A standing reproach
Amerasian pride, and prejudice
It couldn't happen in Seoul
WHEN Hines Ward, a Korean-American who plays wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, won the title of most-valued player in American football's Super Bowl last month, South Koreans seized on the sportsman as one of their own. The feting of Mr Ward—born to a Korean mother and a black American soldier stationed in South Korea at the time, and taken to America when he was one year old—has been equalled only by the breast-beating in the local media over the systematic discrimination meted out to people of similar mixed race at home in Korea.
Koreans have always prided themselves on ethnic homogeneity, and feared and distrusted outsiders. Reinforcing this prejudice has been the hostility directed against people who serve as a reminder of the most desperate era in modern Korean history. The first mixed-race children were the offspring of liaisons between Korean women (frequently prostitutes or husband-seeking poor) and American troops after the 1950-53 Korean war.
At one stage this “Amerasian” population is believed to have numbered in the tens of thousands, though many emigrated. In recent years, however, South Korea's mixed-race population has expanded again, and diversified, as farmers and blue-collar workers, unable to find Korean wives, have turned to South-East Asia in search of a spouse. The resulting partnerships with women from countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam are estimated to have increased the mixed-race population to around 35,000, according to Pearl S. Buck International, a charity which works with mixed-race children.
The origins of mixed-race South Koreans may have changed, but the experience of individual and institutional discrimination remains strikingly similar. Children of mixed marriages, often born into poor families, are stigmatised and frequently end up dropping out of school. According to a 2001 survey, their drop-out rate from middle school was 17.5%, against a national average of just 1.1%. Lower qualifications cause higher unemployment, and a concentration of mixed-race Koreans in manual or part-time work.
In the wake of Mr Ward's splendid achievements on the football field, politicians and government bodies have been falling over each other with promises to dismantle discriminatory practices. The Ministry of Defence recently lifted a ban on mixed-race men doing military service, originally imposed in the belief that they would not fit into barracks life. This is important: job-seekers who have done military service are eligible for extra benefits. But for many of the Amerasians, the changes come too late. They ask bitterly whether Mr Ward would have achieved equal greatness if his mother had chosen to stay in South Korea.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "A standing reproach"
From the March 4th 2006 edition
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