Anti-Racism Law

By Kim You-jung

Over the last several decades, South Korea has made great strides: Our democracy has survived military dictatorships, our capital has evolved into one of the world's top ten financial and commercial cities, our companies have become global leaders, and our culture has spread its wings beyond our borders through the ``Korean Wave." But South Korea has a speckle: racism against foreigners.

Enacting the recently proposed Anti-Racism Law by Rep. Chin Young of the Grand National Party can be a crucial step to eradicate the blemish.

As a nation, we celebrate individual achievements and grieve for individual tragedies. Yang's historical victory at the PGA Championship lifted our spirits while the deaths of former Presidents Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung brought on national mourning. This emphasis on patriotism and homogeneity has sustained us through repeated threats to our solidarity, such as the Japanese occupation, but it has also led to increased levels of xenophobia and intolerance.

Our past, however, cannot justify our continued intolerance. Considering the deep-rooted prejudice in our history, eradicating racism isn't going to be easy. After all, the United States took nearly a century from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation to the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 to legally integrate African-Americans into its social matrix.

And as the last presidential election showed, racism in America is still alive and well. I have no doubt that our own opponents will decry the legislation as an assault to the ``traditional" way of life and increase levels of bigotry. Yet we should never allow these detractors to deter our social awakening. While everyone has the right to speak their mind, everyone also has the right to be understood, to be respected, and to live.

A Canadian recounted his experience teaching English in Korea. While he found his Korean hosts ``exceptionally hospitable," he also lamented on an acute experience of blatant racism. While walking with a female Korean friend, a middle-aged man approached him and yelled, ``foreigner trash." When the teacher suggested that the man did not know him, the man reportedly responded, ``I don't need to know you."

This narrative is certainly not an isolated anomaly. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination chided South Korea ``that the emphasis placed on the ethnic homogeneity of Korea might represent an obstacle to the promotion of understanding, tolerance and friendship among the different ethnic and national groups living on its territory."

The success of the anti-racism law, however, does not lie with the legislators or the lawmakers, but people themselves.

When I first landed on American soil, the big noses, the ebony skin, the bushy beards and the exotic turbans utterly fascinated me, since I had been previously sheltered from the direct influence of foreign society through the forbidding barrier of physical and cultural homogeny.

As one of the very few Korean students in my elementary school, the apparent strangeness of America overwhelmed me, but once I familiarized myself with their language and culture, students accepted me as one of their own. Now in high school, I study with students of various nationalities, ethnicities, and beliefs. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Caucasian students compete in tennis; Christian, Jewish, and Muslim students work together to complete school projects; and conservative and liberal students take their arguments out to the debate floor.

I challenge Korea to manifest the same level of tolerance by first planting the seed of tolerance within primary and secondary schools, the learning ground for social propriety. As our future leaders, our students must understand the need for social acceptance and serve as the transmitters of this positive trait for the future of our country.

Korea should use this opportunity to purge our intolerance, foster social and cultural acceptance, and prove our capacity to the world.

The writer is student at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, Washington. She is a Global Korea Times Student Reporter and can be reached at seattleyj@hotmail.com.