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Just like Converse in the 80s, Koreans are
everywhere. You see them on TV, in schools, and our
neighborhoods. In my village, the signs are subtitled in
Hangul. I can now read “Stop,” “Please don’t crash
into the gate” and “Wanted: maid with pleasing personality” in
Korean. Inevitably, as with most immigrants, there has been an
increasing backlash against them. Some of the prejudices are
undeserved and some are understandable. But before you wrongfully
accuse me of bigotry like Michael Richards, hear me out. I’m
not propagating racial discrimination here. I merely want to
understand the reasons behind this contempt towards our Korean
friends.
My first theory, which has been
validated by some of my Korean associates who will go under the
names Kim and Chee, is that a lot of the bad seeds of Korea are the
ones that come over to our country. These are the sketchy
characters that are running away from the law. The Philippines is
their Mexico. I’ve heard a few stories of how they’ve
swindled their fellow Koreans of millions of Wons with bogus real
estate investments and fictitious business deals. Another scam
they’re notorious for is subletting property without authority
from the owner, much like our professional squatters. They
convert small apartments into dormitories and cram short-term
students who are studying English or golf into small rooms.
You can always tell the condo unit they’re occupying by the stacks
of slippers by the front door and the sweet smell of kimchi.
Kim and Chee add that a lot of the good Koreans don’t even want to
associate themselves with these crooks. They shun them like
rugby boys under the bridge.
My other theory, in conjunction
with my first one, is based on what the poet Herman Hesse once said,
“If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of
yourself.” Here are some similarities between Filipinos and
Koreans:
• They like smelly fermented
cabbage called kimchi. We like smelly fermented shrimp called
bagoong.
• They spit inside elevators.
We blow our nose with one finger inside taxicabs, dangerously
missing passersby, but just as gross.
• They have telenovelas with
cheesy actors. We have Dyesebel.
• They dress funny with their
oversized colorful visors and high-heeled shoes at the beach.
We wear basketball jerseys, shorts, and shirts over our swimsuits at
the beach.
• They slap the caddies at the
golf course. We slap our maids when they use our Titlist driver for
cleaning those hard to reach places like underneath your bed.
• They’re afraid of Kim Jong
Il. We’re afraid of Kim Jong Il.
We all know it’s wrong to judge
a race by some of its members. If that were the case, the
whole world might think we’re really good singers and powerful
boxers. Koreans, like Filipinos and other human beings, have
good people and bad people. If you prick them, do they not
bleed? If you tickle them, do they not laugh? Get to
know them first as individuals . . . and then judge them.
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