내꺼

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사랑과 낭만이 충만한 곳, "걷고 싶은 거리" 참살이길에 이런 멋진 곳이 생긴다.

내부 디자인은 아웃벩이랑 똑같단다. 애인님 손 붙잡고 가봐야지 >_< ♡

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"미녀들의 수다" 엠넷이 줄창 틀어대는 몇몇 프로그램만큼이나 골때리고 구린 프로그램이더라.

"개념이 없다"는 말은 아껴두었다가 이런 데다 쓰는 거지.

-외국인 차별 발언으로 문제가 된 "미녀들의 수다"에 대한 한 외국인의 사과 요구-

I, as a black person and foreign national living in Korea, continue to be shocked and offended at the Korean media's continued racist and sexist stereotyping of foreign people.

From the Bubble Sisters to now, the excuse has always been "we didn't know" or "the intention wasn't to offend but is that really an excuse? Many of your general viewers and citizens' organizations seem to know. Why doesn't a national television station?

I am one foreign national who works in Korea, pays taxes, rent, utilities, and otherwise participates in the economy here. I have done good work here that has benefited the Korean economy as well as the countless Korean students, researchers, professors, and other working professionals I have come into contact with, as much as I have benefitted from working with them.

I am tired of seeing overtly crude representations of foreign workers as supposedly being unable to speak proper Korean (most foreign migrant workers here speak Korean very well, actually), or hearing the "ching chong" parodies of supposedly Chinese speech, ridiculing Japanese for the wooden footwear they rarely even wear any more than Korean wear traditional rubber shoes, or the constant efforts of the Korean media or the Kyeonggido chapter of the Korean Teachers' Union implying or outright saying that foreigners have "low sexual morals" when in fact no scandal involving foreign teachers and student minors has ever been reported, even against the context of a media that constantly reports about incidents involving Korean teachers and students, as well as "wonjo kyojae", a set concept that doesn't even exist in American culture, are regularly reported as major social problems.

 This distorted view of foreigners is merely on example of the simplistic stereotypes through which foreigners are seen in Korea.

Frankly, television shows that showcase non-Korean people merely performing Korean songs, dancing around in hanboks, or playing Korean grammar games solely to amuse a sense of nationalist Korean pride are patently offensive and have always turned my stomach.

I have been approached by several "PD's" during my stay in Korea to go on television and do things such as dance on stage clucking like a chicken does "in my language" and other ridiculous, humiliating antics. I have always refused, but they always come back, attracted by my ability to speak Korean and stroke a sense of simplistic nationalist pride at watching the foreigner "try to act Korean" (but fail).

Where are the shows that include foreigners as guest to discuss serious issues? Where are the shows that include foriegners as fully-formed human beings and not just comic fodder for the Korean masses. Blacks in America were once made to dance, sing, and act silly for the white masses, as foreign nationals are made to do now.

And it is time for it to stop.

I, as a foreign national who has been subject to this kind of offensive imagery and representation for far too long, demand a formal, written, and publicized apology from KBS, the producers of the "미녀들의 수다" show, as well as from Cheon Myung-hun.

The woman ridiculed one the show, Leslie Benfield, was lauded as Seoul's first foriegn civil servant, and this is how she is treated?

The excuse of having "no intention" to offend will no longer hold water, especially because of the fact that even after many people spoke out against the show, the studio refused to apologize, truly adding insult to injury. So an official apology, as a symbol of both KBS and the Korean media's contrition, is in order.

This is the "post-Hines Ward" era, so Korean society can no longer hide behind the excuse that it "didn't know." South Korea represents itself as a "globalized" society, takes pride in being the 11th largest economy in the world, and at having developed the most advanced broadband, cellphone, and semi-conductor sectors in the world, yet it still hides behind a shameful veneer of "innocent ignorance as a developing, pre-modern country" when issues such as these come up.

This is, frankly, hard to swallow. Korean society now "knows." It is time to for the media to behave responsibly. Media images have power, and they lead to stereotyping, which leads to discriminative behavior. In the end, they are dehumanizing.

One voice among the many foreigners living, working, and paying taxes in Korea, along with others signed below in this virtual document, has spoken.