It's nothing new that some Koreans are/can be pretty racist and exclusive. I've tried to be pretty tolerant of how exclusive they can be, from times when they bust out into Korean in front of me, to making references about Korean dramas or famous pop stars, to whatever, but today I was pretty peeved by my experience at H-Mart.
Post missions trip to Yanji and post vacation to Seattle, I've grown an immense love for Korean food and even the Korean language. I was only telling Esther the other day that if I could be any other nationality/race, I would want to be Korean (with maybe some South American culture like Brazilian being a close second). I admire the passion of the Korean missionaries that I've met, am encouraged by the fervor with which the Korean Ministry services worship at Sunday service, think that Korean food tastes absolutely wonderful (recently discovered wrapping sam gyap sahl (fatty pork) in pickled radish. YUM), and think that older Korean ladies take care of themselves better than Chinese ladies (maybe you can just call it vanity..) But in any case, being Korean could be pretty cool.
So when I offered to cook Korean food for dinner tonight for my family, I was really excited and ventured off to H-Mart to get some groceries. As soon as I stepped into the store, I felt sooo ostracized being a young, Chinese girl, surrounded by all these Korean moms and grandmas. It was nothing they said or did, but I could just feel the wall of divide. There was a lady cooking sam gyap sahl and wrapping it with stuffs as samples for customers, and she heartily advertised it through her microphone headset, but only in Korean! I stood right next to the table as she made a wrap and handed it to a mom and her son, and as soon as they left, she went back to cooking her meat without paying any attention to me. I stood there staring at her for a solid 20 seconds, expecting her to offer me some (b/c after all, that IS her job), but she never once looked up at me. Finally, I asked to try some (in English), and she hastily tore off the smallest piece of lettuce to wrap some meat, and handed it to me. As soon as I left the table, she advertised some more and then went out of her way to hand some to some other Korean ladies (who didn't seem that interested to try some).
For the rest of the time I was in H-Mart, I was pretty annoyed. I brought my items to check out, and the cashier at my station was this Korean boy who looked like he was in his mid 20s, jabbering away in Korean to his friend, who was bagging the groceries. The lady in front of me was a latina lady, and she and I both got the same treatment from the cashier -- he pretty much ignored us! What bad customer service!
This is but a small example of how I feel like Koreans can be exclusive and racist, giving preferential treatment to people of their own race and being pretty inconsiderate to people of other races. It's really sad to say this, but I must admit that I (and other non-Koreans) feel this way at church, too. ESPECIALLY in a body of believers should you see no favoritism or superiority or whatever, but a;lsdkjfa;slkdfja it makes me so angry to see it happen.
Even if people don't intentionally mean to hurt other peoples' feelings, it inevitably ends up happening... I just really, really, really hope that this next generation of Koreans start to embrace change and embrace other cultures because we can all learn from and live with each other in unity, ya?
2 comments:
I can sympathize. We have an Hmart here and they do a pretty bad job of pricing their produce. We've gotten ripped off a couple of times, and everytime we point it out, the workers there are just plain rude to us because we don't speak korean. Fortunately, my aunt is a pretty aggressive shopper who takes no disrespect from anyone. She has yelled at the customer service rep so many times, that we have a huge stack of free hmart calendars sitting in our kitchen.
Hi Nancy, not offended by your post and I know a lot of Koreans are racist/exclusive and I hate that!!
But sometimes, being Korean is a big part of someone's identity that they can't not show it. For example, I really don't like it when people speak Korean in front of non-Korean speakers, and maybe some people do it on purpose, but a lot of people do it without even noticing. I don't know why but Koreans are especially ostracized for it. Like, a lot of Latinos speak to me in Spanish when I go home, and they never get blamed for racism.
and you're right, especially in a body, there should be no superiority/exclusivity, but some people feel a stronger bond with their own countrymen (? haha) like Mallory once told me she felt closer to someone because he/she is Taiwanese.
So you are right that some Koreans are racist and exclusive, but I don't think they should get singled out for it. and I hope this generation of Americans can embrace change!
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