January 25, 2010
“In a discussion about the white privilege of international adopters with another adoptee who can pass as white, I was asked if this applied to adopting Korean-Americans.
I would say resoundingly yes. Those Korean-Americans and adoptees adopting are adopting out of white privilege. Why am I in so much trouble here in Korea? Because of my white privilege, because I didn’t know enough about what it means to be Korean. I am a banana here. (yellow on the outside, white on the inside) Once upon a time, I was a rotten apple. But today I am a banana, thanks to being raised white.”
The KWB wonders if ‘white privilege’ applies in the situation of Full-blooded Korean Adoptees. White privilege-Wikipedia
It is the Outward appearance of ‘looking Asian’ of the Yellow Race but having a Western or White Caucasian Mindset that makes a Banana. Thinking White doth not make one Appear White.
White Privilege indeed does NOT to apply in Hapa/ Mixed-blood/ OR with Mixed-Racial adoptees. Perhaps with those who like the KWB are mistaken to be white, such as some ‘gens de coleur’ or people of color that James Michener writes about in “Caribbean”.
This article
neither white nor black.Their racially mixed brothers and sisters appeared on all Caribbean islands and always faced the same impediments, promises, In describing the racial mix of Haiti in the late 1700s, Author James Michener writes the following narrative in his classic magnum opus on the West Indies, the novel `Caribbean´:“ caught in the middle between the two extremely grinding stones of white plantation owner and black slave writhed a considerable mass of citizens who werehopes, and crushing disadvantages.
In those other colonies they might be called mulattoes, coloureds, half breeds, half-castes, creoles, or bastards, but in St. Domingue all those
terms were avoided, especially mulatto, which was deemed to have a pejorative ring. Here they were called gens de couleur, or in English, people of colour, or simply free coloureds. Despised by whites, who saw them as parvenus, striving to climb up to a level which they were not entitled, and hated by blacks who saw them as constituting a middle layer which would
forever prevent the slaves from attaining power, the free coloured were spurned from above and below.”The KWB agrees also with the author’s point about “save a child”-No one should adopt for that reason. But it is NOT that it is a ‘privilege’ or related to the whiteness on the Outside, rather it is the Inside of the “Banana” the Cultural Mindset of the individual. White Privilege comes ONLY to those who are Outwardly White looking.
This is “Passing for White” is evident in the KWB own experience in teaching at many different venues in Korea over the past 14 years. Sometimes he was 
instructed to NOT mentioned that he was a HonHyulAh, a person of part-Koreanness. Why? He would ask. “Oh, it is because the students will reject you. After you have taught them for several times then you can tell them. Sorry, many Koreans feel White people are better.” Girl 4708 was introduced to this as well when meeting the KWB’s boss, who explained in a very delicate manner the realities of “teaching English in a White preferred” Korean environment.
instructed to NOT mentioned that he was a HonHyulAh, a person of part-Koreanness. Why? He would ask. “Oh, it is because the students will reject you. After you have taught them for several times then you can tell them. Sorry, many Koreans feel White people are better.” Girl 4708 was introduced to this as well when meeting the KWB’s boss, who explained in a very delicate manner the realities of “teaching English in a White preferred” Korean environment. The Barbadoes Mulatto Girl, an engraving published at London in 1779, after a c. 1764 painting by Agostino Brunias
TIK-This is Korea and the Korean War Baby has experienced this many many times. At a certain Cultural Center that he has taught at for 29 sessions, each one of 12 weeks duration, he tells the class after three weeks about being…drum roll please…some of them only, ‘their worst nightmare’. LOL, hey, he just had to SUCK IT UP, put it out of his mind and laugh it off, as TIK.
Korean student’s worst nightmare “WHAT!! You Ain’t WHITE? A HonHyulah?!”Every time, several women would never come back, but the last laugh was with the KWB- for the ajummas could not get back their payment for the class!!! Yes, he should feel bad…but the KWB just laughs. (He probably is committing a sin but hope God will forgive him a few more and just add them to his very long list).
*Note: the KWB uses colorful fonts to HIGHLIGHT certain terms, in a tongue in cheek manner, not for proper design or purpose. Remember all his words meaningless words are in BROWN.
Technorati Tags: mulatto,coloureds,halfbreeds,half-caste,creoles,mixed-blood,free coloured,white privilege
The song "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" (from the musical "South Pacific," based on James A. Michener’s 1946 “Tales of the South Pacific”) announces that a white person’s fear of persons of color is learned from other whites. Rogers and Hammerstein were charged to change the lyrics but, thankfully, refused to divorce that poignant point from reality.
ReplyDeleteYou've Got to Be Carefully Taught
from South Pacific, music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein
You've got to be taught, to hate and fear,
You've got to be taught, from year to year,
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a different shade.
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught, before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught,
You've got to be carefully taught
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtoZJdUytvc
Lewis,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the poem. It certainly rings true that prejudice is learned. Some recent articles show that when Korean adoptees were younger some of them thought of themselves as "white" and then went through realization that they were NOT. For all of us, even the KWB as a HonHyulAh or half-breed, we grew up and began the journey of self-discovery of our ethnic identity.
In High School the KWB dated a half-Japanese/half White American girl whose father discovered that he was half-Korean. Korean troops were the prison guards in the Philippines, and he had seen many die from the hands of Korean soldiers. They had to break up, though both the KWB and the half-Japanese girl had not learned that Koreans and Japanese were supposed to HATE each other.