumnus, lover not a fighter, Gen-Xer, 1980s pop music aficionado, 5K-per-day runner, fast walker, hiker, temporary permanent resident of Hawaii, Seoul slumlord, California native straight out of Compton, Orange County "native" with a Seth Cohen personality but not a Seth Cohen trust fund, national parks visitor, former Disneyland employee, former UPS employee who still has the uniform and plots ways to abuse that fact, amateur photographer and cinematographer, Mac enthusiast, uncle of several and cousin of many, semi-professional blogger, contrarian scourge, lifelong "Orange Dog Democrat" (Dem from OC) who distrusts other Democrats, ordained minister, eater of oatmeal, onetime student of Japanese who can still put together sentences based on knowledge of Korean, world traveler, frequent flier, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf preferred customer, lover of all things Italian, filial son, frequent visitor of Japan and Hong Kong, and driver of an LPG Kia minivan. Email me.
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九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?
Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!
Stupogance
To read my many posts on Laura Ling, Euna Lee, or Mitch Koss, the two CurrentTV crew who were held in North Korea and their executive producer who could run faster than they could because he wasn't weighted down with incriminating videotapes, PLEASE CLICK HERE.
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Traffic Girls of Pyongyang, North Korea
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Recently, there was an interesting study that revisited the efficacy of
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What a fun phone call that must have been.
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Dear Readers,
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Old photos of Jeollanam-do and Gwangju.
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*Taken in front of the Jeollanam-do Provincial Office, 1941.*
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Exposed waygooks #003
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I haven't yet gotten any submissions, so I'm still reduced to mining other
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This one, from Blackout Korea, looks almost like it ...
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Even before I went into into semi-retirement, I essentially stopped commenting on Marmot's Hole and other K-blogs altogether. But I still occasionally shoot off an editorial comment here and there or respond when someone calls my name. See the COMMENTS section here for some of these pearls of witticism.
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* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)
The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."
Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.
"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."
Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.
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I wasn't able to see the video, but I don't think that Korea has had THAT many incidents of blackface. Even with all the media attention on racism in the U.S., you still hear reports of some anchor or politician (people who should definitely know better) making blatantly racial remarks.
ReplyDeleteKorean advertisers/producers are tuned into KOREAN society. A few reports here and there about objection to those ads is not enough to help people understand WHY it is wrong in a meaningful way. As we know, growing up in a racial diverse society does not make one a racially aware person. You can be a white person who grew up in mostly white Malibu or a black person who grew up in mostly black South Central.
I would definitely criticize the Korean media if there was negative programming regarding mixed race Koreans because Koreans grow up with this awareness, but racism toward black people is not really part of Korean history. Koreans in Korea have not had the need for the most part to self-reflect on their racial identity due to its homogeneity. It is ignorance, but may not be the crime that it is made out to be.
Thanks for the post and the link.
ReplyDelete