A Toast to Half-Breeds

A Toast to Half-Breeds

By Raymond Salcedo

Barack Obama's victory in the U.S. presidential race has prompted many pundits to declare, albeit reticently, a ``post-racial" America. While I cannot celebrate such naive sentiments, I recognize the positive potential that the face of this incoming administration promises to improve racial awareness far beyond American shores by inviting more discussions of race and ethnicity.

For expats of color like me, the challenge is to use these opportunities to share with some of our less exposed global citizens our experience with the diverse racial landscape that is represented in ``salad bowl" societies such as the U.S., where racial mixing and intercultural exchange has permeated (for better or worse) since its very beginning. Now, I doubt that the color of one president's skin has enough power to stop older Koreans from rubbing the skin of black expats only to then inspect their own fingertips to see if any color rubbed off in the process (ask your black friends if this has ever happened to them). I also doubt that Obama's victory will simply correct the most jaw-dropping assumptions about U.S. race relations that one hears in the ``Hermit Kingdom," such as when a former student of mine asked if all black Americans were rich because all he had seen represented in the media were African-Americans draped in gold and diamonds.

President-elect Obama won't be wearing much bling and his color won't rub off on President Lee's hands when the two finally shake hands, but I am more excited by the fact that Obama's articulate oratory, when compared alongside Bush's, um, speech disasters of ``noo-kyoo-lar" proportions, will help dispel such racist ideas that white native English speakers are superior teachers (one often encounters English teaching positions that are only open to ``non-minorities"). I recall entering one classroom on the first day of class when a student asked where their English teacher was. More frustrating are the interrogations that follow when I tell curious locals that I come from the United States: ``But where are your parents from?" and ``What about your grandparents?" If I feel invested in the conversation, I recount the historical process of the internal colonization of Mexicans and other American natives by which an imperialist U.S. government absorbed them along with their lands. Usually, however, I just give up and utter, ``Mexico."

Koreans are not alone in such false assumptions of American identity ― U.S. citizens, too, are guilty of this. Many Americans, who are supposed to be much more familiar with pluralism than, say, Koreans, swiftly demand that their visitors learn English while they allow themselves the same ignorance they condemn while living in other countries. Admittedly, I have not learned as much Korean as I could have in my time here, but the sort of ``suggestions" to learn the language that I hear in Korea are not as laden with as much ethnocentric intolerance as I have heard in the U.S. In this regard, it seems as if Korea also has a thing or two to teach Americans about multi-cultural acceptance.

Immediately after the U.S. elected its first black president, citizens worldwide pondered whether their own nations could ever put into the spot a person outside of their dominant ``race." Obama isn't the first and certainly won't be the last, but he is the most visible and powerful example of this phenomenon. So why not a black French president? What about a British prime minister of Asian descent? Or, gasp, a mixed-race president of Korea?

When I asked this last question to what I consider my relatively open-minded university students, I was greeted with dismissive scoffs: about half of them felt this would never happen, while the other half gave a less resolute, ``Not in my lifetime!" I am sure that history will indeed prove the latter correct since, as we know all too well, few nations pride themselves over a supposed racial purity and homogeneity as much as the ROK. On the other hand, there is one formidable process to which Korea is securely wedded that may prove the former half wrong ― globalization.

A nation, no matter how homogeneous it is, cannot simply open its doors to the diverse, colorful world in the way that Korea continues to do and expect to maintain its monochromatic essence. The children of settling expats, imported brides, exploited immigrants, and all the others whom Korea has ``embraced" to help it learn English, correct its low birthrate, and alleviate its shortage of low-wage laborers will seek recognition. They will grow up as hyphenated-Koreans with rich, dual identities, just like Latin-Americans, Asian-Americans and African-Americans have in the U.S. These same empowered children will someday demand and deserve to be represented in the highest levels of business, education, and, yes, government only to scoff back at those naysayers whose narrow-sighted visions of a strictly homogeneous Korean society kept them blind of an approaching diversity.

So here's to you, future ``half-breed" President of Korea. Raise your glass of soju, or grappa, or tequila, or champagne, or sake, or ouzo, or whatever else suits you because you certainly will have come a long way, baby!

Raymond Salcedo teaches at Information and Communications University in Daejeon. He may be reached at raysalcedo@gmail.com