Rant: America Doesn't Mean Just White

My "American" Family
I am sick and tired of Korean TV show producers and journalists asking me to help them round up white people so they can have them parade around on TV and tell everyone how delicious Korean food is! I mean seriously, they need to do their own research for their shows and get their own people. Also, they love to push this agenda that America is full of white people and that their "white opinion" is the only opinion that matters.

Let me enlighten you: America is multicultural and everyone of them is just as American as every white person. Just today I got another phone call- actually it was the same person that called my school asking us to do a class for them having white people (Blacks Hispanics generally don't count) make and eat kimchi chiggae and doenjang chiggae and then eat it while expounding how they think that it is so healthy and not spicy and it is full of vitamins and calcium and other stuff. The conversation was going fine and we were discussing the date and time and concept and such. Then, because I'm used to this, I told them, "You know that I'm gyopo, right?" (Gyopo is a Korean-American.) And technically, I'm not even Gyopo- I am adopted so I am a twinkie...yellow on the outside and white on the inside.

The conversation ended there and then they started to ask me if I knew any "Americans." I explained to them I was American, just not their perception of "American." They asked me if I had any "American" friends that they could interview. I said, "no." Sure, I know lots of people but I wouldn't like my friends to be paraded around like cattle and dance for the Korean TV like a trained monkey. (Friends, if you would like to be asked stupid questions like, "Do you like Kimchi? Isn't it too spicy?" Please contact me.)

This isn't the first time that this has happened. When I came to Korea 6 years ago, it was really difficult for me to get a job. Oh, and I lived in fear thinking that I would get drafted into the Korean Military (technically I was a dual citizen at that time).

Don't get me wrong, I love living in Korea. I love all the amazing things and opportunities it has given me. I just don't like the reverse racism and the misrepresentation of my nation in the media.

Dan

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