African-Americans are discriminated against in South Korea.

Two months ago, several Korean students at Iowa State were talking about a particular church which has many African-American members. I was shocked hearing that one student told everyone to not go to the church because there are so many black people.

Unlike the United States, people express racial thoughts more often in South Korea. There was an article in The Korea Times, the South Korean English newspaper, about how black people are often not hired as English teachers compared to Caucasians.

I also noticed an African-American male who was asked by strangers in Itaewon Station in Seoul, South Korea if he was from Africa or America when I was walking by. Many Koreans were using racial terms in front of him.

In the United States, many critics claim that media and films, which often consider blacks as dangerous cause prejudice. I agree that this is one of the reasons blacks are having difficulties when applying for jobs in Korea, but there is another important reason.

Korea has five thousand years of history as a homogeneous nation; Koreans do not take racial issues sensitively unlike people in multicultural nations, such as America and Canada. A lot of Koreans are expressing racism against African-Americans just because of their dark skin.

There are many American students applying as English instructors in Korea in order to pay for their student loans or just to earn benefits. However, 80 percent of private English institutions prefer Caucasian instructors to African-American instructors, so the percentage of black instructors is much lower than the percentage of Caucasian instructors.

According to YTN News, many English institutions in Korea are looking for Caucasians by posting the advertisements which include the phrase “White People Only.” Although there are some black instructors, many of them need to prove that they are not Africans whenever people ask ridiculous questions such as, “You have dark skin. Are you from Africa?”

Moreover parents usually try not to send their kids to English institutions where blacks are teaching their children. They do not even consider their educational backgrounds and professional skills. It is not unusual to observe Korean parents asking a principal at an English institution to not make a black person be their children’s instructor. If this happened in America, they would get into a trouble. 

When it comes to racism, Korea is quite similar to America before the civil rights movement. Although South Korea is considered a developed country economically, I think they are still underdeveloped when it comes to racial issues. This is a large issue because any type of discrimination is prohibited in a technically democratic country. Unless the Korean government tries to improve treatments toward African-Americans in Korea, they should be condemned by international society.

According to the constitution of the Republic of Korea, regardless of ethnicity and race, everyone should be treated equally. However, because of their homogenous culture, many Koreans are still not familiar with this statement even though this is part of their law.

The Korean government and Korean people need to keep in mind that as society becomes more diverse and international it is required to embrace people from outside of its comfort zone. Just as the United States changed harsh conditions for black people by changing laws and its conservative culture, Korea should also think of black peoples’ equal rights and stop racially discriminating against them.