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A while back, I wrote an article criticizing white expatriates in South Korea.
The backlash wasn’t surprising. The patronizing comments that I’m another insecure, angry, racist, sexist gyopo guy are nothing new. Their defensiveness is even understandable. You see, I used to think just like them.
I, too, believed the neo-liberal line that mentioning race was racist. Injustices were individual acts committed by bigoted people. I wanted to forget our differences, not remember them. Of course, I didn’t care much about history back then and apparently, neither do my critics.
George Lipsitz says the irony of believing we’re innocent is that it leaves oppressive social structures in place. They perpetuate the idea that our struggles are always personal, not collective, which is why many Koreans don’t connect their individual struggles as Korean natives within a larger system of Western imperialism in Asia.
This is also why many gyopo don’t connect their individual struggles as Korean immigrants within a larger system of racism in the West.
Admittedly, Korea often exploits its ``tragic past’’ to justify its hypocrisies (i.e. Koreans racism toward black and brown people and Korean hegemony in poorer countries).
But I’m cautious of bashing Koreans as a Westerner without being up front about my privilege. Doing so, to paraphrase Tim Wise, ``universalizes the particular’’ or lets me use my particular viewpoint to say it is the viewpoint for everyone.
Alas, Michael Breen types, who write Orientalist dissertations like, ``The Koreans: Who They Are, What They Want, Where Their Future Lies,’’ miss this important point.
They discount Western hegemony and how it always functions through consent and not coercion. Kanye West raps, ``(It’s) cause they made us hate ourselves and love their wealth.’’
The U.S.’s economic, military, and cultural sway over Korean society is undeniable. In this light, the myth of ``racial equality’’ is exposed, making many white expatriates’ continued refusal to acknowledge their implicit (if involuntary) privilege baffling.
Perhaps it's also why most gyopo men don’t admit their own privileges as Americans. They dwell on their ``victimhood’’ instead of realizing that their ``over-privilege’’ in Korea is made possible only through the ``under-privilege’’ of non-English speaking gyopo.
Gyopo men who whine about their women being ``stolen’’ forget that it is all women who pay the ultimate price for machismo angst in Korea. The difference is that not everyone can afford this denial.
My best friend once asked me what he should do to fight white privilege as a white man. It’s the same question I ask myself to fight my privilege as an American gyopo in Asia.
My mentors say it’s about accepting our individual privileges and realizing that they don’t function in a vacuum. It’s about every day making informed actions to fight against our own hypocrisies without being burdened by self-absorbed guilt.
It’s about ``helping’’ less, ``listening’’ more. And while asking the question is just the first step in a long process, I’m optimistic more people will find the courage to take it in the future.
