One Man Stand: An Interview With A Korean Racist

Over the weekend I was capable of having my first successful interview, but I’m so depressed by the fact that I couldn’t put it on audio. Then there’s the fact that I can blame nobody but myself. I wasn’t prepared for it and I didn’t feel confident in having such a great interview. Since my previous attempts in having an interview with a minority was such a mess and failure I guess I gave up in putting in that extra work. Well I was amazed at how the interview went, and it was really something I wanted. I interviewed a 38 year old man, who wanted to go by the name of Mr. Lee. He was an oriental doctor, who spent his whole life living in Korea, and he had a small family of three.The interview went pretty smooth at the beginning and was based on my first voicethread project, but got really extreme and intense at the end. It was in Korean only, since he couldn’t speak fluent English. So here’s a translated version of the interview:

Q. Do you know what Racism (Injong-Chabyul) and Stereotypes (Pyunkyun) are?

A. Yes, of course I know the definition to both.

Q. Could you tell me what they are then?

A. Both mean the same thing to me. These words basically talk about a certain way we judge people in insulting ways, especially those with different skin colors. But if these words were meant to have different meanings, I guess racism would be based on people with different skin colors and stereotypes would be based on people from different regions of the world. So in a sense racism would be used to attack more people.

Q. Do you take yourself as a stereotyping or racist kind of guy?

A. No, definitely not. I respect other people, especially those that come from different parts of the world (different skin colors).

Q. So your saying that you don’t have any experience of being a racist or stereotypical?

A. Maybe a few times, but that doesn’t make me a racist. I mean it was during a period where other people where being racist too.

Q. A time where other people where being racist too? Could you be more specific about it?

A. Well it was a couple years ago, you know when those two middle schoolers were run over by an American tank. Then there was the time when the President of USA declared war on Iraq. This was when I probably started to have the most racist and stereotyping views in my life. I mean who do these white people think they are, the law? or even god? Their just some selfish, fat, big nosed bastards to me. I mean they can’t even solve easy math problems, and they think we’re so stupid. Well think again.

Q. Why have you suddenly changed your point of view from specific people to a whole ethnicity?

A. Because their all the same.

Q. You know your being really stereotypical right now, based on what you defined as racism and stereotypes?

A. No, its the truth. White people aren’t like us, they are arrogant, fat, big-nosed, and just plain old stupid. Its been proven!

Before moving on I would first like to apologize to the people that might this conversation offensive, but the truth was that this guy was speaking words without any thought. I was just amazed after talking to him, but then I was really proud of myself as well. Since this guy could easily talk and define racism and stereotypes in simple words, but he couldn’t realize that he was being stereotypical and racist (the type of people who make perfect interviews). He also had a mind set that when other people do it, its okay for him to do it.

After this interview I realized that there would always colors in this world as long as we had racist and stereotyping ideas. But was it possible for us to fix these ideas or get rid of them? Was being a racist and stereotyping something that we were born with?

A New Start

Working with people is a very difficult task, and I know this is true by both fact and through experiences. Through the PLN class I have learned that it makes things a little easier but still at a difficult level. I’ve always had some trouble dealing with technology or new computer skills (especially when your computer just starts letting out smoke and breaks down). But after getting use to the idea of working and connecting with people would actually benefit me and using other convenient tools such as Twitter, things seemed to work out.

My project in particular required the connections with other people and through these connections I would gain what I needed to proceed. But it hasn’t really been the smooth road for me. To tell you the truth I know that over half of the people I’ve connected with so far, were just people that Mr. Burell connected me with. It definitely feels like I haven’t done much, and just let the “older” people do it for me. Well I guess it time to take control over again. But it doesn’t mean that they weren’t helpful, I’ve been learning from these “experienced” people that the world is just something more than whats just around me. I feel as if I were moving out into the open, from a small and isolated personal area.

During the lunar break I have connected with several people, who have jobs as journalists, professors, and minority teenager. Hoping that I’ll be able to move on from here, not only through words but also with the assistance of visual and audio tools as well.

My first goal is getting a successful interview. My previous attempt with local minorities hasn’t been at the level I want it to be. These people I’ve tried interviewing were either in the “pure” state in which they were never the minority before they came to Korea or they just couldn’t understand what other people around them were saying.

So I’ve changed my aim for now. I’ve chosen to take on the side of the majority, something that is definitely new to this world, or at least the world around me. Asking them about how it feels to be the majority, how they feel about Stereotypes and Racism (SAR), and their own experiences. Although I know that its going to be quite difficult due to the language barriers, considering that the audience (the world) speaks mainly English rather than Korean. But I’ll try and I just hope it works.

Photo Credit to Laughing Squid

A Single Thought That Killed Millions

This was originally from PLN at KIS, another blog that I’m working at as an author. This is my first draft of what I want to do, and will be fixing it later on.

Stereotypes and Racism are the two main aspects that I want to focus on, and find out a way to show the world that they need to realize things that they’ve never realized before. To start off here’s a list of questions, think carefully and answer honestly to yourself.

Are all Asian people good at math?

Are all Jewish people greedy?

Do all African people like eating fried chicken and watermelons?

Have you just ever been generalized as someone you aren’t?

If you’ve answered “Yes, I have” to any of these questions, well congratulations your either stereotyping other people or have some experience being considered as a certain stereotype. Then ask yourself one last question, “Can you think of more?”. Personally for myself, I’ve been stereotyped as the typical Asian; the short, good at math, and the typical inferior athlete. To tell you the truth I’m sick of these stereotypes or other racist comments, making me into someone that has no connections with the real me.

For my very own “project” I plan to write about stereotypes and racism on my blog, which hasn’t been equipped with a firm base yet. Therefore the first step that I plan to make is to make a firm base in which I would have some connections with other people to discuss about the issue that I’m dealing with. Then I also plan on interviewing people near me and internationally (possibly through Skype) and write my beliefs on the issue at hand. I would be interviewing people who represent the minority in a certain neighborhood or country. Later on I might interview some people who represent the majority, like meeting and talking with Korean people in Korea (and this would definitely be South Korea). These are the first steps that I want to take for now, and later on plan out what will be happening. My final goal is to have people come to read what I write, listen to the interviews, and after going through what I’ve posted say to themselves “I think I’ve learned something”.

Photo credit to roger g1

Technorati Tags: Stereotype, Racism, World

An Idea

Every idea starts with a question. By answering to every question we go into the step in which we learn a solution. A solution then leads to another question. We live in a cycle of questions, answers, and solutions.

But I’m not here to ask you a list of question like a typical survey, asking for your age, gender, and education level. I’m just here to ask what you think and why you chose to take a certain path in thought. It would just be a matter of time until you realize and learn things, but I’m just here to give you a hint or an extra step for you to take and move on.

What do you think about racism? what about stereotypes? (I’m not asking you to give me dictionary definition of racism or on stereotypes I want your pure thought).

Have you ever had the feeling that you were either being the victim of racism and stereotypes or more like the source of it?

Now this is just a first step that I hope to take along with you side by side and move on as I learn things that I’ve never learned before.

Photo Credit to Leo Reynolds