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The Korea Times

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21. Deauwand Myers

On Okyere's lamentations

“White folks be a miracle of affliction.” From “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker. Sam Okyere, a Ghanaian celebrity in South Korea, recently recounted some of his racist experiences whilst being in the country on the TV program “As You Say.” He was called names, dubbed “Black Brother,” reviled and verbally accosted by passengers on public transportation, amongst other examples. Perhaps the saddest part was when Okyere said he wished when Koreans said “we,” they meant all of humanity, not just other Koreans. For as long as I can remember, there’s been a discussion, online and off, on the sta...

2017-04-04 17:19

My country is better than yours (II)

The human heart is full of evil. Let us start with this sad, irreducible truth. The world over, how we drove whole cultures to extinction; how we sent children first to the gas chambers in Poland; how we bombed millions of civilians in the Vietnam War. As with many nations, my native country was built off of empire. It meant the genocide of millions, through war and plague and the nuts and bolts of imperialism; plowing the good earth; tilling the soil with the sweat and tears and blood of the oppressed. Many Koreans, like some people from other countries, look at America with envy and awe: o...

2017-03-06 16:59

It's your fault (II)

“Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle merite.” (Nations deserve the governments they get). - Joseph de Maistre, French counterrevolutionary. On the dreaded Book of Faces, otherwise known as Facebook, good friends and family members have posted more articles, essays, missives, and cries of discontent about Trump’s nascent presidency than they have about anything else in recent memory. Notifications from posts fill up my tablet and smartphone without ceasing. Koreans experienced the same thing on social media platforms about President Park’s alleged misconduct and subsequent impeachment.

2017-02-06 16:37

It’s often asked: how are black people treated in Korea? Is Korea “racist? The answer, like most things, varies from person to person. I should start by saying, born and raised in South Carolina, you’d think I’d have a sad and vast array of racist experiences to draw upon. Peculiarly, quite the opposite. So rare have I experienced overt forms of racism in my childhood and college years, I have to rummage through the decades to find an example. The notion that Southern whites are somehow exceedingly racist, whilst those elsewhere are much more enlightened, is patently false. Chicago has one o...

2017-02-03 16:15

Women and Double Standards (II)

Man is evil… Man is a flower that should be burnt, … Man…is not a temple but an outhouse, I say aloud …Let man never again raise his eyes, …Never… I say those things aloud. I beg the Lord not to hear. - From “After Auschwitz,” by Anne Sexton. There’s a compelling list of female rulers throughout human history. For example: Queen Amina of Nigeria, Cleopatra of Egypt, Empress Wu of China and Queen Elizabeth I. More recently, we’ve seen the shortlist of female heads of state endure trials their male counterparts have rarely contended with.

2017-01-02 16:00

Hatred is a most useful and effective emotion. Constituents of it: violence, murder, cruelty and malice inform history. It is a renewable resource; for in the human heart, hate burns incandescent. It doesn’t require nurturing.

2016-12-05 16:03

THAAD's not bad (II)

Previously, I have argued Korea should be more proactive in its own defense against North Korea and its largest trading partner, China. Surely, I have my own critiques of President Park. The poor emergency response to the Sewol ferry disaster tops the list. Further, Park has been ineffective in increasing real wages for the poor, working, and middle classes; unemployment and underemployment of young, Korean adults with tertiary education is still woefully high; the Korean social safety net is one of the lowest in terms of government funding of OECD countries; and wage disparity between men a...

2016-09-06 16:38

By Deauwand Myers Recently, President Barak Obama declared the 20th and 21st centuries as being the best time to be alive in all of human history. In 1995, violent crime in America was at or above 700 incidents per 100,000 people. Today, the number is half that, and decreasing. Some diseases, like polio, the measles, and rubella, for example, which crippled or killed many millions of people, have been eradicated, or nearly so. Technologies have made work, life, and travel more convenient, faster, safer, and less polluting. Women, like many racial, religious, and sexual minorities, are nearin...

2016-08-01 16:31

Political parties are integral to all modern democracies. President Park’s Saenuri Party and its recent routing in local elections proves that when the electorate has choices at the ballot box, it will reward or punish accordingly. Internationally, the last few years have been some of the most interesting in terms of observing the ebb and flow of political parties and their waning and waxing fortunes.

2016-07-04 16:40

Joseon Hell (II)

The Joseon Dynasty, Korea’s last monarchical reign, ruled for five centuries. Much of modern and contemporary Korean culture, such as Confucianism, familial patriarchy, a high emphasis on exams for social mobility, the writing system (Hangul), and traditional Korean food is derived from this period.

2016-05-02 16:17

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